By: chocojila@hotmail.com

Let me just kinda briefly introduce myself. I am a 24-year-old, half-Thai and half-American woman who is now living in Tokyo, Japan. I came to Japan May of '97 to teach English for a year, and I am now living with my Japanese boyfriend and working as a sales executive.

The thing I'd like to discuss is what I see going on in Tokyo and what is in the media. I couldn't help but notice that the majority of Tokyo's young people (I'm trying to avoid generalizations here) are completely materialistic and sex-crazed. Everywhere you go you see billboards, posters, comic books (actually it's animated pornography--and kids do read them) portraying nudity or women in submissive roles.

"Soaplands" (an equivalent of Bangkok's Patpong) and "love hotels" (you can kinda figure what they are for) are everywhere. Actually, I don't really care who patronize these kinds of places because it's none of my business, but the trend now seems to be young people--meaning high school kids who can't support themselves and don't have a clue about responsibility. Perhaps I can even understand if these kids have sex as an expression of love, but many of them actually do it for money--with older men (40 years old and up). It's called "enjo-kosai" in Japanese, which literally means "support relationship", but the way I (and many others) see it, it's basically prostitution. Sure, sometimes they don't really have sex (or so they say) with these "oyaji's" (old men). They could just go out to karaoke's or bars with these older men and receive gifts (Louis Vuitton bag, Channel earrings?) or money. What I'd like to know is where do all their self-respects go? Is their self-respect only worth a hand bag or $300?

By the way, statistics (although not very publicized) says that one in four Japanese women have had at least one abortion in their lifetime (yes, abortions are legal here, but guess what? Birth-control pills are not--unless prescribed by a physician. What's worse, television glamorized all these activities!!

Actually, there is an article written by a Chinese woman name Lu Wei who wrote this in a magazine called "Hiragana Times". She had talked to 30 Japanese girls hanging out in a district called Shibuya in Tokyo. Lu Wei wanted to know if the reason why Japanese girls ALL dress in ultra short skirts, high (REALLY high) heel boots, golden-streaked hair, tanned skin, and carry "keitai"s or portable phones is because they are having personal problems and looking for ways they could express themselves.

These are their responses verbatim:

"I am stupid, and there is no way I could go to university. So I must have fun now!"

"I can do anything I want now, and I'll be forgiven for any mistakes."

"I don't have anything I really want now. Oh, perhaps a Vuitton bag!"

"Just by going to karaoke with an older man, I got 30,000 yen. Older men always try to pick me up."

"Dreams? I have no dreams. I don't know."

--My comments--Men are at fault here too, they should be home with their wives and kids instead of trying to pick up girls. That's probably what created all this mess in the first place!

All of the above are sad responses. The first one shows that the girl probably have never received any encouragement to improve herself. No one to remind that she does have a future, but it depends on her to make it herself. She has probably been criticized all her life. The second one shows absolutely no responsibility. The third shows materialism. The fourth, no self-respect. The fifth is especially sad to me. I can't comprehend how one could have no dreams because I have so many. My problem is how to make them all come true.

I have probably written long enough. I have lived in Thailand for 17 years, the States 5 years, Japan 1.5 years. Thailand is my motherland and I would like to know the situation of young people there because I haven't been back for so long. I sure hope that Bangkok will not turn into the Tokyo that I know.

I'm sorry if what I've written is overly negative or too preachy. I welcome any comments, suggestions, criticisms, anything. You can e-mail me at chocojila@hotmail.com. Thank you all. Please respect yourselves and others.