HONG KONG - The practice of an older man taking a young, school-aged Japanese
girl out on a "date" in exchange for money in Japan is referred to as enjo kosai,
or "compensated dating". To say that enjo kosai is prostitution or - in
a Western view - child prostitution, may not always be accurate. The date may
not necessarily include sex, and the inherent cultural complexities can strain
perceptions of the practice.
Enjo kosai does not automatically imply that sex is on offer. In some
cases it is just dinner, some conversation and perhaps a walk holding hands.
All too often, however, it does involve some sort of sexual interaction; maybe
limited to fondling and groping, or even oral sex and intercourse. This sets
off alarms about child
prostitution, at least in the eyes of the international community, as the
schoolgirls can be as young as 12.
A 20-year-old Japanese girl named Aiko whom I met while she was working at the
bars in Hong Kong "on a lark" while on "holiday", as she put it, said she had
done enjo kosai since she was 14. "Why not, it's there. There are
Japanese men willing to pay good money for nothing more than a tease. I could
make huge money and get designer brands just for having dinner at a five-star
restaurant and being his date," Aiko said. "If they later wanted sex, which in
Japan is all about the tease and being unattainable, then that just makes the
man invest more money in the relationship."
Japan has one of the lowest ages of sexual consent in the world; it's as low as
13 in metro Tokyo and the national age of consent ranges between 13 and 18
depending on the province. In fact, in Japan, the practice of having sex with
teenage girls is not prosecutable if the young woman says "yes". This is where enjo
kosai acts a loophole; any girl saying "yes, but for 50,000 yen"
(US$495)immediately renders the situation illegal. The brunt of punishment,
however, falls on the male customer, generally for solicitation and
prostitution. Such cases can be aggravated by the fact the female is a minor,
or under 18 in terms of recent legislation.
This is where the loophole becomes a pedophile's dream scenario. If he "dates"
the underage woman, buys her gifts and occasionally provides her with cash
ostensibly for shopping, buying books or spending time with friends, then the
money or gifts were not technically provided on a sex-for-money transaction.
Otherwise, this would equal prostitution and be punishable by law.
The young women practicing enjo kosai usually expect to be taken
shopping and lavished in gifts, especially by men they "date" repeatedly.
Some of the girls working the enjo kosai trade are referred to as
"kogals", which is an amalgam of the Japanese terms kou, meaning "high",
and gyaru, which translates as "gal" or "girl". Adorned in schoolgirl
uniforms, hip designer goods, top-of-the-line mobile phones, the young women
are stereotyped as drug using, promiscuous, greedy and stupid. They like trendy
hangouts, such as Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, where they dine, shop, sing
karaoke and, when possible, land an older man for a date.
Kogals are not the only subculture participating in enjo kosai, but they
make up a significant portion and are certainly the "poster girls" of the
practice. Still any teenage girl participating in the trade is practicing enjo
kosai. There are no pimps or mamasans setting up the liaisons, but
Japan has a host of pay-to-play phone and Internet matchmaking services that
facilitate the "hook ups" of like-minded individuals.
Unless they speak fluent Japanese and are familiar with the cultural nuances
the relationship requires, foreigners are extremely unlikely to have an enjo
kosai experience. For foreigners, sex-for-hire in Japan is limited to
paying imported Thai and Filipino girls at inflated Japanese rates; most
Japanese clubs with Japanese girls do not permit foreigners.
As noted, prostitution is illegal in Tokyo, and in 2005 the city moved to make enjo
kosai illegal as well. Penalties were established that could land the
man in jail for up to a year. However, gathering the evidence necessary to
successfully prosecute is dicey and few reports suggest that the ban is being
vigorously enforced.
Even now, enjo kosai is common. A decade ago, the Tokyo Weekender
reported, "According to a recent survey of junior high school students in their
final year, 17% thought there is nothing wrong with enjo kosai and 13%
replied that they felt no reluctance in practicing it."
At the same time, the daily newspaper Mainichi reported, "Despite extravagant
media attention on what many had perceived to be a widespread phenomenon, only
5% of high school girls admitted taking part in enjo kosai - accepting
money from middle-aged men for dates that sometimes include having sexual
intercourse."
These numbers can only have increased in past decade. The media and the
Internet have led to a more open view of sex and sexuality among youths
throughout the world. Also, another problem with the enjo kosai industry
is that the number of prospective punters far outnumbers the amount of willing
schoolgirls. Some estimates have put the number of school-aged girls practicing enjo
kosai at about 13%, and a Tokyo survey by Friday magazine found that an
astonishing 75% of schoolgirls reported that they had been solicited by older
seeking an enjo kosai relationship.
For non-Japanese observers understanding the cultural context of enjo kosai
can be challenging.
Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that many girls in the enjo kosai trade do
so out of spite caused by their own father's behavior. Many of whom are
slavishly devoted to long working hours and spend time drinking at hostess
clubs, having extramarital affairs and turning up late and drunk at home. Many
of these girls think their fathers have their own kogals for enjo kosai,
so why shouldn't they reap some reward from the practice?
Societies all over the world struggle with the issues of prostitution and
under-aged sex. In the US, a country that had a sexual revolution in the 1960s
and 1970s, rather puritan and conservative laws still seem to rule the day.
Many countries' laws somewhat arbitrarily define an adult as being over age 18,
and anyone below 18 as a minor; sex is prohibited between these two age groups
and violations are vigorously enforced.
With all the debate over "victims" and "predators" one must wonder which of
these societies are really enlightened. Is it the US and Western countries that
criminalize sex, or is it a country like Japan which does not prosecute when
there are not clear victims? Of course, in any situation where there is no
consent, or there is an abuse of authority or coercion, the case should be
prosecuted. Certainly, any sexual contact with a person under 12 years old
should be vigorously prosecuted as pedophilia.
But, considering that Japan had its so-called sexual revolution during the 17th
century's Edo period, one can only wonder what the sexual "evolution" now
sweeping across Asia will hold. As a leading industrialized nation, Japan has
bent to the will of the international community: it has updated its laws,
mostly concerning child pornography, but also those governing the realm of
under-aged sex, though enforcement for both is lax.
Will Japan's neighbors adopt similar views on youth sex, or will they bend to
the influence of the West? We can only wait and see ... and hope that creating
legally defined victims and predators is limited to situations where victims
actually exist.
William Sparrow has been an occasional contributor to Asia
Times Online and now joins Asia Times Online with a weekly column. Sparrow is
editor in chief of Asian Sex Gazette and has reported on sex in Asia for over
five years. To contact him send question or comments to Letters@atimes.com.
(Copyright 2008 William Sparrow. All rights reserved. Please contact us about
sales, syndication and republishing .)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
