Unfashionable sex: a bill of desire in an aging society

True Story Plan

2024-04-25 17:44Published in Beijing, creators in the field of documentary

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He is old and frail, but his sexual desire has not been extinguished. In Japan, many elderly people use erotic trade to try to accommodate this need that seems out of place at a particular stage of life.

At a time when the aging trend is becoming more and more serious, Japan, which has the tradition of "a big country of customs", has even extended the erotic industry chain for the elderly, and the elderly with limited economic conditions are still looking for a way out of the stagnant sexual demand.

In Japan, erotic consumption is aging

Kuji Shokaichi is 86 years old, lives in an upscale residential area in Tokyo, and when he was younger, he ran a real estate company, and after retirement, he regularly went to beauty salons, went to hyperbaric oxygen chambers, paid attention to a healthy diet, and exercised at the gym. He insisted on taking care of his appearance and physique because after the age of 80, he began to eat regularly with women between the ages of 18 and 22 and enjoy sex in high-end hotels.

Kuji Shoichi is a member of a social club in Japan, and through the introduction of the social club, he makes female companions.

In Japan, "social clubs" are one of the channels through which men meet young people of the opposite sex. Generally speaking, male members need to pay 5 to 100,000 yuan (about 2,400 to 4,700 yuan) as a membership fee, and pay 3 to 50,000 yen (about 1,400 to 2,400 yuan) each time as an introduction fee, and the club will match them with women according to their personal preferences. These female members include young women in various professions, such as college students, white-collar workers, nurses, flight attendants, models, AV actresses, and variety actors. The men relied on their financial strength to form a lover contract with the young women introduced by the club and provide them with living expenses.

Even though their hair has turned gray, many elderly people are still full of craving sex. According to a survey by the Japan Society of Sexology, 78% of single seniors between the ages of 60 and 79 in Japan still continue to pay attention to and desire sex, compared with 32% of women.

In Japan, some elderly men who are unmarried, widowed, divorced, or have a discordant sex life within marriage will use sex trade to satisfy their sexual needs. Some elderly men like Shoichi Kuji satisfy their sexual needs through such channels.

In addition to "social clubs", a series of customs related to "sex" services in Japan are also catering to the needs of the elderly for sex trafficking. It mainly includes store type, no store type, image delivery type, telephone introduction type of opposite sex, etc. For the elderly who choose such places, the impact and risk of the lover relationship on the personal life is too great, and the sexual relationship between the customs industry and the opposite sex is only based on the transaction of money, which is simple and direct.

In a book "The Disease of Customs", which records the side of Japan's "customs country", the author Shin Yamamoto also went deep into the red light district of Yoshiwara Town, Tokyo area, Japan, and presented the scene of aging consumption in the erotic trade here. In his observations, some of the elderly who go to the customs shop are 80 years old and still go to the red light district every week, some will ride their bicycles to the red light district on the day they receive their pensions, and some will take the Japanese Shinkansen to travel long distances from Niigata and Nagano on the west side of Japan's main island to the Tokyo area on the eastern coast of Honshu Island, and visit Yoshiwara Town.

Figure | Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

In order to stay in shape, some elderly people will take ED treatment drugs before going to the custom shop to consume.

In the past decade, with the aging of Japanese society, many custom shops for the elderly have appeared in the market. At a "delivery service" custom shop in Tokyo that only accepts male customers over the age of 60, the women between the ages of 20 and 60 serve the shop.

Guests make an appointment and book a hotel the day before, and arrive at the hotel at the appointed time the next day, charged at 15,000 yen (about 700 yuan) per hour. Junji Koizumi (pseudonym), the proprietor of this custom shop that caters to elderly men, has revealed that most of the customers in the shop are men of a certain social status, and one-third of them are business operators, and when customers come to Tokyo for meetings or business trips, they will make reservations at high-end hotels.

