Reasons for Enjo-kosai (Prostitution) in Contemporary Japan

 

Introduction

If I asked people in the United States what they knew about sexuality in contemporary Japan, the images coming across in most Americans’ minds would probably concern enjo-kosai. The direct translation of “enjo-kosai” is “compensated dating”, but it is a new euphemism for prostitution.

It is worthy of analysis why enjo-kosai is reported on so extensively not only by the Japanese mass media, but also by the American mass communications. According to Sheldon Garon, a historian at History Princeton University, many types of prostitution are seen in many countries all over the world since the ancient Greek time. For example, Garon describes that, in 1733, Tokugawa shogunate government legalized selling daughters in families in poverty into prostitutions (Garon 89-90)[1]. The women have to sell their bodies because they and their families did not have enough money to survive. A woman may think that selling sex to strangers may rank low on a job desirability scale. However, according to newspaper reports, girls involved with enjo-kosai have no difficulty surviving at all in general. Thus, the international media treat this social issue in Japan as well; for instance, in 1996, Ben Hills, a senior writer on the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, reports in his journal:

A national survey of 3,600 14-15-year-olds by the National Congress of Parents’ and Teachers’ Associations confirmed every parent’s worst fears. One quarter of the girls admitted that they had frequented terekura (“telephone clubs”), the 500-odd dating agencies in Tokyo, where frustrated men pay for introductions to schoolgirls. The girls boast they can earn $700 or more in cash and gifts for a date. …Not far from Shibuya bar, two casually dressed 16-year-olds named Yuko and Akiko are primping at a street corner waiting for someone to pick them up. They are typical kogyaru (literally “child/girls”), attending school by day, partying by night. Yuko denies selling her body but cheerfully admits she sleeps with strangers who sometimes leave her money.[2] 

 

As this article suggests, teenage girls who do not have a special problem with living or eating sell sex and make a great deal of money. This fact makes the international media exploit enjo-kosai for interesting coverage. Consequently, it gives a chance for people all over the world to know the social problem in Japan. Some people, who know I am from that country, asked me with curiosity, “Is it true that high school girls in Japan are making money by selling their panties with blood on them after sex [prostitution]?” Unfortunately, my answer to this question is yes. Such questions show people’s interests in enjo-kosai. At the same time, they indicate that enjo-kosai has an extraordinary attribute to be drawing attention by the mass media all over the world.

            The media tends to focus on enjo-kosai as problematic teenage girls’ behavior; however, the activity indeed involves more stakeholders. The teenage prostitutes exist because men buy them. Typically, the sponsors are middle-aged men, who have enough money for sex. Some young male college students are involved as well. Besides, it is not true that only people involved with enjo-kosai are problematic. The central question is that why contemporary Japan has such a social problem. In this paper, I will argue that this happens due to an insufficient sex education, an indifferent social temperament, the prevalence of consumerism, and the power of word of mouth.

 

Lack of sufficient sex education

The first reason that facilitates enjo-kosai in Japan is lack of sufficient sex education. The two ideal sources of sexual knowledge for children are the family, usually parents, and schools because they are primary agents in the socialization process. In reality, though, some children and full-grown adults engage in enjo-kosai. Home and school could have educated them well enough not to engage in such activities.

At home

The majority of families in contemporary Japan still think that discussions about sex between parents and children are inappropriate. The atmosphere in Japan has been hostile for adults at home to be open about sexuality to youths, even with regards to educational purpose. In 2000, Hayashi Kazuma, an elementary school teacher, conducted a survey of 198 college students, whose ages were between 18 and 23, in Shinsyu University, Nagano, Japan. One of his questions was the following: “Have you ever had a discussion about sexuality with your parents or other adults at home? If any, please describe or list your experience.” 104 out of 129 people (80.6%) answered, “No, or I cannot think of it.” Hayashi described some noticeable responses. Without mentioning the reason, one student replied that sex education should be offered at school rather than at home. This comment implies that s/he believed that home should not be a place to learn about sexuality. Another one said that her/his parents had not been interested in this issue at all. This statement reflects her/his parents’ lack of responsibility on their child’s sexuality. According to Hayashi, it seemed that the respondents, who claimed they received sex education at home were given short instructions, such as “Be careful all the time,” and “Contraception is important for you.” Hayashi concluded that the sexual education tended to be done lightly, compared to schools.[3] Although the number of samples in Hayashi’s survey is small and they are all college students, the result shows that the significantly high percentage of people did not feel they had not received sex education at home or it had been brief. The interaction with family is not functioning as a prime source for young people to have some insight of sexuality to prevent enjo-kosai.

