NGO warns of spread of 'enjo kosai' in Asia

May 5, 2004

Yoshimi Nagamine / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

In a recently published annual report, an international nongovernmental organization warned that "enjo kosai," or compensated dating, which has become a social problem in Japan, has been spreading in other Asian countries.

ECPAT International, a Bangkok-based network of organizations and individuals working to eliminate child prostitution, issued the warning in its 2002/03 report, "Implementation of the Agenda for Action against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children."

ECPAT--which stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes--comprises 71 organizations in 64 countries.

In 1996 in Stockholm, it held the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, in collaboration with the Swedish government and UNICEF.

The congress was instrumental in the establishment in Japan of a law outlawing child prostitution and child pornography.

The English-language report dedicated a chapter titled "The Phenomenon of Enjo Kosai" to the problem, explaining the term enjo kosai by saying "In Japan, it is a phenomenon that has been prevalent for more than a decade and which is typically found in classrooms and openly marketed."

The Japanese term has been exported by the media over the past several years to South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and China, where similar social phenomena have been spreading, the report said.

The report also explained that the term has a nuance implying that both the girls and adults are mutually benefited, as the girls have consensual sex with male adults in exchange for money and other rewards.

"The term itself is a misnomer...overlooking the predatory nature behind it," the report said.

Minors engaging in enjo kosai have common characteristics in all of the countries mentioned in the report.

The overwhelming majority of them are girls, and many of them are teenagers in families without any financial hardship.

The girls feel a deep sense of loneliness due to the collapse of family functions and lack of communication with their parents and pursue ties with others in a desperate effort to ease their loneliness.

According to research by Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, middle and high school boys from middle- or upper-class families are attracted to enjo kosai for the thrilling experience or easy money.

In South Korea, 222 girls aged 18 or younger were arrested for enjo kosai in 2000, and 63 percent of them were 16 or under.

Although South Korea enacted a law in 2000 to protect children from prostitution, the government has punished girls who engaged in enjo kosai, saying that children who willingly commit prostitution are not protected by the law.

Another common problem in Asian countries is that children, especially girls, who were once involved in enjo kosai face difficulty in returning to normal life as they are labeled "ill."

Though children who were forced into prostitution due to poverty are shown sympathy and protected, children who engaged in enjo kosai are targets of accusation as they have emphasized their sexual openness. In addition, no consideration is given to the mental health of such children, nor to the fact that they were exposed to the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Stewart Hyde, a British police officer working on child abuse over the Internet, emphasized during a fact-finding trip to Japan last month that in cases of both adult prostitution and enjo kosai, supply is created because of demand among adults who want to have sex with children.

Given the reality of the proliferation of enjo kosai in Asia, immediate action should be taken in a cool-headed manner out of consideration for what can be done for such children.

It is an urgent task to build systems to help such children, by setting up hot lines for consultation, and giving medical and mental assistance to them.

Another urgent task should be educating children to think about their own sexuality.

A framework of international cooperation, including sharing information, is essential to resolve the problem of enjo kosai.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040505wo33.htm