The
Tokyo Reporter never ceases to make me laugh. Where do they get this fantastic stuff?
Today, they have an article about a counselor who was asked by parents if she could help their son get laid.
You can't make this stuff up!
A seminar, on the theme of "The Current Marriage Situation in Japan," was held at an auditorium on the campus of a national university. The attendees were several dozen male and female participants ranging in age from their 40s to their 60s. The real reason people attended, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 30), is that they want to commiserate on why their children seem unable to find a marriage partner. The guest speaker, marriage consultant Hiromi Ikeuchi, doesn't pull any punches. "It might be presumptuous of me to say this, but you parents also bear responsibility for why your children are unable to marry," she says.
“Males today are raised by overbearing, overprotective parents,” Ikeuchi continues. “These ‘helicopter parents’ are constantly hovering over their sons, and boys aren’t able to learn about sexual practices on their own, in a natural way. Or even when they do, they get a rather late start. This is why they have trouble getting rid of their virginity at the right age.”
“My son, a systems engineer, still seems to be a virgin even though he’s already 35,” a man in the audience tells Ikeuchi. “When I was a college student, my seniors took me to a soapland (erotic bathhouse) to get me laid.” But because of the weakening of interpersonal relationships in Japan, those sorts of educational escapades are vanishing.
“So now the fathers’ roles in helping their sons to have adventures is being subject to question,” points out Ikeuchi, who advises, “One way is overcome the problem is for a father to recruit one of his younger company subordinates, or a relative, such as a cousin, who can speak to the son frankly and openly.”
“A man about 10 years older ought to be just right,” Ikuchi says. (K.S.)
