Christmas was fetish season #8 – Enjo Kosai – The only thing that’ll get her legs open is a 10000 yen bill…or an industrial car jack

Posted on | January 11, 2009 | 5 Comments |

Welcome back to fetish month viewers! I appear to have been having a few problems with the site hosting – I’m not sure how it’s been for other people, but here we are again for another crack at the whip as it were…and this week we’re delving into the dark world of Japanese teenage prostitution, or enjo kosai.

Amateurs and Professionals – the Japanese sex industry

Japan is a country steeped in the culture of the past, but simultaneously desperately straining at its reins to embrace the new Western philosophies of freedom and outspokenness… In today’s society it is still common for a married couple to come back to the family home and live within a paper wall’s thickness of the parents in law, while other young men of the same age hang out on street corners to pick up girls as sport (nampa) and high school girls donate their telephone numbers to Terekura (telephone clubs) in order to meet richer older men with whom to exchange favours for cash and goodies.

This practice is called “Enjo kosai” – literally translated as compensated dating, and it is misconceived at many levels. First of all, it would be wrong to assume that this is a begrudgedly accepted practice in Japan, since in a recent survey over 70% of people gave the opinion that they disapproved of such practices and that they should be banned. On the other hand, it is more common than one would expect, with a 1999 survey polling high school girls finding that 10% participated in the practice in some form.

The general opinion is that the rise in this “teenage prostitution” (which is basically what it is, though there are no pimps and so no organised crime connected with the practice) is fuelled by the 20th century awareness of the West and increased importance of materialism. The modern Japanese woman doing her best to throw off the traditional shackles of the bored housewife constantly waiting for her never-present husband to return home (who, let’s face it, has probably been whoring it up downtown anyway). Young teenagers have to pay for their Prada handbags and those shiny new mobile phones somehow…
The big danger involved is of course, the spread of disease amongst the members of the general population. Most of the traditional prostitution in Japan is controlled by the Yakuza – the age old traditional organised criminals that rule a lot of inner city areas. The Yakuza, though honourable in their way are involved in a great deal of human trafficking from various nations of a poor disposition (certain south east Asian countries, Eastern Europe and Russia) which also happen to have a high STD prevalence including chlamydia, gonorrhoea and HIV.

Needless to say, there is a huge danger of passing these diseases around – especially when the older bored office workers are using both their professional prostitutes as well as their amateur enjo-kosai-indulging highschoolers. Now not only are their wives getting STDs, but also the Japanese-born prostitutes and even the high-school girls’ boyfriends!

If you’re wondering why I am so vocal on this subject – it is because I recently wrote an essay on the subject commenting that this sequence of events could result in a catastropic rise of HIV infection in the youth population of Japan in the near future…And the moral of the story is?

If you’re going out whoring in Tokyo – please take adequate precautions – just do her in the ass…

(That was a joke of course ^^;;)
The popularity of the theme of enjo kosai

As a peruser of the Japanese eromanga and anime/hentai industry, you might have come across the fact that enjo kosai often arises as a theme. Therefore, we could consider it as a specific branch of the “rape” fetish – as in the girl having consented to the intercourse, but her partner not being someone that she would have chosen. I suppose “begrudging sex” would be a more accurate term.

So why do people want to see girls have begrudging sex with random older men? I mean in my book, the more involved a girl is during the act, the better. If a girl is bored or not even interested (or obviously faking it) then really I’m as turned off as she is.

The trick therein is probably multilayered…First, we have the “lascivious schoolgirl” theory. This appeals mostly to younger age men(school age or thereabouts) who like to read about enjo-kosai as they like to indulge n fantasies about their schoolfriends. Like all boys at that difficult age, teenage sexual frustration is trained on the nearest target, regardless on whether they have any chance with her or whether she is at all interested. And secretly, when they’re in bed with their favourite brand of tissues, they fantasise that she’s actually a slut and that if they asked nicely her pants would be round her ankles faster than you can say “teenage pregnancy”.

But for the older men, I guess it’s something more simple – First of all, they like to think that there are an abundance of attractive young schoolgirls who will allow penetration of their well-used pudenda for a small amountof petty cash, but also there is the “Rape-conversion” effect. In other words, the special way in which rape scenes are conveyed through the medium of hentai. In a typical scene, a non-consensual girl screaming that she doesn’t want it quickly turns back on herself and by the end of the scene is begging for one more serving of that delicious vanilla milkshake. Similarly, enjo-kosai girls who start thinking that it’s all about the money are quickly converted by the awesome sexual prowess of the punter into a screaming quivering mass of orgasmic blancmange. Such is the power of fantastical thinking…

Conclusion

So what can we conclude from this tirade? First of all, Enjo-kosai, or compensated dating stems from the new teenage culture of materialism imported from the West (helped by pay-by-hour Love hotels and extremely bored salarymen who aren’t getting any at home), second, that it is commoner that people think, but less accepted socially. Third, this is an extremely dangerous situation due to the spread of imported STDs and finally, that the only reason people like to read/watch material with enjo-kosai themes is because they like to think they can get with high-school girls.

