Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Market volatility plagues us all – corporations, small businesses, investors, consumers, mistresses, mistress-brokers. The “English shock” – the stock market tumble following Britain’s vote to exit the European Union – reminds us, if reminders are needed, how unstable a foundation our financial resources rest on.
It’s the mistresses and mistress-brokers that interest Spa! (July 12). They too are in something of an “English shock,” the term here being not political but merely a measure of the intensity of the recent fall of their market value.
Why should their market value be falling? Because, says the magazine, sexual encounters are so easy. Online, encounter sites abound, with apps to steer you to ones that meet your specs. Offline, there are “encounter cafes.” As for women shrewdly aware of the economic potential of sex over more mundane occupations, there’s nothing new there, although perhaps the spreading gap between their expanding educational qualifications and the narrow career options open to them in this most conservative of societies has sharpened that awareness beyond anything in past experience.
Who needs middle men to inflate the price? Here’s “Mika” with her insights into how things work. She’s 26 and does part-time office work, no full-time positions having been available. “No matter how hard I work,” she says, “the best I can earn is less than 200,000 yen a month.”
It’s not much. A year ago a friend dropped in for tea and spoke of a turn her own life had taken. Meeting three clients a month, her earnings topped Mika’s. “I thought, ‘Why not me?’” Miku tells Spa!
She put a notice up on the encounter site PCMAX, not mentioning a price, just saying she was available. Would anyone respond?
Indeed someone did – a man introducing himself as a company president and proposing terms of 300,000 yen a month. She agreed, but two hours before their first meeting, he got in touch to say he’d been called away to an urgent business meeting – could he send a subordinate in his place? Why not? Miku replied.
The subordinate proved to be a man in his 40s, “a perfectly ordinary salaryman-type,” nice enough if not dashing. They went to a modest wine bar, broke the ice, found they liked each other, and later, when the man said he only had 50,000 yen on him, Miku shrugged tolerantly. “You’ll pay the rest next time,” she said.
Actually, he didn’t. A company president has money to throw around, a rank-and-filer does not. The man’s circumstances are tight, and he has, apparently, sick parents to care for. But Miku does not complain. She continues to see him regularly, and enjoys his company. The president would have been more lucrative, but maybe less congenial. And what of the president? Miku never heard from him again.
“Mr Sugiyama” is a 43-year-old salaryman – not Miku’s friend, but perhaps a man of the same general description. He has three contract mistresses – a college student, a sales woman and an OL – having met them either at online encounter sites or at encounter cafes. He’s having a fine time, without sacrificing economy, he tells Spa! At first, the contract arrangement with each was 30,000 a month, but as time passed they modified the agreements to the convenience of all parties – instead of a monthly fee, 15,000 yen per encounter, each rendezvous taking place at a set time each month. And instead of a love hotel, they meet at the woman’s apartment, using the money saved for dinner and drinks. Altogether, his relationship with the three of them costs Sugiyama around 60,000 yen a month.
“Once,” he smiles, “I said to one of them, ‘We get on so well, why not tear up the contract and just be sex friends?’ She laughed and was as friendly as ever, but the reply was, ‘No way!’”
© Japan Today
54 Comments
Login to comment
Romulo Mangahas
wOW !
Yubaru
Like it or not, call it what you want, but it's still prostitution.
Which probably means you have no skills or training. And figured out that while you are still young you can get cash the old fashioned way.
kurisupisu
Why not help out Japan's vast numbers of females looking for help?
No problem!
Mike L
‘We get on so well, why not tear up the contract and just be sex friends?'
Why not go out and find a girl who'd be happy with that kind of relationship?
cwhite
Cheap prostitution at best. She should just acknowledge that is what it is or perhaps she already does. I doubt she pays taxes. My interest is the contract template. Anyone got a sample?
5SpeedRacer5
I think this "mistress market" is just a euphemism for "self-respect market."
Anyone who says that 200,000 yen per month is just not enough to live a respectable life with is really saying that the money is more important than personal dignity. But really more than that, it is clear that this person resents the fact that she has to work instead of just having sex with someone and showing contrived affection.
Patently, the person is lazy, false, unscrupulous, and willing to be a fraud day in and day out. On that basis, I would not give her a red cent for her self-respect. The going rate is zero, honey.
