9/22/2007

One of our regular readers of 3Yen, Bizarrejapan, posted this interesting-if-a-bit-baudy YouTube video of the BBC documentary program “Sex In Japan” . Of course, you may find its content notsafeforwork, but what is perhaps less safe about it are some of the BBC’s repeating ridiculous myths/urban legends such as 30% of Japanese high school girls are involved in enjo kosei—compensated dating* or that Japan “invented” bondage.**

*As loose as Japanese high school girls may want to be, such a large percentage as 30% simply don’t have the free time to escape their studies to engage in prostitution. The absurd figure of 30% engaged in prostitution was reported in a single super-sleazy tabloid newspaper—it was not a scientific study. A more realistic figure for enjo kosei—prostitution would be 5-8% have tried it a few times.
**The claim the Japan “invented” bondage is just silly. The Japanese have been fond of rope bondage such as erotic of shibari, which was in turn developed from the now-defunct Japanese police/military restraint techniques of hojōjutsu from the 1700s. However, The Greeks had forms of bondage play 3,000 years ago and of course the novel “Fanny Hill,” published in 1749, has a flagellation scene (meaning it was a practice in that period).