This custom shop has 80 to 100 elderly male customers per month, and their favorite type is college students, followed by women in their 20s. Once a college student or a newcomer in their 20s joins and posts a photo on the website, there is a noticeable increase in appointment calls. After many years of operation, this custom shop has expanded to three branches in Tokyo, Sendai, and Fukuoka.

According to Junji Koizumi's observations, older business owners usually have a strong sense of morality and believe that "you can't do things that are morally corrupt," but if you learn that this is a custom shop that specializes in serving the elderly, some people will be willing to try it. Some guests come every week, some once every three months. Many customers claim that they have not been exposed to the customs industry before, and they have become repeat customers after their first purchase.

Figure | Movie "0.5mm"

Mari, a 23-year-old lady in the store, is usually an office worker. She observes that many of her clients value time for chat and relaxation more than the sexual service itself. Some guests told her, "I'm old and no one pays attention to me" and "I don't have much fun in my life after retirement". An elderly man in his 80s who is a frequent visitor to Mari often complains: "I don't have an appetite and I can't sleep well at night." "The old man is no longer able to get an erection and ejaculate, but he still has a libido. Every time they parted, the old man would say something like, "I'm living alone, life is boring, but I'm looking forward to seeing Mari and thinking that I can live."

soil

Erotic consumption by the elderly is not obtrusive in the eyes of the Japanese. The soil in which it grows is related to the atmosphere that Japan is a "big country" for erotic consumption. In Japan, about 4 out of 10 Japanese men have been to a custom store. More than 300,000 people are employed in the customs industry, and the annual output value is about 5 trillion yen, accounting for 0.4% of Japan's GDP.

The openness of the Japanese sexual culture often surprises foreigners who are new to Japan. Ruth Benedict, a contemporary American cultural anthropologist who has studied Japanese customs and morals, points out that "many of our taboos about sexual pleasure are not present in the Japanese." The Japanese don't pay much attention to ethics in this area. ”

Not only is it different from East Asian countries with more conservative sexual cultures, but even compared with European and American countries, Japan has a more tolerant attitude towards fornication between men and women, and the degree of development of customs and sexual openness is also surpassing. Because of this, it is not uncommon for the elderly to engage in erotic consumption in Japanese society, and even in the process of social aging, the Japanese custom industry has developed businesses that specialize in serving the elderly.

From the perspective of the origin of culture, in the creation myth circulated in China, Nuwa made people from the soil. In the Bible, God created Adam and Eve. These myths that describe the world and the birth of mankind basically cover up the love of men and women. In contrast, the Japanese creation myth is bold and direct in its depiction of sexuality.

According to the Kojiki, at the beginning of the world, there were only Izanagi and Izanami, two brothers and sisters, who chased and played around the Heavenly Pillar, and Izanami said that there was a part of his body that did not grow well, and Izanagi said, "My body has grown, but there is a superfluity, and I want to fill in the place where you are not in harmony with the rest of me, and create a land" "Then I will walk with you around the Heavenly Pillar, meet and have sex." Then the two intersected, thus giving birth to the Japanese gods and the Japanese islands.

At the same time, there are many descriptions of human organs, such as breasts and genitals, in the "Ancient Chronicles". For example, Izanagi and Izanami built a phallic-like pillar of heaven on the island. The gods made the heavens suffer from the fate of "the breasts and breasts were exposed, and the buttons of the clothes drooped and the pussy was exposed". You can feel that in Japanese culture, there is little shying away from "sex".

Figure | Japanese ukiyo-e and spring palace paintings are important themes

Japan has a long history of customs, and for a long time in history, it has had its own economic and political significance at the national level.

In the Kamakura period (late 12th to mid-14th century), the shogunate established public custom shops to regulate and manage the industry, and the sale of spring girls was taxed. The prostitute began to sell prostitutes. The customs industry has a huge income and has become a pillar industry to stabilize the country's finances. In the Meiji era, with the development of capitalism, new types of private prostitution, such as coffee hostesses and escort girls, emerged.

