日本主妇从事卖淫：不仅仅是为了钱

　　　　In the 1967 film “Belle de Jour,” French actress Catherine Deneuve plays a beautiful housewife who works as a prostitute while her husband is at work.

　　If weekly tabloid Shukan Post (Aug. 15-22) is to be believed, women in Japan are following Deneuve’s lead.

　　In a special article on illicit activities undertaken during the day by married women (or hitozuma), the magazine says that an increasing number of such women are taking up the world’s oldest profession on the sly.

　　For the inside scoop, the magazine turns to Akira Ikoma, the editor of a guide to the men’s entertainment called Ore no Tabi (My Journey).

　　“After the ‘Lehman Shock‘ of 2008, it became clear that the number of housewives working in the fuzoku (adult-entertainment) industry was on the rise,” says the editor. “Since there has not been a recovery since, it remains difficult to find work (in conventional employment). So women are continuing to struggle in the sex trade to pad their savings accounts.”

　　A 34-year-old “delivery health” employee resembling actress Kimiko Ikegami tells the magazine that she works three times a week, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., earning 300,000 yen each month.

　　“The truth is that I think I can earn more, but I do not want to negatively impact the life I have now,” she says.

　　According to Ikoma, there are 300,000 women working in the fuzokuindustry. Of them, 30 percent (or 100,000 women) are housewives.

　　Last month, Fuji TV began airing “Hirugao — Heijitsu Gogo Sanji no Koibitotachi” (Afternoon Face — The Weekday 3 p.m. Lovers), a drama starring popular actresses Aya Ueto and Michiko Kichise, both of whom portray wives engaged in affairs for thrills.

　　Such boldness is not the norm in the fuzoku trade. In fact, according to Ikoma, the average hitozuma hustling as a prostitute is very careful.

　　“If their home is in Nagoya, then they’ll work in Gifu,” says the editor. “IfOsaka then it will be Shiga. There are a lot of women who want to have a feeling of separation between work and home.”

　　A 45-year-old woman in the Kansai area going by the name “Mariko” commutes to Tokyo.

　　“Every month, my husband, who works at a trading company, goes on a business trip,” says the woman, who resembles Kichise character in the Fuji TV drama. “So I started taking ‘business trips’ as well.”

　　Due to her expensive tastes, she has blown a substantial amount of her husband’s money, and now she has taken a job at a high-end soapland erotic bathhouse to make amends.

　　“The things I thought about prior to joining were the provision of an accommodation, assistance with an alibi and security,” says Mariko about her concerns when she first began scouring the Internet.

　　After an interview, she was hired, but at the time she knew next to nothing about what she was getting herself into.

　　“I received a training session, but I was worried, for example, about how to handle strange customers,” says Mariko, who now earns 1.5 million yen per month. “But they’ve been very kind.”

　　As Ikoma’s estimates reveal, the number of women taking the plunge is not small — and non-fiction writer Ayumni Sakai, who herself was once employed in the sex trade, says that one reason is that the generation of school girls who dated older men for money — popularized in the vernacular press starting in the early 1990s by the phrase enjo kosai, or compensated dating — is all grown up now.

　　“The enjo kosai generation knows that their bodies can be exchanged for money, and now they have become married women,” says Sakai. “But it is not just about the money; their purpose can be to discover what lies inside.”

　　Kaorin Mizushima, a lecturer on the sex industry, explains that the number of housewives entering the sex industry due to lack of satisfaction at home is on the upswing.

　　“They want to enjoy sex due to desire accumulated from being in a sexless marriage,” says the lecturer. “They have a strong need to be recognized as women. With that being the reason, they do not hold back, and the hitozuma genre is very popular in the sex industry.”

　　在1967年的电影《白日美人》中，克里斯蒂·德诺芙饰演的美丽妻子趁着丈夫外出工作时卖淫。如果日本邮报周刊(8.15-22)的结论无误，一些日本妇女现在正在效仿德诺芙的做法。

　　这篇特别的文章提到了不少已婚妇女(在日语里叫“人妻”)做的不可告人的事情。该周刊称，越来越多的日本妇女正在暗地里从事世界上最古老的职业——妓女。

　　色情杂志《我的旅程》(Ore no Tabi)编辑Akira Ikoma提供了一些内线消息。

　　“在2008年金融危机雷曼事件后，在‘风俗场所’(成人色情行业)工作的妇女数量显著增加。”该编辑说，“到目前为止，经济还没什么起色，妇女很难在传统产业找到工作。不少妇女便开始卖淫以补贴家用。”

　　34岁的池上季美子是一名应征女郎。她告诉周刊，她每周工作三次，工作时间从早上十点到下午四点，每个月能挣30万日元(约1.8万元)。

　　她说：“事实上我能挣更多，但是我不想我的工作对我现有的生活造成负面影响。”

　　据季美子说，有30万女性在风俗场所干活。其中30%是家庭主妇。

　　上个月，富士电视台开始拍摄《昼颜——工作日下午三点的恋人》，一部由著名女演员上户彩和吉濑美智子出演的电视剧。剧中，两人饰演的主妇为追求刺激而光明正大的出轨。

　　对于那些真正在风俗场所工作的女性来说，这样大胆的行为并不常见。据Ikoma说，事实上，大部分在风俗场所做妓女挣钱的女性都很谨慎。

　　“如果住在名古屋，她们就会在岐阜工作。”编辑说，“要是住在大阪，她们就在滋贺县接客。大多妇女都把工作和家庭分的很清。”

　　一名家住关西的45岁妇女化名“真理子”前往东京。

　　女子长得很像电视剧中的吉濑美智子。“每个月我在贸易公司工作的丈夫都会去公务旅行，所以我也趁这个时候‘出差’。”她说。

　　因为品味太高，她经常大手大脚，花了丈夫不少钱。如今，她在一家高端的情色泡泡浴澡堂干活挣钱，权当做点补偿。

　　“当我第一次在网上搜索这一类情色场所时，我考虑的首要问题就是：是否有住处，是否能帮忙圆谎，是否安全。”真理子说。

　　在面试后，真理子被录用了。那个时候，她对自己究竟踏入了一个怎样的行业还一无所知。

　　真理子每个月能挣150万日元(约8.9万元)。“我接受了一些训练，但是还是有些担心，怕碰上些奇怪的客人。“她说，“不过他们人都挺好的。”

　　就像Ikoma的调查统计所指出的一样，投身于这一行业的女性并不少。散文作家阪井亚由美自己也曾从事过性交易。她说，越来越多的年轻女学生为了钱和年长的男人约会。这一现象在20世纪90年代逐渐流行起来，许多日本媒体称之为“援助交际”，或是“付费约会”。

　　“从事援助交际的一代人都明白她们可以出卖自己的身体来换钱。这一代人如今已嫁做人妻。”阪井说，“她们从事卖淫并非只是为了钱，更多的是为发泄藏在内心的欲望。”

　　研究性产业的讲师水岛香织说，越来越多的家庭主妇因对家庭生活不满而从事卖淫。

　　“无性的婚姻让她们渴望享受性的愉悦，”水岛说，“她们想要作为女人获取他人的承认。因此，在从事性服务时，她们不会退缩。在性产业中，人妻属性相当受欢迎。”