Sexuality in Japan
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In what is perhaps the very earliest novel in the world, the Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji), which dates back to around the eighth century CE, eroticism is treated as a central part of the esthetic life of members of the nobility.
From that time down at least as far as the Meiji Reformation, there is no indication that sexuality is treated in a pejorative way. While homosexuality was driven out of sight for some time, it seems to have continued unabated for it reemerged in the wake of the sexual revolution in the West with seemingly little if any need for a period of acceleration. Likewise, prostitution was practiced more discreetly but did not disappear.
In Japan, sexuality was governed by many of the same social forces that make the culture of Japan considerably different from the culture of Western nations, and also different from the culture of China. In Japanese society, the primary method used to secure social control is the threat (and, occasionally, the actuality) of ostracism. Japanese society is a shame society. Therefore, more attention is paid to what is appropriate to expose to the view of other people than is paid to what behaviors would make a person "guilty." Also important is the strong tendency of people in Japanese society to group in terms of "in group" individuals and "out group" individuals. What may be open to knowledge by one's in group may be different from what is open to knowledge by one's out group, and, what may be avoided because of pressure by one's in group may be of little or no consequence in one's relationships to one's out group.
A frequent locus of misconceptions in regard to Japanese sexuality is the institution of the geisha. Rather than being a prostitute, a geisha was a woman trained in arts such as music and cultured conversation, and who was available for non-sexual interactions with her male clientele. These women differed from the wives that their patrons probably had at home because, except for the geisha, women were ordinarily not expected to be prepared for anything other than the fulfilment of household duties. This limitation imposed by the normal social role of the majority of women in traditional society produced a diminution in the pursuits that those women could enjoy, but also a limitation in the ways that a man could enjoy the company of his wife. The geisha fulfilled the non-sexual social roles that ordinary women were prevented from fulfilling, and for this service they were well paid. That being said, the geisha were not deprived of opportunities to express themselves sexually and in other erotic ways. A geisha might have a patron with whom she enjoyed sexual intimacy, but this sexual role was not part of her role or responsibility as a geisha.
As a superficial level, in traditional Japanese society women were expected to be highly subservient to men and especially to their husbands. So, in a socionormal description of their roles, they were little more than housekeepers and faithful sexual partners to their husbands. Their husbands, on the other hand, might consort sexually with whomever they chose outside of the family, and a major part of male social behavior involves after-work forays to places of entertainment in the company of male cohorts from the workplace -- places that might easily offer possibilities of sexual satisfaction outside the family. In the postwar period this side of Japanese society has seen some liberalization in regard to the norms imposed on women as well as an expansion of the de facto powers of women in the family and in the community that existed unacknowledged in traditional society.
In the years since people first became aware of the AIDS epidemic, Japan has not suffered the high rates of disease and death that characterize, e.g., some nations in Africa, some nations in S.E. Asia, etc. In 1992, the government of Japan justified its continued refusal to allow oral contraceptives to be distributed in Japan on the fear that it would lead to reduced condom use, and thus increase transmission of AIDS.
