Kogals - Provocation?

[Mirjam/Roger Fischer]

Dear Kinejapan Members

Yesterday I was somewhat provocative and I hope I didn't offend anybody. 

I would be extremly interested in the reactions of women on this list.
Looking at women issues (what the Kogals mouvement is also) from a male
point of view, there is always a chance to slip out on false preconceptions.


I want also to direct you an article by Ian Buruma, Down and Out in East
Tokyo.

He ends his book review with the dark side of the Kogals mouvement:

"And yet there are signs of individualism, even in Japan, and not just
among the down-and-outs. An increasing number of Japanese, especially
women, are joining foreign firms that reward individual merit rather than
seniority. To compete, some Japanese companies are slowly moving in the
same direction. There are other, less edifying signs of private enterprise
too. You see them, not in San'ya or Yoshiwara, but in the prosperous
Western parts of Tokyo.
High-school girls, some not older than fifteen, in school uniforms and
heavy make-up, cluster around the busiest nightlife districts, making dates
through their mobile phones to meet with anonymous men in short-time
hotels. They represent the latest fad in freelance prostitution, and they
are driven not by poverty but by desire, for clothes, CDs, makeup, ready
cash, in short, a kind of economic freedom. Perhaps they ar the dark herald
angels of rosier times to come."

You find his book review at:

http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?1998062509R

Best regards

Roger Fischer



Miriam Fischer Roger Fischer
mrfischer at access.ch
Tel. 01 401 36 39