I have a genuine fondness for the people of Japan. During the three years I spent stationed in their country I found them to be, as a general rule, a humble, friendly, and polite group. The entire time I was in the country I can’t recall a time that anyone was rude to me, a refreshing change from my homeland.
As an outsider I was always especially charmed by the sight of children, dressed in identical uniforms, on their way to school. The school kids would often smile and wave or flash the popular “V” peace sign when we Americans passed by. Watching these kids, you couldn’t help but admire their youthful spirit.
Unfortunately, some men in Japan have more than an admiration for this innocent youth. A significant number of the Japanese men suffer from an abhorrent obsession with sexualizing youth and innocence. I was shocked at first to find so many women in their 20s and 30s act so immaturely. It was rare to find a young woman who didn’t exhibit the same mannerisms that you would find in a prepubescent American girl.
Later I discovered that this way of acting was a way of attracting the opposite sex. The men preferred “schoolgirls” so the women would act accordingly.
This would be disturbing in itself, but the obsession bleeds over into a fascination with real schoolgirls. An entire industry is dedicated to feeding roricon (Japanese slang for “Lolita complex”) and especially “bura-sera", a fetish for the schoolgirls sailor-style uniform. Young girls are even encouraged to sell their soiled underwear to porn shopt which is then often sold in-store or invending machines. Yeah, that’s right, vending machines:
For a price, girls supplying buru-sera items for resale will don a new pair of panties at a porn shop in the morning on their way to school, then change back into their own underwear at the end of the day at the same shop, leaving its proprietor with a saleable item. Girls can also turn a profit on their own used undies by offloading them to the same people. Generally, the more worn the item, the higher the price it will fetch. Porn shops featuring buru-sera items also vend girls' used school uniforms.
Fortunately, the Japanese government is finally trying to crack down on the sales of such items because they believe it has spurred the rise in teen prostitution:
Japan has been troubled for more than a decade by teenage prostitution, which girls euphemistically call "compensated dating".
… "Compensated dating" is recognised as a nationwide phenomenon, with girls often using the money to buy goods such as Burberry scarves and Louis Vuitton handbags.
When a culture becomes dominated by consumerism, the lust for money will eventually even trickle down to the children. Without jobs or other means of income it shouldn’t be surprising when kids begin selling the one commodity that they possess: their bodies.
As one Japanese women’s magazine notes, the problem is not with the children but with the parents and society:
Sexual perversion is related to the form of society. What must be pointed out is that there is something fundamentally wrong with this nation when 'buru-sera' shops flourish and 'neo-yamatondeshiko' are allowed to sell themselves without comment from their parents or older. It is a bartering session, one without a soul.
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Here we have another example of, as you stated, a society that values the material over the spiritual. If you believe the is nothing beyond this life on earth than nothing can be truly considered wrong. Thanks for bringing this to our attention Joe.
posted on 01.16.2004 11:55 PM2
Hello, I've lived here in Osaka for 13 years doing missionary work, working at vegetarian restaurants, and of course teaching English:)
I love this people, enough to quit my computer job in Atlanta and spend a 1/3 of my life here.
General McArthur asked for 2,000 missionaries to come here from America right after the war, but didn't even get that many. Now only about 1% of the populace is Christian, and most of them have no idea of what Christianity is, even to the point of pastors telling them that it is OK to have Buddhist altars in their homes, because this is, after all, Japan.
So they have no clue what true Christianity is. There are still glimmerings of true Christianity in America, and now sparks fanning into flames in Korea, so i have hope for Japan. We need a true Christian witness to show them the difference between right and wrong - not the universal gray that is popular.
posted on 01.17.2004 9:24 AM3
Christianity is a scourge to all the nations it has been inflicted upon! Leave these happy heathens to their own ways and devote your efforts to unseating the true evil of globalisation.
posted on 02.05.2004 9:08 PM4
Wait........are you suggesting that the roricon phenomenon has something to do with the fact that most Japanese are not Christian? Having just returned from Japan myself, I believe that Japanese society is quite superior to our own in many ways; there are plenty of sexual perversions in America, too. (And what's wrong with Buddhism, anyway? It's perfectly compatable with Christianity.)
posted on 07.08.2004 7:45 AM