[VICE] The Japanese Love Industry: A country that is dying

Japan is a country that is dying—literally. Japan has more people over the age of 65 and the smallest number of people under the age of 15 in the world. It has the fastest negative population growth in the world, and that's because hardly anyone is having babies. In these difficult times, the Japanese are putting marriage and families on the back burner and seeking recreational love and affection as a form of cheap escape with no strings attached. We sent Ryan Duffy to investigate this phenomenon, which led him to Tokyo's cuddle cafes and Yakuza-sponsored prostitution rings.
siftbotsays...

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Thursday, October 24th, 2013 11:24pm PDT - promote requested by original submitter poolcleaner.

MilkmanDansays...

I suppose for a Japan video this is redundant, but ... that was f*cking weird, man.

My first year in Thailand, I was in (the infamous) Pattaya for a short trip. Just as I was getting used to seeing 70+ year old Western men with 2-3 young attractive Thai girls on their arms, I saw an ~85ish year old Western woman with a walker, oxygen tank and lines running to her nose flanked by a total of 4 female "escorts". At the time, I thought ... wow, that is messed up.

But cuddle cafes where you can pay lots of money for the privilege of staring deeply into a stranger's eyes? Now that is messed up.

gorillamansays...

The world is overpopulated. The governments and people of countries with growing populations are committing crimes against humanity.

Japan is one of the few places doing it right, and moral defectives treat that as a problem.

Tippisays...

Too bad they didn't mention that the majority of host club clients are in the sex industry themselves. For a bit more depth, The Great Happiness Place is a crazy doc about host clubs.

Orzsays...

Doesn't this explain Japan's obsession for robots and the constant need to make them better and for everything imaginable? In 15-20 years or less they will either need to have robots that do the work for them or they will have to ship it overseas to someone else.

chingalerasays...

Yo-when Japan gets completely packed with slow-movin' geriatrics we can sneak over and steal back all the vintage Harley Davidsons, and cherry tube amplifiers, and Fender Stratocasters!

direpicklesays...

That is, in fact, exactly the reason for many of their advances in robotics. Explicitly stated and intended. Specifically, a lot of it's been for taking care of older folks.

Orzsaid:

Doesn't this explain Japan's obsession for robots and the constant need to make them better and for everything imaginable? In 15-20 years or less they will either need to have robots that do the work for them or they will have to ship it overseas to someone else.

mxxconsays...

This video could've been so much better, but they hardly covered anything.
This should've been a multi-hour, multi-part series.
Disappointing.

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