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Japanese officials have bought a sex doll to promote tourism.  Auditors have accused the Tokushima prefectural government of buying an "extremely expensive" sex doll to promote tourism in the city.

The tourism policy department paid 424,440 Japanese yen, or 2,880 US dollars, for the doll, which was used at a tourism exhibition at Tokushima Awaodori Airport in 2017, Mainichi Shimbun reported.  The exhibition was intended to promote the prefecture's traditional art of indigo dyeing, so the doll was dressed in an indigo-dyed summer kimono.

Officials initially used a pair of cheaper mannequins rather than a sex doll at the June 2017 exhibition. Both mannequins cost about $180 to rent. But then an unnamed male official decided to replace the mannequins with a sex doll. He set about purchasing a sex doll that he thought would appeal to the public.

Auditors rejected the prefecture's claims that sex dolls were more effective at attracting tourists than mannequins.  The "extremely expensive" doll, auditors said in their report, was "completely inappropriate in terms of social norms."  Auditors asked the prefecture to demand compensation from officials involved in the purchase by June 19.

This is not the first time Japanese officials have stirred up controversy by making strange purchases with public money. In May 2021, Noto city officials were criticized for spending nearly $170,000 on a giant squid statue. Officials funded the statue using part of the $5.4 million in COVID-19 relief grants it received. 

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