            At school

In addition, sex education at schools is missing significant substance in its contents in order to prevent enjo-kosai. According to Kawahara Yukari, a researcher of gender and sexuality at Waseda University, Tokyo, many students do not take sex education seriously even though students receive it. Kawahara researched the topic of sexual education by observing secondary schools’ classrooms in health education courses. In Japanese secondary school, issues of sexuality are primarily treated in health education courses. According to Kawahara, typically, students belittle both sexual education courses and even the teachers primarily because health education is not included in the subject for entrance examinations for high schools/universities.[4]

            Classrooms of health education courses are the place for learning social expectations. However, according to Kawahara, Japanese schoolteachers’ prospects are usually too idealistic and behind the times, and this fact makes students less enthusiastic. More specifically, their focus regarding sexual ethics is on marriage and reproduction[5]. Kawahara explains the social expectation in Japan: keeping one’s chastity. Mr. Noma, the instructor of the health education course Kawahara visited, made a statement after the discussion for teenage pregnancy:

As we have learned, if you choose childbirth, you would have big problems such as expenses for childbirth. You are still high school student; you don’t have enough ability to raise children. Eventually, you might have to quit high school. I know that you have dreams and hopes for the future, but you might have to give up these things. In order to avoid this, you should make wise decisions about your sexual behavior. You have to care for your partner. You have to say “no.”[6]

 

Mr. Noma insists that a couple without money and social responsibilities should not have a baby. Since students have no responsibility in the public, they should not have sex. Kawahara emphasizes the way of Mr. Noma’s explanation as a persuasion for abstinence: “It should be noticed that Mr. Noma never mentioned the choice of ‘safe sex’ with a condom. Although students mentioned the word ‘rubber,’ Mr. Noma tactically ignored it and never pursued the issue of contraception in the class.”[7] The schoolteacher does not give his students any choice of having sex. This means that the schoolteacher does not give students instructions about morality on sex, even though enjo-kosai is going on in reality.

Instead of just persuading students to practice abstinence, schoolteachers could have a different approach in sex education in order to prevent enjo-kosai. Teachers’ expectation, chastity, is too idealistic because many teenagers in present-time Japan are not virgins. In 1999, JASE (The Japanese Association for Sex Education) reported that the rate of high school students who had had sex was dramatically increasing in the previous few years. For example, in 1987, nine percent of high school girls had had sexual intercourse(s) with others; however, in 1999, it was 24%. The samples of students include not only high school students in large cities, but also ones in small villages. Therefore, even if the large cities are less conservative and have higher rates, these numbers do not reflect only the extreme cases and they are averaged out.[8] By 1999, about one fourth of high school students have already lost their virginity. The others probably know classmates are having sex. Why would students listen to their teachers? Schoolteachers could have more open-minds about teenagers having sex. Then schools would have provided teenagers with sex education that would prevent enjo-kosai. This is what teenagers want. Iwamuro Shinya, a doctor dealing with sexual organs at Atsugi Clinic, describes his experience of sex education at schools:

I don’t think sex education is too difficult. …Whenever I make a speech, I don’t understand why students are listening to me so seriously even though I am talking very fundamental knowledge of sex [such as phimosis, menstruation, and transmission of AIDS]. Schoolteachers always tell me that their students listen to me very well even though they never listen to the teachers and just talk with their classmates. I think that my speech contains nothing special. I give them information they really want to know, and this is it. [9]

 

Iwamuro points out that students listen to him because students need his subjects to gain insights regarding sexuality for real use. This way, enjo-kosai might have been prevented because children would obtain proper sexual knowledge and they would know what is right or wrong.

 

Indifferent temperament of society

Attitude of people not in enjo-kosai

Furthermore, another reason enjo-kosai exists in Japanese society is the indifferent temperament that people have. If people who are not engaged in enjo-kosai had mentalities that do not allow it and they were active enough, that activity might not exist. Kurihara Lumi, a historian and social scientist at Fukushima University, had the discussions in her seminar about the indifferent nature of people, especially young people. The topic was, “People, including college students, used to having mentalities oriented on justice and they took actions for it; for instance, they were aggressively active against Vietnamese War. However, social atmosphere had changed and people do not feel like they want to change something injustice any more. Why is that?” She selected the good opinions and one of them are shown as follows:

There are two reasons why we ignore corruptions in our society and we do not want to change it. First, nowadays, the temper of college students makes us not take any action. No sensation and indifference. People think that if we took actions, nothing would change; therefore, it is useless, which makes people lethargic. Second, the problem does not affect them directly.[10]

 

Her interpretation suggests that even if people know that corruptions are happening, they most likely do not care unless those bad things harm them directly. According to Kurihara, people are in nothingness because the society is too large. They know they cannot improve the society. Consequently, modern Japan contains a conspicuously large number of indifferent people.