One more observation I should crowd in here. This woman was scammed. A businessman called her and offered her 300,000 per month to be his everything buddy. She said YES to meeting him on that basis. The businessman has already destroyed her dignity, so he knows that he can just send his less attractive friend in his place. He knows she will accept him because she has already surrendered. AND SHE DOES. And then this customer pesters her for freebies. What a wonderful bunch of people. Every one of them oozes odious slime. Which one is the worst? Hard to tell frankly.
And yet the article makes her sound like an empowered feminist hero. She is free from the corporate grind and making things happen on her own. Yay. She sold her whole life out for about 50,000 a month instead of selling eight hours a day for 200,000.
Who would knowingly let their daughter do this? The same person who taught her these values and this math, I guess.
gaijinfo
Wow, what a surprise. As the economy worsens, prostitution picks up.
Been happening like this since the dawn of time.
Alex Einz
15000 per encounter, thats kinda cheap isnt it... and prostitution is prostitution, doesnt matter how you paint it.
commanteer
OK guys, we get it. You are all morally upright wonderful people, while these women are cheap prostitutes who don't deserve any respect or consideration. Did I get that right? Or was there some other point you were trying to make?
kawabegawa198
Prostitution like this is rampant in Japan, especially amongst good-looking college girls.
Yubaru
What daughter do you know that would even tell her parents they were doing this? Don't blame the parents for a woman who makes her own decisions. Sounds to me like you are the type of person or parent who wants control and not teach freedom and responsible decision making.
You still tied to your parents navel?
Harry_Gatto
Seems a little like avoiding the costs and responsibilities associated with owning a car by just renting one as and when you need it..
Alex Einz
dear commanteer, the point is not painting this in some positive life, but say it as it is, life is tough especially for people that make bad education choices and not good enough at their normal job so they become prostitutes to make ends meet and afford that gucci wallet .... there are enough men that are willing to pay for no strings attached encounters so that demand is there. Instead this article seem to encourage selling your body for cheap ( 150 usd .. is cheap for a non junkie escort )
Jamie Lunel
It's better when you have a "lesson" with a student, they pay you and then you shag.
As Robin Hood and his Merrymen in Shrek said, I like to get... paid.
Yubaru
What person would even think that their "daughter" at that age would be telling their parents they are hooking for extra cash?
inkochi
The whole article is a laugh, sexploitation not withstanding. The biggest laugh is at the start where the writers unwittingly and implicitly place the cause of the 'mstress market' phenomenon at the feet of the Brexit vote!
commanteer
I don't see where the article implies that it's positive. Either way, the women described here aren't forced into these circumstances. There is a whole class of "prostitutes" that do it almost as a hobby business. I wouldn't want my daughter to do it, no reasonable father would. But there are many women who do this with few regrets. Just as there is no call to paint it in a positive light, there's no call to paint it as something especially dismal either.
The women in this article are old enough to know what they want, and they have a willing partner. I don't see the problem. Japanese are more inclined to separate sex and emotional attachment than many other nationals. It is what it is.
smithinjapan
Oldest occupation in the world.
commanteer
Just to add to earlier. I don't want my kids to engage in recreational drug use either. But if JT prints an article on young professionals getting into marijuana, I am not about to jump in and say "call them what they are... drugs addicts."
As with prostitution, there are many degrees that make all the difference.
smithinjapan
commanteer: "It is what it is."
Yes, it's sex for money; aka prostitution. Whether you consider that positive or negative or in between is up to you. Doesn't change what it is, as you said.
"But if JT prints an article on young professionals getting into marijuana, I am not about to jump in and say "call them what they are... drugs addicts."
Stupid analogy; they're only drug addicts if they can't step. No one is calling these women (or men who do the same) sex addicts. You could call them drug 'users', same as people who take regular meds, and technically you wouldn't be wrong. "Drug addicts" would be, though.
Yubaru
Which is one of the reasons why she could never find a job or jobs that paid more than 200K per month. I think it's safe to say that she isn't the brightest young woman walking around.
Rather easy to please, thinking to get 300K and settling for 50K.
commanteer
That's very disingenuous. It is obviously being used in the comments I cited as derogatory.
Now you are parsing words and getting into degrees of difference as to usage (the vaguely defined scale from habitual use to addiction), which is exactly my point. There's a difference between a woman who dates a guy because he is rich and a $5 streetwallker - and there are differences between the women in this article and the image that some are trying to paint them with by insisting on specifically calling them prostitutes.