After World War II, in August 1945, at the call of the government, "sexual comfort facilities" for U.S. troops were established in various places, and the "Special Comfort Facilities Association" (RAA Association) was established to recruit comfort women. According to statistics, the maximum number of women in it at that time was 70,000. The problem of venereal diseases then appeared, and in January 1946, the number of carriers of germs in a certain unit of the U.S. Army reached 68%. Due to the spread of venereal diseases, in March 1946, the Allied headquarters shut down the RAA Association and demanded that Japan abolish the public prostitution system.

Figure | The first comfort facility "Yasuura House" opened

The Japanese government has been forced to revise the regulations several times due to internal and external pressure. In November 1946, the Japanese government ordered the abolition of public prostitution and the prohibition of prostitution, but at the same time designated a "special restaurant" area, and women who picked up customers at special restaurants were allowed to engage in the sex trade. These areas are circled by the police in red on the map, so they are also called "red line areas", or "red light districts". According to statistics, in 1956, there were more than 50,000 women selling sex in the red light district.

In 1956, thanks to the efforts of female parliamentarians and women's groups, the Japanese government enacted the Law on the Prevention of Sex Trafficking, which was the first law in Japan to prohibit the sex trade. According to the law, the act of selling prostitution damages the dignity of the human being, violates sexual morality, and undermines the good customs of society. The promulgation of the Law on the Prevention of Prostitution made Japan a country where sex trafficking is legally prohibited.

However, on the basis of the existence of the "Law on the Prevention of Sexual Sales", Japan has enacted the "Custom Business Law", which regulates and regulates the "sex industry", and lists the erotic industry related to "sex" as the object of legal protection. According to Japan's current Custom Business Law, the act of picking up customers in a private room in response to their sexual curiosity about the opposite sex is considered a legitimate job.

As a result, custom shops can provide a variety of pornographic services beyond the traditional sense of "penis-vaginal sex" within the scope of the law. Serving guests of the opposite sex in a single bathroom, sexual contact services, striptease shows, love hotels, pornographic videos, etc., are all duly protected by law. Conflicting laws have left room for the Japanese custom industry to survive, and the various "custom industries" created in the market with "sex" as an incentive have become a huge industrial chain.

"Nasty old man", suspended sexual needs

 "Downgraded elderly" is a concept proposed by Japanese social activist Takanori Fujita in 2015, which refers to the elderly who have a living standard close to the standard of living allowance (income below the median equivalent disposable income).

The underprivileged elderly live in poverty, do not have access to adequate food, are unable to pay for medical care, have no one to rely on, are in a state of social isolation, and often end their lives in their apartments. According to Fujita's statistics, the number of indecent elderly people in Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the country's elderly population over 65 years old.

Figure | Screenshot of the documentary "The Lump Generation, the Quietly Imminent Bankruptcy of Old Age".

Despite the difficulty of making a living, the "nasty elderly" still have a thirst for sex, and they live on annuities after retirement, often addressing their unmet sexual needs through inexpensive adult films.

For older people, regular, ethical sex often takes place in a marital relationship. In addition to providing legal sexual conditions for the elderly, marriage can also provide a sense of stability in the company of others. Among Japanese men in their 60s and 70s, many are starting to join the marriage market, looking for women younger than themselves who can take care of their old age. However, many older men are completely incapable of cleaning, laundry, cooking, or even changing clothes on their own.

Takanori Fujita writes in his book "The Dirty Old Man" that elderly women can get by with only 150,000 yen a month, but for older men, this is almost hopeless. In particular, older men who are older than the clumpy generation (the generation born between 1947 and 1949) have an eye-popping difference in their ability to take care of themselves. Hardly any of the women want to be used as caregivers or nannies for older men, and it is difficult to succeed unless the men are very financially wealthy. Once the age of 50 is over, the likelihood of middle-aged or older people marrying or remarrying drops to 9%. For most single men aged 65 and above, getting married or remarrying is not an easy task.

As the number of mature divorces that have been lived together for more than 20 years is increasing year by year, there are more and more elderly people living alone due to widowhood in Japan. The sexual needs of these elderly people are also suspended waiting for catharsis.