Under this circumstance, Japanese people, who are not involved with enjo-kosai, collude in it. Shibui Tetsuya, a freelance writer had a survey about enjo-kosai. On his website, he put the message board so people can write their opinions. For the question, “What do you think about enjo-kosai?,” a great deal of people from all generations of both women and men do not show any concern: “If they want it [enjo-kosai], what can I tell them?” (high school male student) or “I don’t think it’s good, but it’s up to them.” (27-year-old female).[11] From the contexts, it seems that they are not involved with enjo-kosai, but they accept it as a social phenomenon. They do not want to intervene with the prostitutes and their patrons because activities of enjo-kosai do not harm the people who are not involved.

Attitude of people in enjo-kosai

Consequently, people involved in enjo-kosai can exist in such an environment where people are indifferent. Prostitutes and patrons usually believe that they are not doing anything wrong to others, so doing enjo-kosai is unproblematic. According to people engaged in enjo-kosai, a patron buys sex, and a girl sells her body and earns money; everybody is happy and nobody loses anything. In November 1996, Oonishi Jyun, a newspaper writer, and Yanagawa Keiko, a high school girl back then, gathered people including advocates and opponents in one place for a serious discussion about enjo-kosai. One eleventh-grade girl, Yumiko, who could sell her body for 70,000-80,000 yen (about $600) per session, says, “Enjyo-kosai is all right because I don’t have enough money. I don’t make any trouble to anybody. Parents? I don’t cause any problem if they don’t know what I’m doing.”[12] It is not possible to see any hesitation in regards to prostitution from her words because she believes she does not bother anyone. Therefore, she does not want others to intervene in her life. In other words, as far as Yumiko does not cause any problem to others, according to her logic, she can do whatever she wants: even prostitution. The mentalities of both people involved in compensated dating and ones not engaged in it make enjo-kosai exist in the Japanese society.

 

Consumerism

Facts of consumerism

In addition to those reasons, consumerism is common among many teenagers, which is another major reason why enjo-kosai occurs in Japanese society. As I mentioned in Introduction, in pre modern Japan, a prostitute normally needed money for her life; without selling her body to strange men, she and her family members could not survive. However, nowadays, prostitutes, especially teenagers, want money for excess luxury in many cases. They typically want to buy expensive brand-name items such as a new and fancy cell phone, Louis Vuitton’s handbag (at least $400), Jayro’s suits (36,000 yen [$300] or above) and Nars’s lipsticks ($20)[13].

Not only they want those, but also some of them actually buy them. In 2001, a Nissin OilliO, the large food company, conducted a survey about the situation of brand-name items for high schoolgirls. Of 372 students all over the country, about 40 percent of them have some brand-name products. One fourth of them has all of a brand-name bag, accessory, and wallet[14]. In fact, those high school girls, or even junior high school girls buy expensive designer clothes up to 200,000 yen ($1,700) in boutiques[15].

The possibility for schoolgirls earn money in ordinary ways

If schoolgirls want to buy such expensive items, they need a great deal of money. A Nissin OilliO asked questions about high schoolgirls’ sources of income also. About 280 people (75%) responded that they receive less than ten thousand yen ($80) as a monthly allowance. Also, about 116 people (30%) said that they have a normal job (a non-enjo-kosai job)[16]. In present-time Japan (November 2002), It is getting accepted little by little for high school students to get a job because of needs of parents and industry[17]. However, many schools still have strict school laws; for example, in Kanazawa, (Ishikawa Prefecture, population 420,000) all high schools prohibit students getting a job.[18] Many schoolteachers and parents believe that high school students cannot study enough and are harmed if they work[19].  According to the results of the Nissin OilliO’s survey, even though schoolgirls do not earn enough money to buy brand-name goods, some high school actually girls buy expensive item(s) to fulfill their desires. It is not possible to see a direct connection with enjo-kosai; however, the results indicate possibilities of some of these schoolgirls running into enjo-kosai to earn a great deal of money.

            Reasons for consumerism

These girls wear these expensive items because they want to be fulfilled.  One twelfth-grade girl thinks “the expression of my pride comes from wearing cool brand-name items as I spend a lot of money. Prostitution is the method to keep my pride up.”[20] It is an irony how she believes that prostitution has positive effect on her dignity, even though it seems to me that she is completely ruining her pride.

