This Japanese Businessman Wants To Sell Child-Like Sex Dolls To "Help" Paedophiles
Over 55,000 people have signed a petition asking for the importation of his dolls into Australia to be stopped.
The man behind a business that exports "child-model" sex dolls from Japan says reactions to his products are "simply hysterical" after a petition to stop the importation of the dolls to Australia garnered over 50,000 signatures.
Shin Takagi is the founder of Trottla, a Japanese company that speciailises in sex dolls. A decade ago the company began selling "child model" sex dolls in what it called an effort to to help paedophiles deal with their sexual urges.
Speaking to The Atlantic earlier this year, Takagi said he was a self-confessed paedophile - a statement he now denies.
Trottla / trottla.net
"Through communicating with the customers, I've realised the possibility of helping paedophiles and contributing to the society," he said.
Takagi also said more than 70% of his customers are pedophiles.
"I deeply understand the feeling parents have. But human beings can be so cruel to others in order to protect the ones that they love and treasure. A lot of the people who are called pedophiles are not monsters. They are good citizens with obedience. That's the more reason they abide by the laws and control themselves in reality. To control their desires, they use the dolls I create."
Takagi's advocacy for the dolls is now causing controversy outside of his native Japan. In Australia, a petition has been started demanding a ban on the sale of child sex dolls in Queensland.
Started by grandmother Melissa Evans, the petition is addressed directly to Queensland's Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and asks the government to "prohibit the import of child sex dolls."
"The manufacture and sale of these sickening 'aids for paedophiles' will be ceased globally," writes Evans.
"We should accept that there is no way to change someone's fetishes," he said. "I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It's not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire."
A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police told the ABC in March that the dolls are "already illegal".
"Anatomically correct dolls that represent underage persons are considered child exploitation material under state law and are therefore are illegal."