Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2010

In a splendidly weird interview, Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara recently gave Sapio mag his take on the love lives of today’s youth.

“In the past, there wasn’t so much information out there about male-female relationships, but these days you can get all the graphic details quite easily [via the internet]. Even women know about things like what the average penis size is, or the typical duration of intercourse… You don’t get the kind of love expressed in the famous Sakutaro Hagiwara poem “Kinou ni Masaru Koishisa No”… There aren’t many young people who could relate to what the poem describes: wandering aimlessly, being wrenched by such heartbreak that suicide is the only option.”