Alex Einz
and you wrong again, the girls dont date rich guy.. 15000Y per encounter aint expensive, rather on the lower scale of a call girl
Yubaru
Did you even read the article?
smithinjapan
commanteer: "There's a difference between a woman who dates a guy because he is rich and a $5 streetwallker"
The difference is in class, not in what they do. They are both still prostitutes, regardless of how you try and manipulate it as though one is above the other. The fact they are selling their bodies does not change because of how much they charge. It is YOU who is being derogatory with the 'streetwalker' comment, not me. I have not said anything negative about the woman or women like her at all; just pointed out the fact that it's prostitution. In fact I have nothing wrong with prostitutes or prostitution so long as it is the person's choice, and does not harm anyone.
"That's very disingenuous. It is obviously being used in the comments I cited as derogatory."
It doesn't matter how you view it: it's still sex for money and therefore prostitution. But just in case you're not sure, please tell us the definition of prostitute. Ah, I'll save you the trouble: "prostitute (n): a person who has sex with someone for money"
Notice how it does not say "only if one is poor, and only for a pittance".
Next you'll be telling us this woman's poop doesn't stink because she does it in an expensive apartment.
Back to your silly analogy again, smoking grass is smoking grass; doesn't matter if you're addicted or trying it for the first time. So, quit with the "you're parsing words", and "you're being disingenuous" stuff when you are saying a spade is not a spade if it's classy or expensive, or just for fun.
Ramzel
Yes, they are prostitutes.
itsonlyrocknroll
Well William Blake mused every harlot was a virgin once. Mistress market a paramour courtesanship to purify the obvious or odorous, depending on one's sense of perception.
How do men, who contribute to Japan Today, define marriage? or in fact any relationship. ...... Taking into account my favorite author, literary and poet Oscar Wilde assumption, Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.. When does bliss descend to boredom in the bedroom that one has to dribble, sorry dabble in the Mistress market
albaleo
Were you expecting the same definition for marriage and other relationships?
Seeing as you mentioned Oscar Wilde, I wonder what Yukio Mishima would have thought of the notion. He said something along the lines that under the ethics of a samurai, looking the part was more important than being the part. And so I ask myself, do I look like the kind of person who has a mistress?
On the other hand, my high school English teacher defined a mistress as "something between a mister and a mattress".
The Womp
What a nice article about straight prostitution.
Outrider
prostitutes.
Tim_Fox
I'm not really seeing the hard data in this article to back the headlines claim that the mistress market is expanding in these hard times.
itsonlyrocknroll
Hi albaleo, Not sure, to be honest, I view marriage as a union for life. A relationship is a non binding association so correctly there is a difference.Sometime colleagues introduce there boyfriends as partners, which I find amusing. I always ask why? If one decides to commit one heart to a union for life, to seek the comfort of a mistress is a act of betrayal which probably sounds naive.
Fre Okin
Obviously Abenomics have failed. The third arrow went limped. Better for him to give dignity to these women by printing special restrictive use money that allow them to spend with dignity. Just allocate special fund to give dignity to these women. It's a social safety net, Abenomics with a heart. They will still spend like in other situation and will stimulate the economy just as effectively!
commanteer
I never debated the meaning of the word "prostitute". I was simply asking why the commenters insisted on using that word in such a pointed and obviously derogatory manner, which you have chosen to pretend to ignore. Dictionary definitions are a diversion from the misogyny I was talking about.
And yet, with my words, you have no trouble finding the well-hidden derogatory intent! Very clever, though you will have to explain how what I said was derogatory.
No, that would likely depend more on diet. But don't take my word for it.
A spade is a spade, but a word can have many different meanings depending on the context and how it is being used. This is the point that you are choosing to argue against (or avoid), for whatever reason. It is odd that you maintain the pretence of seeing "nothing wrong with prostitutes or prostitution so long as it is the person's choice..." Yet you are defending the use of a word in a context that is implicitly meant to be very judgemental towards these women.
talaraedokko
Bait and switch.
Asakaze
Wow, what an inventive journalism!! Give the oldest occupation a new name ("mistress market"), a new reason (Brexit or a failure of Abenomics), and here you are - women sell sex, what a surprise. Spa! at its usual low.
