Women of the Orient. Boye Lafayette De Mente
girls could enhance both their economic and social position by becoming the mistresses of men of standing. Poor girls with beauty and brains who became professional courtesans often became popular heroines, sought after both as mistresses and wives by the most powerful and respected men of their times.
Thus for centuries Japanese women lived in a society in which commercial sex for pleasure was an accepted, prominent feature of daily life. Most of the social life of the illustrious Tokugawa reign from 1603 until 1868 centered around elaborate red-light districts and assignation houses which abounded in the country. The most famous sex district was the Yoshiwara in Edo (Tokyo), a walled city within a city devoted entirely to sensual pleasures.
Then in the 1870s reform-minded Japanese leaders came under the influence of Western missionaries and moralists. At the same time, these leaders learned that in America and some European countries the legal sanction of red-light districts and extramarital sex was considered scandalous. Anxious to make a good impression on the Western powers, the new Japanese government quickly stripped professional courtesans of respectability and reduced them to the lowest social order. The practice of mistress-keeping became more or less a sub rosa affair. The attitude of the ordinary Japanese toward sex was not significantly changed by these developments, but the influence of Western-oriented reformers—mostly women—gradually grew until in 1956 they prevailed upon the government to make the practice of prostitution illegal. The ruling went into effect on April 1 (Fool's Day) in 1957.
Since 1945 there have been many changes in the way women in Japan regard extra-marital sex. Many wives, particularly younger ones, no longer approve, tacitly or otherwise, of their husbands engaging in sex with other women anytime the whim strikes them. Some take the drastic step of divorcing unfaithful husbands, something which was almost unthinkable in feudal Japan. The attitude of most unmarried girls has also changed considerably. In former times, girls were often forced by economic expediency and precedence to engage in prostitution. During those times engaging in sex for pay was a last-resort measure for most girls who did it, but it was an accepted occupation nevertheless.
Nowadays there are very few if any girls in Japan who are forced by economic pressure to engage in prostitution, although large numbers choose to do so because it is an easy way to make a high income. Most of those who do engage in professional prostitution are employed in the entertainment trades as cabaret hostesses, geisha, and bathhouse masseuses. The significant change is in the large number of young girls from all classes who regularly engage in premarital sex for reasons of pleasure, convenience, or just plain curiosity. More importantly, few Japanese girls are inactive because they believe premarital sex is wrong. Many want to save themselves for their future husbands simply because they know men still prefer to marry virgins, and they are anxious to make good marriages. But if the average Japanese girl in any class or category is subjected to the attentions of a determined lover her resistance is very low.
In a remarkable demonstration of their pragmatic approach to sex, many nonvirgin girls now have their "virginity" replaced by plastic surgery. According to a report by a Tokyo doctor, tens of thousands of ex-hostesses and mistresses have had new hymens built in to wipe out their past, enhance their marriage prospects and "start married life off on the right foot." Foreign women have been flocking to Tokyo for years to have their busts and faces rejuvenated. It seems safe to predict that this new made-in-Japan product may become just as popular as cameras, pearls, and bust-repairing.
When the hymen-replacement operation was first developed in the early 1960s the cost for local girls was only 10,000 yen ($28.78), and girls who had the operation were known as "10,000-yen virgins," or jinko shojo. Now, of course, the operation is much more expensive.
Japanese girls tend to look upon sex as a natural human function subject only to the arbitrary rules and whims of society. As a result of this attitude, they are not bothered by inhibitions arising from fear of divine displeasure or future punishment. On the contrary, there is a strong belief among both Japanese men and women that it is harmful for people (especially men!) to be deprived of regular sexual activity. Japanese folklore points out in no uncertain terms that most of the psychological problems women have are a direct result of too little sexual release.
For their own part, Japanese women readily agree that men need and should have regular sexual intercourse. Until the beginning of the modern era, it was the official Japanese government attitude that prostitutes performed an important service to society by providing bachelors and married men away from home with regular sexual outlets.
Earlier, Japanese wives often preferred not to have intercourse with their husbands during pregnancy. Most of the women who followed this custom expected, and some of them encouraged, their husbands to go out and enjoy themselves with professional women during the period of time they were cut off at home. When a wife saw her husband off on such an occasion, she would sometimes laughingly say, "Don't bring anything home!"
Not being burdened by religious taboos concerning sex or any religious-inspired belief that the act is holy, Japanese girls are able to engage in sex without undergoing any agonizing soul-searching or suffering from guilt complexes.
Until the advent of the Kinsey-Masters-Johnson era in the United States, no people were more interested in their own sexual practices than the Japanese. More than a thousand years ago, Japanese novelists (mostly women) were recording in careful detail the courting and mating customs of their times. Contemporary novelists, magazine writers, and social scientists have continued this popular tradition. As a result of this custom, there is a constantly growing mass of data on the sexual attitudes and practices of the Japanese.
One of the more interesting factors brought out by these studies is the complete naturalness with which Japanese girls regard sex, and their lack of inhibitions stemming from social taboos. To them there is no right or wrong way to engage in sex. Whatever the partners find pleasing is right, and they are willing to experiment to find out what is pleasing. When Western men are confronted by this attitude, they are apt to go overboard in their admiration for life in Japan.
Sex in Japan has long been accepted as an art requiring special skill to perform properly, and there has been considerable effort to raise it to an artistic level. Today instruction in the practice of sex is big business. Anyone who can read can become an authority on the theory and practice of sex just by keeping up with two or three of the more popular women's and young girls' magazines.
Beginning in the early 1960s, many publications aimed at women began emphasizing sex education in wall-to-wall stereo, you might say. One feature in a magazine called Josei Jishin (Young Girl Confidential), for example, was a long special section showing its readers in elaborate detail how to sexually excite men and how to perform coitus in the most satisfying manner.
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