Why in Japan refuse traditional sex
A couple of months ago, the European public was shocked by the news that young people in Japan were massively rejecting sex - that is, in general. I was shocked, however, for a short while: they shook their heads at the phenomenon, like on hentai, and forgot. Meanwhile, in the collapse of online porn of Japanese production are increasingly found videos with scenes of violence against women. What is even worse is not always imitating it. We understand why sexual aggression progresses in one of the most developed and well-educated societies in the world, and also how modern media and centuries-old traditions are to blame.
On January 8 of this year, all Japanese police officers caught Utah Sugimoto, a 20-year-old woman suspected of gang rape and robbery, on Kawasaki Street. According to the police, Sugimoto escaped during interrogation, taking advantage of the carelessness of the officer looking after him. “It scares us terribly that he is still on the run,” said worried mothers. “Today I will lock the door more tightly,” the father of two young students echoed them in an interview with a local channel, which, like all other media, covered the chase around the clock. The case, which should not have become public, like most cases of rape in Japan, this time attracted the attention of the entire press and the police themselves: 4,000 police officers, 850 service vehicles, helicopters and dogs were searching for one escaped criminal, and the next day they found him. According to official statistics, Japan has one of the lowest levels of sexual offenses, and it seems that a massive interest in the runaway rapist should confirm this. But it is not.
In the culture of any country, sexual offenses are defined in terms of what goes beyond the normal. So what is considered normal sex in Japan, the country of victorious pornography and unbridled prostitution, which is still not legalized, but far from being condemned as in other civilized countries?
"You know, it does not seem normal for me to write an article about sex in other countries. I understand that many readers will find this interesting, but I think that each individual has his own way and that this is a very personal story," says a friend from Japan who takes me out of friends on facebook for a few minutes. I get about the same answer from three other acquaintances who had consistently laughed at all the sexist jokes and discussed the most obscene hentai daily. Seeming at first glance, hypocrisy, this behavior is normal for the Japanese. Japanese women are slightly more open, especially those who left the country about ten years ago. Satoko Asahi has been living in the USA since 2004 and says that “according to statistics, not all young people are interested in real sex, but this is not only technology’s fault. I believe that this is controlled by the media and society. In our Japanese media, even a new word has appeared "Neutral," meaning feminine men, as well as "herbivore men." Similar definitions, of course, change the usual idea of a man and a woman, as well as sex, and therefore lead to these weirdness in love. "
“Strangeness in love,” as well as a noticeable decline in youth’s interest in sex, were recorded in The Guardian. The article titled "Why did the youth of Japan stop having sex?" It made a lot of noise, because in it the former professional dominatrix spoke about Japanese celibacy, which was reassigned to a sex consultant. Among the reasons mentioned were financial (child support is expensive), career (women finally managed to build a career, and they want to consolidate the position) and technological (availability and prevalence of online pornography, sex toys and hentai). The article, however, almost does not mention the high level of violence in Japan’s media production, which supposedly averts women from sex, and gives men the opportunity to fantasize around the clock about the dark and, as a result, deprives them of the desire to have sex in real life. According to the Associated Press, about 20% of the entire mass of available pornography contain rape topics, and these numbers grow every year. Pornography seems so normal that Japanese men often read pornomang on trains, sitting next to women.
In pornographic manga, sex (even by mutual consent of the parties), as a rule, is an act against a woman, rather than an act of all participants in the process. When female characters manifest sexual desires on their own, they are often “rewarded” by a loss of interest or anger from male characters. Moreover, women in manga often enjoy pain and humiliation. Such a message to readers suggests that women should not express their sexual independence, but should enjoy the role of objects of aggressive male desire. Simply put, the pleasure of sex is primarily a man. Directly involved in creating ideas about sexuality in society, pornography and the prevalence of the sex industry translate the idea of "natural" male aggression. As the Japanese saying goes, "the character of a man should not be judged below the navel."
The annual report published by White Paper on Crime, which is freely available on the Internet, contains statistics on Japan. According to the report, the number of reported rape cases increases until 2003, but steadily decreases after. According to the alternative statistics of the research group of the Ministry of Justice of Japan, about 11% of women in Japan simply do not write statements because of the traditional Japanese society, in which the victim always provokes the rapist with his "loli" species. The reason lies in the Japanese legal system itself, in which there is an unspoken acceptance of one authentic story among all the stories about what happened.
"One by one, Japanese detectives are charming, loyal, hardworking, sincere, and very worthy people, but as an institution the Japanese police are arrogant and often incompetent," said Richard Perry, a British correspondent in Japan since 1995. Quite often, court decisions are not made on the basis of facts, but on the basis of the participants' stories according to their own interpretation of the events. When a subjective opinion is consistent with the dominant ideology and beliefs, it is most often regarded as an objective truth. Stories contradicting socially accepted agreements make narrators outcast. Therefore, there is more faith in the perpetrator than in the victim: she most likely enjoyed it.
This is hard to believe, but there is one vile history in confirmation of the customs prevailing in Japan (there were no such precedents anywhere in the world). Shinichiro Wada, a student at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, created the Super Free Club, one of the conditions for joining group gang rape. He allegedly raped about 500 women, after pumping them up with alcohol. Wada studied political economics and turned group rapes into a profitable business. He organized drunken parties in different clubs, attracting up to 2,000 participants, each of whom had to buy a ticket. After the party, about 100 attractive girls were transported to another club, where they were drinking. Then five or six drunken girls were selected: they were brought to the headquarters of Super Free and raped, taking pictures with a camera and making them smile at the camera. One of the detained rapists, Junichiro Kobayashi, advised the boyfriend of one of the victims to “look at these photos” and make sure that “everything happened by mutual consent”. Such "parties" spread to seven cities in Japan and included students from Keio, Meiji and Hosei universities. Despite the fact that Wada’s father expressed regret about his son’s actions and advised him to “gather courage and kill himself,” Japanese officials initially made strange statements.
Yasuo Fukuda, then Cabinet Chief Secretary and Minister for Gender Equality, said that "the problem is that many women dress defiantly" and are partly to blame for rape. Subsequently, Fukuda declared that his words were taken out of context and he "had in mind something completely different," but did not specify what it was. Waseda University responded in an interesting way: Super Free was dissolved, and an ad was posted to the students - "Any sex without consent is rape, and this is a serious crime. Do not be deceived by the stereotypical scenes of violence in dramas, comic books and videos!".
The story of the Super Free club shook up Japanese society and slightly raised the rate of rape claims. For the first time in a hundred years, Japanese law, which has not been revised since 1907, included a punishment for participation in mass rape. Japan, the world's foremost technology and aggregate of the world's main madness, has hopelessly lagged behind the rest of the world in matters of gender equality. Cruelty comics have become a conduit to the real world: a 17-year-old student who raped 31 women told the police that he was trying to recreate the scenes he had seen in pornographic magazines. Japanese youth massively refuses to have sex. It seems that this is the first community of the world, which just needs less to read and watch, and then, perhaps, sex will return to the country in which no one is humiliated, and good pink ponies rule the world. “Still, the blame for the lack of interest in sex lies entirely with the media. For example, can you explain why young Japanese women like to watch two gay people having sex?” Satoko asks. “I can't, but the media spread it as A new trend, and the whole society, as a rule, accepts it unequivocally. It turns out that we are just watching and fantasizing too much instead of just living. "
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