For the elderly who are financially constrained, it is not realistic to go to a custom store to spend. Those who have the financial resources to consume custom services are limited to the "upper class elderly" who are financially rich or well-off. Due to the weak spending power of most of the elderly, there are not many custom shops dedicated to the elderly group.

In social clubs, the number of male members over the age of 70 is much lower than that of other age groups. In the face of high prices, most of the ordinary old people and "indecent old people" can only give up their obsession with real customs services.

The annual sales of adult films in Japan are $20 billion, of which "mature AV" accounts for a quarter of the entire market. The actresses of "Mature AV" are between 30 and 80 years old. Middle-aged and older men are the main audience for "mature AV". As Japan's society is aging, the market size of "mature AV" is also expanding.

In Japan, there are quite a few companies that specialize in making adult movies for "super mature women" over the age of 50. AV actress Maori Teizuka used to be an opera singer who started shooting adult movies at the age of 71 and worked in the industry for ten years before retiring at the age of 80 and is a celebrity in the industry. Yuko Ogasawara, the world's oldest active AV actress, entered the AV industry at the age of 81 and now has 7 years of shooting experience.

In the twilight of life, many elderly people are widowed, divorced, and living alone, and the love of the elderly is not concerned, and the exchange of information and the outside world is very scarce, and their sexual loneliness is more profound than that of people of other ages.

Many of the elderly Japanese who were born in the Showa era do not know how to use the Internet. They get adult movies by renting DVDs, ordering from mail-order companies, and watching them in private room video stores.

Private rooms and video stores are located in the large and small streets of Japan, and they are open 24 hours a day, all year round. Adult movie DVDs are on display on the shelves of the store, and customers can choose their favorite DVDs and watch them in the private rooms on the second floor. Some shops have a discount course in the morning, which costs about 1,000 yen for 3 hours. Compared to renting DVDs, you can watch unlimited new adult movies in a private room, which is more affordable. Most of the consumers are men, in addition to office workers in suits, students with glasses, and many seniors in their 6s and 70s.

Many elderly men go to DVD rental shops to find adult movies.

In the era of rapid development of the Internet, online erotic trading networks have become a lifesaver for the sexual needs of the elderly in Japan.

AV actress Tsubaki Kanda once received a letter from an 84-year-old male fan. In the letter, the man stated that he liked a work starring Tsubaki Kanda. His wife, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, began to live a vicious life, and the couple's sex life was interrupted. He was physically weak, but his feelings for women were undiminished.

Tsubaki Kanda's work was no longer available for purchase, so he rented it for 100 yen a week at a rental shop.

Old age and frailty, immobility and unquenched sexual needs are the helplessness of many elderly Japanese men. At least, for a long time to come, there will still be many elderly men in Japan who will need to find their own way to meet these unmet needs. 

*bibliography

Sex and the Super-Aging Society, Shingo Sakazume, NHK, 2017

Sex in the elderly, Misato Nakayama, Fusosha, 2024

The Disease of Customs, Shinya Yamamoto, Gentosha, 2016

The Old Man Downstream, Takanori Fujita, The Asahi Shimbun, 2015

"AV for seniors" is growing rapidly in Japan, newspicks,2024

Reiwa 5th edition of the White Paper on Aging Society, Cabinet Office website, 2023

Reiwa 4th Year Basic Survey on National Living Conditions, e-stat, 2022

The Chrysanthemum and the Knife, translated by Ruth Benedict and Lu Wanhe, The Commercial Press, 1996

Zhang Yuxin, Ouyang Jing.Correlation of social participation in the health status of elderly HIV/AIDS patients.Chinese Journal of Public Health Management, 2023

Li Min, On Japan's Customs Industry, Foreign Studies, 2014

Si Juan, Analysis of Japanese Mythology from a Cultural Perspective, Journal of Jinan Vocational College, 2012

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Written by Guo Jiaqi

Editor|Wen Lihong

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