Teenage Prostitution In Japan

By N. Alice Yamada

Senior Editor

o be a teenager in Japan is to lead an expensive life. The media accelerates the 'necessity' for teenagers to look and to dress like the actors and singers on television. I felt like I was left behind by all aspects of 'attractiveness' in Japan, simply because I was not equipped in Chanel nor shielded by ten inches of MAC foundation as all the other girls were. I was plain and I looked poor. And the reality is that my wallet was very empty compared to that of those girls who carried beepers and cell phones to call up their 'patrons'.

I am not a specialist in the investigation of prostitution in Japan, but I have friends who have gone all the way and I have been solicited myself. The reality is that prostitution in Japan is no longer a secret and sometimes even very casual. Both parties involved, the buyers and the sellers, recognize their benefits - money or sexual pleasure- and go about their businesses. For my friends who do sell themselves to men old enough to be their fathers, prostitution is nothing they are ashamed of; instead, they are proud that they are making their own money rather than pocketing it from their parents. The price of sex becomes a medal for them as one girl put it, "My pussy is worth $600. Now that's pretty flattering."

My friend, Yukari, started building her "career" as a teenage prostitute at the age of fifteen. Her first experience was with a forty year old man and she charged him merely $200 because she was new to the business. She was practically a virgin with very little experience in sex. And yet, she could make $200 in less than an hour. After her first experience, she called me in a state of ecstasy. "Let's go to the mall now. I can get that Gaultier bag I always wanted!" was the first thing she said to me. When I asked her to stop, she defended herself with the comment, "You'd never understand. You're too spoiled to work for the things you want."

Girls like Yukari use prostitution as a "part-time job" and spend the money they make with their boyfriends as if the money was made by working at Banana Republic. Too many boyfriends condone the action and no one is trying to stop these girls from believing that prostitution is casual and easy.

Japan is experiencing a degeneration of morals and ethics after the entire nation had devoted itself to becoming a strong economic power. Children were left to fend for themselves because the adults were too busy making money and as a result, the teenagers now are living lives as they please. It is too late for the adults to try to interfere. The children have developed their own social norms and lifestyles. The only future Japan can hope for is one in which the children learn their lessons and prostitution is discarded from their lives as a result of their own wills.