What Does Enjou Kosai Mean Today?

kitsune said:

Just found this thread here: http://tokyoadultguide.com/threads/using-dating-aps-for-p4p.1049

Click to expand...

Some sort of weird glitch. When I click on the above link, I instead end up here:

http://tokyoadultguide.com/threads/secret-accords-were-necessary-in-1960s-u-s-expert-on-japan.1049/

Presumably because 1049 = 1049 ?!

-Ww

You might translate enjo kosai as sugar dating but that's not what it "means" (unlike what another poster suggested in a different thread).

It's a euphemism for paid sex between young women/girls and older men - usually on a purely transactional basis. The phrase is less commonly used now. Was sort of a point in time that's passed.

It's a loaded phrase full of understood non-positive meaning.

My understanding, not 100% reliable, is that enjou kosai literally means something like "compensated dating" and is indeed used to refer to what we call sugar dating in English and is applied to situations involving adults only. For example, Universe Club staff refer to their service as an enjou kosai one. And enjou kosai clubs are basically dating clubs along the lines of UC.

However, a number of years back (more than a decade I guess), there was a lot of media attention and public scandal involving enjou kosai by underage freelance Japanese girls seeing salary men and such for both money and presents such as expensive fashion-name clothes and accessories etc. Some of them were alleged to be as young as 12 or 13 years old! Whether there was actually a spike in such behavior among early adolescent girls (as the media claimed) or it was just a spike in public attention to the issue, I don't know. Anyway, as a result the term "enjou kosai" came to have the connotation, but not literal meaning, of immoral and illegal prostitution by very young girls.

I think the above is correct, but it would be worth checking with someone who is fluent in Japanese.

-Ww

Enjo Kosai means sugar dating basically but it is more specifically underage girl associating with older guy. Sex is not always involved but it usually is.
Some girls sell their underwears, just eating out with men etc but sex can give them more money and also easier for them to get more attention from guys if it is promissed.
There are some underground shops that hire underage girls as sex workers but these are usually runaway girls that need not only money but also place to live. "miteko" is the term for those underage girls in sex industry or shops that hire them altthough they know girls are under 18.
While sugar dating can be a long term helping relation, Enjo kosai is often only one time or a few times with the same man. It is not quite the same as sugar daddy period wise.

kitsune said:

Just found this thread here: http://tokyoadultguide.com/threads/using-dating-aps-for-p4p.10495

So I guess that answers to some extent, or at least, for here on TAG.

Click to expand...

Reon's answer nailed it.
Its girls being indies, often for reasons like age, visa or marriage who arrange dates by themselves with someone with a proper offer.
The word itself doesn't imply it but it was often done by the high school girls so it's associated with that. It just means compensated dating though.

Date clubs like UC are also called "kosai clubs" in Japanese.

Not that I know of...

When I worked at a tea house, clients often used the term of "otona-no-kankei" which means adult relationship but it can be not only sugar dating but anything it may happen between two adults.
Nevertheless, when they mentioned "otona no kankei", I immediately understood what he meant. It is Japan after all, "read my mind, read between the lines" works very well here.