NHK's morning drama “Wings to the Tiger” is making headlines.
This week, the story focuses on a “high school girl's prostitution case.
In the story, Misae, a female student who has been aided for prostitution, says, “Why can't we steal things from bad people, why can't we use my body as I want, why can't we kill people?
"Why can't I use myself as I please?”
What would you say to Misae about why she should not sell her own sexuality?
In PAPS' consultation support and outreach activities, we meet people who are selling their sexuality.
Everyone has different circumstances and backgrounds, so it is impossible to lump them all together.
Are there “buyers” because there are “sellers” of sex?
No, we think the opposite.
Because there are “buyers”, there are “sellers".
If there are no “buyers”, there can be no “sellers".
The Anti-Prostitution Law, promulgated in 1956, punishes only “sellers” and not “buyers".
As of 2024, the law has not been revised.
Please read one of the our staff's story, which reminds us that “sex trafficking” will not be eliminated unless the “buyers” are punished.
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A male friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a while said to me, “I've been a Sugar Daddy."
For a moment, I didn't know what he was talking about. I had no idea that someone so close to me became a Sugar Daddy.
It was the first time I had ever heard the term “Sugar Daddy” directly from a guy, so It took me a little while to understand that he was the daddy and that he met a girl.
In the first place, I don't understand the nerve of a person who confides such a thing so easily.
He continues, “In that place (the name of the area where PAPS café is located),” so she might be a girl who uses our café at night.
Imagining that he might have bought a girl I knew sent even more gives me the creeps.
When I asked him why he did it, he laughed and said, “Social study.” He said he found her on X (formerly Twitter) and approached her.
“When I met the girl, she was like, Oh my God. I didn't think you were so young,” he said happily, imitating the girl, which was weird.
He also said “Because the other side said it would give me peace of mind in case something happened. That's what she said to me.” talking about such things at an Internet café, apparently.
As if he cared about the girl.
I wondered what he had told her, and here's what he said, "I told her she shouldn't be doing this."
What?
That's the worst kind of customer.
How superior are you?
I responded, “Oh, you preached her?" to which he mumbled, “No, it's not a preach, it's a......."
The fact that he won't admit, it annoys me.
It really annoys me that he is a little boastful in everything he says.
He uses his social studies as an excuse to look for women on social networking sites, and then he calls them up, gets a good feeling from them when they say nice things to him, and then looks down on them even more.
He pays to preach to the girls, and his arrogance is palpable.
But he still feels satisfied that he “helped" her out.
I said to him, “Well, you bought the girl, didn't you?”,
And he replied, “No, I didn't buy her."
For him, if he did not have sexual intercourse with her, he did not buy her.
To him, it is “support."
I didn't think that there was someone so close to me who thought that way.
Or maybe it is not surprising that there are people like that.
It is because there are so many people who think like this that sex purchases will never go away.
He did not tell me how much he paid.
I later asked one of the girls at the café about the market price, and she said the first meeting was about 5,000 yen.
I was disappointed thinking that my fiend had a smug look on his face saying that he had supported that girl for 5,000 yen.
He never told me what he talked about besides the preach, and he never told me how old the girl was.
Maybe he touched her body, or worse, maybe she was underage, that's what crossed my mind.
So he was one of the sex buyers too.
The moment I realized that, the time I had spent enjoying with him so far came rattling down.
I'm sure there was a glimpse of that in him, I think.
He would send messages and meet with his female friends who would be nice and listen to him.
He would only meet with a group of women who are strong-minded and loud like me.
But the next day, I thought to myself that maybe he was born and raised in a not quite healthy environment, so he has to look down on someone else to survive.
Because I know some of his painful past.
When you are a friend with the person, maybe you want to defend him like this.
And I'm ashamed of the way I am.
But even so,
I could see in his every single word and phrase that he was trying to control women.
No, it may not be only women.
Someone weaker than himself.
Younger people, women.
He will not stand up to those he cannot beat. And he wield his power over younger men and women whom they “think” he can beat.
What a miserable creature he is.
He does not see us as equals.
Clearly, we are one step below him, or even lower.
Sadly, he does not realize it. I don't know if it's because he can't see himself objectively or because society as a whole does.
Now that I am aware of his way of thinking, How shall I keep up the relationship with him?
Do I cut all ties with him and only surround myself with people who respect women as equal human beings?
Or, since we have many important friends in common, should I try to make him aware of this with a ray of hope?
I don't have an answer yet.
But I can tell you one thing,
The mindset of a prostitute exists closer than you think.