{"id":1867,"date":"2025-08-26T10:30:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:30:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:30:52","slug":"japanese-online-flea-market-app-bans-the-sale-of-ultrasound-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1867","title":{"rendered":"Japanese online flea market app bans the sale of ultrasound photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

But what am I supposed to do with all these prenatal photos of my kids cluttering up the house?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always amazing what you can find on Japan\u2019s leading flea market app Mercari. Over the years, we\u2019ve seen everything from curses<\/a> to overpriced Zima<\/a>. Little did I know that you can even purchase other people\u2019s ultrasound photos there<\/strong>, or at least, you could until they decided to ban the practice.<\/p>\n

This, of course, begs two questions: why ultrasound photos are being sold online, and why the selling of said photos would need to be banned. It all started when a Twitter user posted a screenshot of various ultrasound photos up for sale on 13 August and remarked, \u201cWhat else could they be used for but pregnancy fraud?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25bc Although the most recent tweet went especially viral, people have been noticing this for years. This person not only found ultrasound photos but \u201cnovelty\u201d positive pregnancy tests for sale.<\/p>\n

\n

\u30e1\u30eb\u30ab\u30ea\u306b\u598a\u5a20\u30a8\u30b3\u30fc\u5199\u771f\u3068\u304b\u967d\u6027\u306e\u598a\u5a20\u691c\u67fb\u85ac\u304c\u51fa\u54c1\u3055\u308c\u3066\u308b\u306e\u3063\u3066\u306a\u3093\u3067\u306a\u3093\uff1f\uff1f\uff1f pic.twitter.com\/LZr3dEJtEL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u76ee\u982d@\u98df\u4e8b\u6975\u53f3 (@Awakend_Citizen) January 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Japan, ninshin sagi<\/em>, which directly translates to \u201cpregnancy fraud,\u201d is the act of a woman pretending to be pregnant in order to demand money from a man they previously had sex with.<\/strong> For example, a woman could meet a man on a dating app, have sex with him, then contact him weeks later with the news, possibly accompanied by authentic ultrasound photos of their new lovechild. The scammer could then either request money for an abortion or use the pregnancy as blackmail in the event the man is married.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that these photos are sold for the purposes of committing fraud. I admit, I can\u2019t think of any other realistic reason, but at the same time, what parent would sell a picture of their unborn child, especially on the basis that it\u2019d be used to scam someone? And even if the parents did decide to take that step due to financial hardship, I think they\u2019d charge a little more than the prices of around 2,000 yen (US$14) that were shown in some tweets on the topic.<\/p>\n

\u25bc This one is only going for 900 yen, but as the tweet points out, it\u2019s actually an ultrasound of a heart rather than a fetus. Possibly someone trying to scam a scammer.<\/p>\n

\n

\u3053\u306e\u5199\u771f\u3001\u598a\u5a20\u521d\u671f\u306e\u30a8\u30b3\u30fc\u3067\u3059\u3089\u306a\u3044\"\ud83d\udc3b\u200d\u2744\ufe0f\"
\u6210\u4eba\u306e\u5fc3\u81d3\u306e\u30a8\u30b3\u30fc\u5199\u771f\u3067\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059\u3002<\/p>\n

\u3068\u306f\u3044\u3048\u4e00\u822c\u4eba\u306f\u4f59\u88d5\u3067\u9a19\u305b\u3066\u3057\u307e\u3046\u3068\u601d\u3046\u3002<\/p>\n

\u967d\u6027\u304c\u8868\u793a\u3055\u308c\u305f\u598a\u5a20\u691c\u67fb\u85ac\u304c\u300c\u30c9\u30c3\u30ad\u30ea\u300d\u300c\u9762\u767d\u30b0\u30c3\u30ba\u300d\u3068\u304b\u3044\u3046\u30af\u30bd\u307f\u305f\u3044\u306a\u540d\u76ee\u3067\u58f2\u3089\u308c\u3066\u308b\u3057\u3001
\u30e1\u30eb\u30ab\u30ea\u306f\u3053\u306e\u3078\u3093\u5bfe\u51e6\u3057\u3068\u304b\u3093\u3068\u3044\u305a\u308c\u5927\u4e8b\u4ef6\u304c\u8d77\u304d\u308b\u3088\uff1f\"\ud83d\udc3b\u200d\u2744\ufe0f\" https:\/\/t.co\/dvptjBCEW7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u7523\u5a66\u4eba\u79d1\u533b\u3084\u3063\u304d\u30fc (@yacky_sanfu) November 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Regardless, Mercari appears to have decided it better to err on the side of caution and added ultrasound photos to their list of \u201cinappropriate items\u201d that are not allowed to be put up for sale, effective 1 September<\/strong>. They don\u2019t specifically give a reason for the move, except that such sales are prohibited in accordance with their Marketplace Fundamental Principles.<\/p>\n

Readers of the news online also seemed to feel the exact reasons for selling ultrasound images online were less important than it just feeling plain wrong to do in any case.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what the reason is. It\u2019s just wrong to sell those photos.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI just gave birth recently, and I can\u2019t believe there are mothers out there who would sell those photos.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI had no idea things like this were being sold. It\u2019s kind of scary.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cWhile these things need to be regulated, Japan has to improve its economy so people don\u2019t feel the need to sell their kids\u2019 ultrasound photos.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cI once heard about a girl who borrowed her friend\u2019s ultrasound to stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her. It\u2019s chilling the lengths some people will go to.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cProhibiting the sale will not eliminate the supply and demand, and doing so will just drive the market more underground.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to legal experts, if you suspect you\u2019re the victim of a pregnancy scam, the first thing to do is confirm that the pregnancy is real. So, it could be said that by having these photos sold openly on Mercari, it would be a lot easier to find out if someone\u2019s is fake, especially since the app lets you do image searches and find previously sold items.<\/p>\n

In the end though, it\u2019s probably best that ultrasound photos are not as easily acquired for whatever reason, and that Mercari stays on the straight and narrow, selling legit items like money<\/a> and McDonald\u2019s French Fry Snack Makers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Mercari<\/a>, IT Media<\/a>, Yahoo! Japan News<\/a><\/em>
\nFeatured image: Wikipedia<\/a><\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But what am I supposed to do with all these prenatal photos of my kids cluttering up the house? It\u2019s always amazing what you can find on Japan\u2019s leading flea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}