Kujok007
The basic problem with this is that those Japanese women only thrive on "brand name " for showing off around how successful they are it is really sad to see that come from social pressure it's same for men in a different way. I personally know a woman that wasn't working and was buying expensive pieces of clothing to her kids just to show off... the husband had to work close to 70 hours a week in another city being able to see his kids once a month so that SHE can buy those expensive pieces of clothing and more. When will they learn to live within their own means and to stop showing off...??? Another thing I also have noticed after a few trips there that the Japanese society is acting like spoiled little kids they want everything they don't want to be told no because it hurts their feelings and if their feelings are hurt then they run away and almost get into a depression... that country is just wonderful but its people has some big issues... and I don't say other countries don't have their own issues either but we're talking about Japan. For Miku sadly she fell in that issue of showing off big expensive brands to show a higher status to her surrounding so she decided to do prostitution to reach her goal...
bullfighter
Always good to see a posting here from someone who has thoroughly researched the subject and can speak authoritatively about it.
Meiyouwenti
‘>‘We get on so well, why not tear up the contract and just be sex friends?'
He had to find contract lovers because he couldn't find a real one in the first place.
goldorak
As soon as a 'mistress' seeks financial compensation she becomes a prostitute.
Nothing wrong with that but let's not romanticize what the girls in the article are: prossies.
loggediin
I love the expression of turning off the sex tap...that is why married men get a mistress. Just as sure as you will get old and wrinkly, a large number of couples will stop trying to solve problems ( leading to stagnation in the bedroom...) and why don't women want MY body? and they can pay me, too! ( cause it would be hard work...) Prostitution or whoring, right? What I wanna know is would men take it up the gazoo because they had to feed themselves? Obviously these women are not in it for the pleasure. they quite simply find an enormous market for selling their bodies. Again, as an occupation, how much would it have to pay for normal straight men to choose it? My point is the fact of being a woman does not make it easy to go down that path. Likewise a hetero can't easily say ' if the money was right, why not let him pump me? ( leaving aside for sake of argumentation the fact their is no market for gay men wanting to meet male hetero whores...)
inkochi
Actually, most of the comments are a laugh, from predictably a whole lot of people taking the moral highground defining what prostitution is on the one hand, and a select few who seem to have had or wish to have had the kinds of experiences reported in the article in the first place.
More please!
1glenn
I remember my college days here in the states. I was surprised to learn through a girl friend that a very attractive mutual friend, who was having trouble affording her college expenses, had taken up with a much older married man, about 35 to 40, who paid her expenses in exchange for you know what. She finished college, went on to become a teacher.
Not making any judgment, it is what it is, and as far as I know, it worked out OK for her. She was very nice as well as very pretty, and I am glad that she was able to get a degree and a good job.
albaleo
@itsonlyrocknroll,
I don't think sounding or even being naive is a bad thing. It's kind of refreshing. I listened to some old Bob Dylan songs on YouTube today. My wife's face on hearing them suggested betrayal or worse, but I held out with my naivety. The dog house for a week ain't so bad.
lostrune2
Pictures, or these didn't happen! lol
itsonlyrocknroll
Hi albaleo, I take comfort from my parents relationship, sometime fraught. they can argue if the lights on or off. They have been a inspiration, and also a reason why I have been unable to share both emotionally, and ultimately, find a boyfriend/husband that I can forego the need to pursue a life of selfish independence. I don't know I could bear the humiliation of a Husband that felt the need to consult a mistress. Fundamentally I would have failed to be a wife that could thrill and retain the attention of my Husband.
albaleo
I can assure you that after 30 years of living together, the thrills come in different ways. When you get over the humiliation of leaving a floater in the toilet, everything is possible.
fds
it all get's paid for one way or another so...
Fadamor
LOL. Somebody's puritanical knickers are in a bind. Rest easy because "Honey" isn't asking for your red cent - and certainly not for her self-respect. As for all the adjectives you heaped on her, how is operating on a contract that spells out the relationship "false" or being a "fraud"? Unscrupulous? Based on what? Someone in that business without scruples would take the money and run. While I'm sure your religious beliefs require monogamy to the hilt, just remember that ALL the Abrahamic religions subscribe to the believe that humanity was created (after the first four) by the most massive occurrence of serial incest on record.
BigCeltic1977
Why buy when you can rent?
Jason Lovelace
Enjo Kosai, only at older ages and with the males now getting paid, as well.
badman
Even at those rates, with my virility I'd go broke. Marriage and a beautiful, loving wife who shares my mutual physical attraction and can keep up in bed is much more affordable. Not to mention emotionally satisfying. Who wants to have sex with someone you had to bribe to feign attraction?