Boblet Learned things and Japan diary, by Oli Studholme

Sino-Japanese Relations Further Strained by … an Orgy(!)

By Oli
At 6:25 PM · Friday, 3 October · 2003
To Humour · Japan

Wow, and now for something completely different. Recently there’s been almost nothing on the news in Japan about a news event on 17th September in Zhuhai, in southern China’s Guangdong Province. The only mention I’ve seen locally is via the Japan Times - nothing in the other major papers, and nothing on TV. On the other hand, there’s been lots of international coverage via the BBC (1 & 2), the Washington Post, and many other news agencies. I imagine the coverage is even greater in China! ;-)

The event in question is an orgy of rather impressive proportions. Apparently an unnamed Osaka construction company celebrated their 15 year anniversary by flying all their staff to China. For three days, the Japanese men had a wild and crazy time with about 500 prostitutes. Say what?!

Now for the good part — arguing about the numbers. The Beijing Youth Daily reportedly stated 380 male tourists arranged to meet with some 500 prostitutes. A company spokesman (like the company, unnamed) states 268 of the firm’s employees invited 200 to 300 hostesses. The Chinese press played up the fact this happened on the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. Hotel employees said that Japanese tourists regularly came to their hotel for prostitution services, and suggested the date was a coincidence. China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the incident, and urged Japan to teach its citizens in China to abide by Chinese law. The Japanese Foreign Ministry quietly agrees to help investigate, while trying very hard to pretend nothing happened. By far the best comments are from the Osaka company spokesman:

The media reports have quite a lot of errors and they seem to be making people think badly of Japan. We were not involved in systematic prostitute-buying

I love it how they need to add systematic, don’t you? ;-) Given Japan’s overly hentai・（変態） but-we-don’t-talk-about-it culture, and China’s “prostitution is illegal, so don’t get caught” tourist industry, I don’t find this very surprising. What I do find surprising is that there’s a market for the Men’s Som・（メンズソム ）, a 35,000 yen sex toy designed to leave the discerning masturbator with his hands free for adult literature. That’s $320USD. Wow! This bonus link is from a Swedish friend, who told me a Swedish News Site apparently misquoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying This incident leaves an extremly bad taste in your mouth (in Swedish of course ;-) Hilarious! I don’t want to know where he found the Men’s Som link though.