Enjo kōsai (援助交際, literally "aid or support" and "congress, intercourse, intermingling"), shortened to enkō (援交), is a type of transactional relationship similar to the Western sugar dating.
It is the Japanese language term for the practice of older men giving money and/or luxury gifts to attractive young women for sexual favors.
[1] The most common connotation of the term enjo-kōsai in Japan is that it is a form of child prostitution whereby participating girls sell their bodies in exchange for designer goods or money.
Some women's centers in Japan, include "the exchange of a girl's company or time" as part of this equation[2] and insist that these other activities define enjo-kōsai.
[5][6] In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan insisted on disclosing the source and basis of the figure of 13%, and urged the Special Rapporteur to retract her statement, arguing that it was unacceptable to quote unsubstantiated figures to emphasize that this was an urgent matter for the Special Rapporteur to address, or to quote unreliable information in a press conference or report that even the source could not reveal.
This perception arises from suspicions that when these girls are adults, they will quickly abandon their loyalties and commitments to their family for offers of money and material benefits.
Masato Harada's 1997 film Bounce Ko Gals follows the story of a Japanese schoolgirl in Tokyo who is convinced to try enjo-kōsai as a way to raise money quickly after being robbed.
In Hideaki Anno's 1998 movie Love & Pop, the main character, a 16-year-old high school girl named Hiromi, goes on subsidized dates in order to purchase a ring she adores.
These activities include having dinner at a restaurant, tasting a man's cooking, singing at a karaoke bar and visiting in a video rental store.
Conversation over the controversy of enjo-kōsai even finds its way into shows geared toward girls (shōjo) between the ages of 11 and 14 in the form of the highly popular Super Gals!
During the first episode of the series, straight A student Aya goes on subsidized dates because she wants to have money and fun like the other girls, but also because her strict parents and schedule do not allow her to have a job.
In the 1998 anime series Initial D, highschool student Natsuki Mogi is into enjo-kōsai, going out with a rich older man ("Papa") who gives her gifts in exchange.
[13] The 2020 anime series Rent-A-Girlfriend, first serialized as a manga in 2017, inverts the portrayal of enjo-kōsai by focusing on the main male character, Kazuya Kinoshita, who rents a girlfriend after being dumped by his ex.
Japanese idol group AKB48's second major label single, "Seifuku ga Jama o Suru" (制服が邪魔をする, (School) uniform is getting in the way) drew public attention with its controversial music video, which is a literal visualization of the lyrics, somewhat hinting at the subject of enjo-kōsai.
Even the sales copy on its TV commercial was "Otousan, gomennasai" (お父さん、ごめんなさい, Sorry, dad), a comment made by Atsuko Maeda, who played a key role on its video clip.
[14] Although the greater part of Japanese society discourages this type of behavior, that has not stopped teachers, monks, government officials, company executives, and others of high social status from being arrested for their involvement with enjo kōsai.
The idea of compensated dating became popular in Taiwan after the airing of the Japanese dorama God, Please Give Me More Time (JOCX), in which a young woman engages in the activity and suffers social and physical costs.
Efforts at regulation are compounded by the fact that NGOs and the Taiwanese government sometimes apply the term enjo-kōsai to mean more than just teenage compensated dating, but also prostitution and Internet pornography sites.
According to a report by The Huffington Post in 2011, the arrangements involve women signing up for free on websites as "sugar baby" candidates, using their college email addresses.