Enjo-kôsai (compensated dating) in Contemporary Japanese Society as Seen through the Lens of the Play Call Me Komachi

• Authors: Karolina Broma-Smenda
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The practice of enjo-kôsai (compensated dating) arose in the mid-1990s in Japan. It is a trend where an older, wealthy man sponsors attractive and significantly younger women (often high school girls) for their companionship and sometimes sexual services. Those young girls, by becoming involved in an enjo-kôsai relationship, are trying to make money to purchase brand clothes and accessories. Call Me Komachi (2003) is a play which deals with the enjo-kôsai problem. The main protagonist is a high school girl named Reika, who has an older sponsor. Ono no Komachi, who is mentioned in the title of a play, was a famous Japanese poet of the early Heian Period. Why is a poet from ancient Japan mentioned in the title of a play about a problem of modern Japanese society?

Keywords

EN

enjo-kōsai; Ono no Komachi; Call Me Komachi; geisha; teenage prostitution

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 27
• Pages: 19-41

Contributors

author

Karolina Broma-Smenda

• Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw