Asia After Hours

“It was five or six years ago that I first began to notice more elderly men were going to soaplands,” the unnamed artist, a resident of Tokyo’s former licensed brothel quarters for over half a century, tells Sunday Mainichi (Jan. 29). “At one shop near Ueno, I’d say about 60 percent of the customers are seniors.

“Once reaching the age where their members go soft, men in their 60s can still enjoy stimulating gals with their fingers and tongues,” the artist adds. “They pray to the god of the vagina. Just according it worship is enough to give them peace of mind.”

Kazuo Hoshino, manager of a fashion health massage shop, says his oldest regular client is 85, and he gets plenty of business from men in their 60s and 70s.

“There are those who enjoy ejaculating, and others who are just content to have a drink with a gal or take a bath together,” he says. “Some just take a bath and go home. That’s enough to satisfy any sexual urges that’s built up.”

At an apartment 10 minutes from Takadanobaba Station, seven women await customers. The standard rate is 18,000 yen for 60 minutes and 25,000 for 90 minutes. The prices haven’t changed since 2000.

“We absolutely don’t permit honban (intercourse) here,” says Hoshino. “I suppose the older guys are under less pressure. The system is only by reservation, so they are not made to feel uncomfortable by having to sit beside smug younger guys in the waiting room.”

“My customers are all gentlemen, who don’t try to force me to do things,” says one of the masseuses, a 36-year-old named Madoka. “I was laid off my regular job after last year’s nuclear power plant accident, and was worried that working in the sex industry would be rough, but the customers here are nice to me.”

Hoshino’s “box-type” shop faces increasing competition from deri heru out-call services, which, according to a 2011 National Police Agency white paper (pdf) on adult-entertainment businesses, nearly doubled in number from 8,936 in 2006 to 15,889 four years later.

One such business, named “Four-leaf Clover,” caters to customers from age 60 to 75. Among the services it offers is a “platonic course” for which customers pay 20,000 for two hours, during which the woman will accompany the client for a meal or to the cinema. Those on a tighter budget can opt for the 60-minute “calm down” course at 12,000 yen, which includes a hand job.

“Many customers opt for the platonic course and then afterwards extend for an additional hour with our “health course,” for 18,000 yen,” Takehiko Umeda, the manager, tells the magazine.

One 75-year-old widower is said to be fond of watching adult videos, during which time the lady will fondle his penis and murmur sweet nothings in his ear.

“I’m skeptical that people lose interest in sex as they become older,” says Umeda. “What will do it is sheer day-to-day boredom. With a change of pace and some stimulation, those old fellas will pep up.”

“Men who are now in their 60s were in their 20s and 30s during the 1970s and 80s, when sex in Japan became much more open,” says Kayoko Kageyama, author of a book titled “Sex, Media, and the Sex Business.” “As long as age is no impediment, it shouldn’t be surprising that they patronize sex businesses.” (K.S.)

Source: “Koreisha to fuzoku saishin jijo,” Sunday Mainichi (Jan. 29, page 26)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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It’s kind of hard to ignore a 36-point headline emblazoned with the words “Men’s Nipples.” Why has Sunday Mainichi (Sept. 12) chosen to raise this heretofore largely ignored topic? “Many women,” it writes, “take an interest in men’s nipples that protrude through their linen shirts or polo shirts. Rather than men’s backs, we’re in an era when men’s nipples are discussed.”

“I was in a beer garden the other day. The nipples of the man at my table were poking through his polo shirt, and I couldn’t get my mind off them!” pants Mika Naito, a 39-year-old author of erotic fiction.

Naito says she is particularly turned on by the “fresh” nipples of young acting hunk Haruma Miura, age 20.

An unnamed female journalist is quoted as saying she likes big, dark ones. “Because I feel more secure when I’m with someone with the same color and shape as mine,” she explains. “A guy with little nipples is also a little man in other ways,” she adds.

The above are by no means isolated instances. When essayist Sachiko Ikeno asked 100 girls in their 20s working in Tokyo if they had any interest in men’s nipples, 57 replied that they did, and 77 conceded they liked men to have “nice nipples.” Other remarks were offered concerning the degree of hairiness and one gal’s amazement when discovering that a certain gentleman’s nipples were inverted.

“I was surprised by the large number of women who say they’re interested in men’s nipples,” Ikeno says. “This may be evidence that more barriers between human males and females are disappearing.”

One 28-year-old survey participant working for a manufacture of pharmaceuticals complained that the sight of a male co-worker with nipples visibly poking through his shirt distracted her to the point that she “couldn’t get any work done.”

Authoress Naito remarked that she uses different descriptions of men’s nipples to indicate whether they’re slobs or narcissistic fops.

The next astonishing bit of information served up by Sunday Mainichi is that more men are undergoing cosmetic surgery to make their nipples smaller. Tatsuro Kamakura, who oversees a chain of eight surgical clinics in around the nation, says he performed 17 boob jobs on men last year, and this year (as of end-August) he’s up to 10 already.

“Nearly all of them want smaller nipples,” says Kamakura. “Sometimes men are embarrassed when their children tell them, ‘Daddy, your boobs look just like mom’s!’”

The article also takes up the uplifting topic of brassieres for men, which was previously featured in this column.

Naito even goes so far as to predict that based on the rising number of herbivorous males in their 20s, it’s only a matter of time before some fashion house introduces bikinis for men.

“It would direct women’s attention toward men’s’ breasts as an erogenous zone,” says Naito with an approving nod. (K.S.)

Source: “Onna ga sono ki ni naru otoko no chikubi,” Sunday Mainichi (Sep. 12, page 134)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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