Getting Your Panties in a Wad

Japan has just made it illegal to sell dirty panties from girls under 18. Soiled underwear selling is pretty common in Japan, where men are apparently turned on by this kind of thing. They like it so much, it seems, that the ban has shot the black-market price up to five times what it used to be. As Glen Whitman, guest-blogging at The Volokh Conspiracy, points out:

In other words, the market has gone underground. Girls used to sell their (under)wares to dealers with established businesses, whose primary interest was in making money. They never even had to meet the adult male buyers. But now, under the wise new policy, young girls are arranging clandestine meetings in dark venues with men who are turned on by girls' underpants. Does anyone else see a disaster in the making?

No kidding.