The End.

(I wonder if I’m being a bit sceptical ^^;)

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Category: Editorials, Hentai/Ero-games, Philosophy/Thoughts

Comments

5 Responses to “Christmas was fetish season #8 – Enjo Kosai – The only thing that’ll get her legs open is a 10000 yen bill…or an industrial car jack”

Denise
January 12th, 2009 @ 10:33 am

I was wondering what your views are on Japanese relationships between a husband and wife? Why aren’t Japanese husbands getting any from their wives? I understand that is not always the case but by popular vote, this seems to come up often. How do you think this can be reversed? Does this require the typical Japanese housewife to throw off the shackles of her traditional role and possibly take on a more Western approach to her role and her sexuality (that is, to be more aggressive, assertive, active, initiate sex, explore, etc.)?

I’ve been a reader of yours for quite some time and appreciate your in-depth look on sexuality within anime and Japanese culture. This article is great and I hope you will expand upon it in future entries because I’ve always been plagued with finding an answer to this topic. Keep up the good work.
yuribou
January 12th, 2009 @ 5:31 pm

Thanks Denise – glad the comments box got fixed so promptly (or perhaps it healed itself…)

Well, it does seem a strange phenomenon – since its not as if the Japanese are a particularly repressed culture sexually.

I guess that my current opinion is that there is a great effect from the Japanese workaholic culture – when I was working in hospitals there it was common for the whole team (including consultant) to stay in the hospital from 8am to 10pm even though they were not contracted to work that long, just in order to finish up work.

Couple late hours with a long commute/living away from home and i guess for some its a lot easier for lonely businessmen to get their kicks in the city instead of returning home.

Maybe when I’m back there this year I’ll ask people ^^
Denise
January 13th, 2009 @ 10:24 am

8am to 10pm?! I knew Japanese worked long hours but THAT late? How does anyone keep up their stamina for that long? No wonder there are the occasional “death from overworking” news articles here and there.

I agree that it is a strange phenomenon and it seems to be more prevalent than in other countries. I think the culture just breeds it because of the nature of what circumstances are available in Japan that do not exist elsewhere.

Hmm, well I’m interested to hear what your friends will say about this topic. I have a friend and cousin in Tokyo and Hokkaido respectively. I find it a bit tough to get a straight answer out of them and perhaps its because the Japanese language is not direct. I’m probably not getting the gist of it. So please! Keep up the good work deciphering Japanese culture!
SK
January 17th, 2009 @ 9:17 am

I’d have to say that my experiences of Japanese working culture are so far the same as Yuribou’s. A female friend of mine, who is around 35, has a husband who starts work at 8 at the earliest, and never finishes before 9. Typically he gets back around 10:30, and quite often gets back at midnight (a couple of nights a week). In this case, however, her house is a company owned one, so its right next door to the firm, so late night quickies are less likely ;)

A lot of it is cultural pressure. Everyone works ridiculously long hours, so working less is seen as lazy by your peers. I hope that people will start working less hours as the years go by and generations move on: lots of people don’t like it, but they also don’t see any way of changing it. Social inertia is a powerful force.

Yeah, I agree, Enjo Kosai can be dangerous in those terms… I guess the social disapproval might make it more appealing to girls participating, maybe? There’s almost no chance of being found out, yet you get to do something risky, dangerous and frowned upon without actually getting socially ostracised yourself.

Also, almost never seeing your wife, yet having a kind of formal relationship can make things awkward. How can you be loving to a partner if you have very little idea of what she spends her days doing? For the husband, it’s much easier just to do Enjo Kosai or something similar.

Okay, overlong comment alert. Sorry about that. I’m enjoying your blog greatly Yuribou, keep it up!
Tye The Czar
April 23rd, 2009 @ 10:53 pm

Just want to say: FUCK YEAR TOUHOU! I find Tewi’s(Short, pink dress) expression hilarious.

As for Yakuza, I didn’t think they’d be doing such an act as human trafficking. Ever wondered if Japan’s government is going to have a Mexico-styled crackdown on this kind of crime?