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| "DAWN" Newsletter of The DAWN CENTER |
| < Japanese Women Seen through Data > |
| "Enjo-Kousai" and Attitudes toward Sex among Female High School
Students in Japan |
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| Yoko Amakawa |
The term "enjo-kousai" (compensated date) is used to
refer to relationships in which female junior and senior high school students,
by using the matching up services such as "telephone clubs," find a
date or engage in sexual activities with adult men in exchange for money. "Enjo-kousai"
became recognizable in society in the 1990's, and the phrase first appeared in
the 1995 edition of Fundamental Knowledge of Current Usage of Japanese published
by Jiyuu Kokuminsha, to denote this phenomenon occurring among young women.
This article introduces data regarding attitudes toward sex and activities of
today's female high school students focusing on "enjo kousai."
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| Sources: |
| 1. |
Report on High School Students' Attitudes toward Life and Their Current Situation
Published by Life and Culture Department of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 1996
|
| 2. |
Monograph: High School Students '98 Vol.52 "Enjo-kousai", Published
by Benesse Education Institute, 1998 |
| 3. |
An Analytical Study on the Causes of and Attitudes toward "Enjo-kousai"
among Female High School Students in Japan (Based on The Survey on Living Environments
of High School Students) Published by Asian Women's Fund, 1998 |
|
| [1] Experience of "enjo-kousai" |
In report No.1, conducted by Tokyo Metropolitan Government in
1996 with high school students living in metropolitan areas, 3.5 percent of female
junior high school students and 4.4 percent of female senior high school students
answered that they had some kind of experience with "enjo-kousai." As
to survey No.2, conducted with students in general courses of public high schools
in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture in 1997, the percentage goes up with their year
in school; 3.8 percent of the female second year high school students experienced
"enjo- kousai" more than once, while for third year students the rate
increases to 5.1percent, which reveals that more students get involved in "enjo-kousai"
as they go on to upper grades. In survey No.3, in which 600 female high school
students living in metropolitan areas were selected at random and interviewed
in 1997, the percentage of specific experience of "enjo-kousai" is as
follows (Graph A).
|
| Graph A: |
| Experience of "enjo-kousai" (among 600 students) |
|
| [2] Resistance to engage in "enjo-kousai" |
The resistance to "enjo-kousai" varies as to what type
of activities they engage in. Survey No.2 asked specific questions. The answers
are shown in graphs B and C. In either case, most of the male customers expected
sexual relationships and tried to have sex with them. However, the girls seldom
regarded "enjo-kousai" as prostitution when it did not involve sexual
activities.
|
| Graph B: |
| If your friend said to you, "You can earn ten thousand yen if you have
dinner with a middle-aged man at a restaurant," what would you do? |
| Graph C: |
| A man promised to only talk and have dinner with you, but after that he said
to you, "If you go to a hotel with me, I will give you fifty thousand yen
in addition." What would you do? |
|
| [3] Awareness of gender equality and "enjo-kousai" |
Survey No. 3, conducted in 1997, investigated the differences
of awareness toward gender discrimination between those who had strong resistance
to "enjo-kousai" and those who had little resistance. The results show
that the latter group, or the girls who had some experience of "enjo-kousai,"
were more strongly conscious of gender distinction: they felt that women were
not as capable as men by nature.
Female high school students, although they sometimes express complaints about
gender discrimination personally, have little social perception of the need to
tackle and change it. The result shown in graph D illustrates the misconception
held by many people that the girl chooses a companion and has an equal relationship
with him in "enjo-kousai." While this view is wide-spread, it is not
what the girls themselves think.
|
| Graph D: |
| Are there any innate differences in capability between men and women? |
|
| The term "enjo-kousai" often appears sensationally
in the mass media to depict a sexual phenomenon of today's female high school
students. The problem, however, lies in the social environment where the spread
of it has lowered the age of the girls targeted for prostitution in the sex industry,
and female junior and senior high school students are exploited as sexual objects.
What is now required of the society is to protect the human rights of those junior
and senior high school students, as children and women, and to help them acquire
self-esteem to live their future lives from a gender-free perspective. |
Copyright (C) 2007 DawnCenter. All Rights Reserved.
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