毎日新聞 The Mainichi – Japan city suspends day care worker for having side job at sex shop ‘to repay student loan’
毎日新聞 The Mainichi – Sex doll purchase for indigo dyeing event in west Japan hit by prefectural audit
西日本の藍染イベントで◯人形購入 県の監査で打撃
写真の説明
The sex doll that was displayed in the lobby of Tokushima Airport for a month in July 2017 is seen in this photo provided by the Tokushima Prefectural Government.
2017年7月に1か月間、徳島空港のロビーに展示されていたダッチワイフ（写真：徳島県提供）
TOKUSHIMA — The Tokushima Prefectural Government spent over 400,000 yen (some $2,700) in public funds on a sex doll as part of a project to promote indigo dyeing, a specialty of the prefecture — more than 30 times the cost of renting a mannequin, it has emerged.
The discovery sparked a recommendation from prefectural auditors that the prefecture consider seeking compensation from officials including a former male employee from the prefecture’s tourism policy division in charge of the promotion, on the grounds that the purchase was illegal. So why was a sex doll introduced in the first place?
Doll bought for more than 400,000 yen at public expense
According to the tourism policy division, the “love doll” was used as part of the “Awa indigo charm promotion project at Tokushima Awaodori Airport,” which was commissioned to the private sector in fiscal 2017 with a budget of some 2.8 million yen (about $18,900). The promotion area was set up in a corner of the lobby of the airport, which welcomes many visitors from outside the prefecture, to display clothing and lanterns dyed with indigo to advertise the prefecture’s “aizome,” or traditional indigo dyeing art.
The promotion started on April 1 that year, and from June, two mannequins wearing skirts and other items were displayed. The contractor prepared the mannequins for a rental fee of 13,500 yen (about $91) apiece. However, in July, the mannequins disappeared and a sex doll surfaced in their place, dressed in an indigo-dyed summer kimono. A male official in his 40s in charge of the project had instructed the contractor to purchase the sex doll for a total of 424,440 yen (about $2,870) and replaced the mannequins.
audit 会計検査（報告書）、監査（報告書）
indigo dyeing 藍染め
specialty 特産品、名産
spark 〔～の〕火付け役となる、～に〕拍車をかける、
recommendation 推薦
compensation 補償
devision 〔行政や企業の〕部、局、課
on the ground that -, that以下〕という理由で［ことを根拠として］
clothing and lanterns 衣類と提灯
advertise 宣伝する
contractor 〔製品・労働などを提供することに同意する〕契約者、請負［受託］業者、請負人
surface 現れる
