New Book by Boye Lafayette De Mente Explains Japan's Sex-Oriented Culture

A detailed explanation of why sex has never been a sin in Japan, and how it has shaped Japanese culture.

Tokyo (PRWEB) January 29, 2006 -- In the early 1960s Boyé Lafayette De Mente, an American journalist based in Tokyo, published a book entitled Bachelor’s Japan that became one of the bestselling books of the decade.
    
The reason for the phenomenal success of the book was that De Mente opened the shoji (sliding paper doors) to a side of Japan that had mostly been hidden from foreign view.
    
Some of the topics in the book that attracted the attention of foreigners—both men and women—Why Foreign Men Like Japanese girls; In Japan You’re Never too Old; How to Approach Japanese Girls; What Japanese Girls Look For; Fertility Festival Anyone?; Weekend Honeymoons, and The Pleasure Baths.
    
Things have changed a lot in Japan since the 1960s but sex is more popular now than it was then, according to De Mente’s latest contribution on eroticism in the country, "Sex and the Japanese—The Sensual Side of Japan" (Tuttle Publishing, May 2006).
    
In the book De Mente notes that unlike religions in the West which have traditionally required that human sexuality be repressed to the point that it is traumatizing rather than nurturing, Shinto, the native religion of Japan, recognized, respected and celebrated the sensual side of life with great gusto.
    
He adds: “The Japanese were thus saved from the fears, frustrations and violence that result when this natural and essential human need is denied and subverted.
    
“This enlightened—and humane!—view of sex by the Japanese resulted in the pursuit of sexual pleasures, for men at least, being institutionalized in red-light districts, bath houses, a vast network of inns, and a variety of other venues.”
    
De Mente goes on to note that organized prostitution was banned in Japan in the mid-1950s but that it has continued to flourish in a number of other guises. More importantly, he says, is the fact that young Japanese women are now making up for the lost centuries, taking the lead in pursuing sexual pleasures.
    
And he is still up to his old tricks with such provocative chapter headings in Sex and the Japanese as: Heritage of the Fertility Cult, The Dao Sex Syndrome, Sampling Forbidden Fruit, The Occupation Years—“West Mates East”, The “Romance Gray” Phenomenon, Porn for the Male Masses, Sex Lessons for the Ladies, Titillation on the Tube, When Hubby is Away, Wives Will …!, The Charms of Japanese Women, The Wiles of Japanese Women, Look Before You Leap, Happy Hunting Grounds, and Lover’s Language.
    
Sex and the Japanese and some 30 other books on Japan by the author are available from Amazon.com. A list of his books may also be seen on his personal website: phoenixbookspublishers.com.

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