All they need is money and cool brand-name goods, and for that purpose, they do whatever they can do in order to earn money. Going back to Shibui’s survey, one high school girl described her enjo-kosai experience when she encountered Japanese mafias (yakuza):

Enjo [enjo-kosai] is not easy as you imagine. At least, to me or my friends, it is a gamble. …But I want money. If I can work, I would do it. But Parents don’t give me permission. I wished I could work and quit enjo-kosai. I love money. Without it, my life has no meaning. Enjo is harsh. I wanna quit. Besides, I have a boyfriend. But I want money. I want permission for work [as she gets little older]. I hate those oyaji [dirty old men]. They disgust me. I want you to know I’m making money with pain. …Sorry, Mr. Yakuza. You said to me, “Don’t do it [prostitution] again,” and let me go. But I still have to interfere your business. I really want money. If Parents give me permission for work, I promise I will quit it.[21]

 

As she said repeatedly, she needed money, although she cannot work because her parents did not permit it. That feeling overcame fear of “Mr. Yakuza”, and hatred on “oyaji”. It shows how important a Louis Vuitton’s handbag or Jayro’s suits were for her. The consumerism in Japanese culture drives some young girls to prostitution.

 

The power of word of mouth

Finally, the number of people involved in compensated dating is large enough to spread itself by word of mouth. This social problem is stimulated by regulation of cell phones. In Japan, it is common to have an Internet connection via a cell phone, where people can send files of messages and images called mail, or a cell phone version of e-mail. As the name implies, a cell phone’s mail works just like a computer’s. Once a person gets a cell phone in Japan, individuals continuously receive invitations from deai-kei-saito, which is a telephone service that people consult in order to find somebody with common interests. Many of deai-kei-saito are telephone dating services. In deai-kei-saito, people send a mail in order to seek dating relations. As men receive these mails many men respond on a cell phone to find their targets, potential prostitutes, as many of girls on the service are.

According to Internet Watch, an Internet news site, in March 2002, the Metropolitan Police Department announced that in September and October 2001, they asked questions to 539 secondary students in Yamagata, Tokyo, Osaka, and Shimane. The survey indicates that 22 percent of high school girls have experienced deai-kei-saito and 35.8 percent of them had seen people they met in the services, who would be potential enjo-kosai girls even though some of them might not be involved with immoral activities and purely enjoy seeing new people.[22] According to People’s Daily, The Metropolitan Police Department also reported that in August 2002, the number of people arrested due to deai-kei-saito related crimes in the first six months in 2002 (793 cases) was 2.6 times as many as the one in the first six months in 2001.[23] The number of crimes related to deai-kei-saito had been increased. At the same time, we can safely assume that the number of enjo-kosai has been increased as well.

Although the media had probably been the major informational sources of enjo-kosai at the beginning, the power of word of mouth is currently the prime supply because there are more than enough people who can tempt others into doing enjo-kosai. Miyadai Shinji, a sociologist, wrote a book about teenagers’ enjo-kosai, “The Uniformed Girls’ Choice.” In the book, he argues that those schoolgirls already know their sexual value, meaning that the older men would buy them. Those schoolgirls, being involved with enjo-kosai for the first time, are typically triggered by the bad classmates who are already in it.[24] If a classmate, who is already involved in enjo-kosai, asked her friends to go to enjo-kosai together, it is extremely hard for them to say “no”. This is how the number of the teenage prostitutes can still go up.

 

Summary—Solution to the problem

            As I have tried to show in this paper, it is necessary to ask who is creating the social atmosphere that facilitates enjo-kosai. Are they only sex sellers and buyers, represented as high school girls and older men? No, although enjo-kosai is debated primarily as a problem of the girls who are involved, this social problem points at a larger altered crisis of the people. I believe that each individual in Japan has to tackle the complex problem. Adults have to be trained in order to prepare for sex discussion at home. Schoolteachers have to improve the program to meet students’ real needs. Then all people have to learn about sexuality seriously. The issue of enjo-kosai is not somebody else’s problem when they think about ones they love living in Japan. Many people might be disgusted by behaviors of the prostitutes and patrons I have discussed here. If they took actions to stop them, prostitutes like Yumiko would realize their existence bothers somebody. Their activities would break her logic, in which one can do whatever s/he wants to do if the behavior does not bother others. Each individual has to discuss the negative consequences of consumerism. Although it is one’s freedom how to dress, prostitution is not a right way to make money to buy expensive items.  They are ruining their dignities by selling their bodies. It is essential for everybody to be educated well enough not to get confused when they are thrown a great deal of information. As a man from Japan, I hope keenly that I will see the day that enjo-kosai will disappear from my country completely.

 

 

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