Legal experts say a little-noticed court case in Tokyo last year may have effectively said that adultery is acceptable in Japan, as long as it is conducted for business purposes.
In the April 2014 case, discussed in a recent issue of the legal magazine Hanrei Times, a judge in Tokyo District Court decided that a man’s wife was ineligible for compensation from a nightclub hostess who had a sexual relationship with her husband.
“The defendant had sexual relations with her patron only for business, like in cases of prostitution, and such conduct does not damage peaceful marital life,” Judge Masamitsu Shiseki was reported to have said in his written judgment.
The wife had sought ¥4 million ($32,000) from the hostess because of the psychological distress caused by the seven-year long relationship, according to reports in the Japanese press. The hostess had responded by denying she had a sexual relationship with the husband, despite conflicting testimony from the husband.
However, after two sessions the judge ruled against the wife, stating that even if the hostess had had intercourse with her husband, the wife was not entitled to compensation. “Even if the wife is disgusted by the act, it does not constitute a legal offense,” the judge wrote.
According to one account, the judge asked the wife if she would “demand compensation from a sex worker in a soapland,” referring to slang word used in Japan to describe a red-light district.
The case only came to light recently after the wife decided not to appeal, but it has quickly caused a commotion. Legal experts note that when justifying his decision, the judge referred to the concept of “makura eigyo” or “pillow sales,” an informal term for when sexual intimacy forms part of a business relationship.
The lawyer who represented the wife in the case, Katsuyuki Aoshima, was quoted by Japan Times as saying that the judge’s use of the concept set a “vicious” precedent. “Citizens should discuss whether compensation should be made by a hostess having a sexual relationship with a married man,” Aoshima said. “A judgment like this case shouldn’t be set as a new standard without clear and logical reasoning.”
According to the Asahi Shimbun, the court case has also caused concern in Japan’s hostess bars, where girls are paid large sums of money to drink and socialize with men with no promise of sexual activity (prostitution has been illegal in Japan since the 1950s). Judge Shiseki had told the court that it was a “commonly known fact” that many hostesses have sex with their customers.
Some hostesses, however, said it wasn’t that simple. “I don’t think the hostess would maintain the relationship for seven years without romantic feelings for the customer,” one 32-year-old hostess who works in the Ginza neighborhood told the newspaper.
According to a 2008 poll conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, more than 20 percent of married men between the ages of 16 and 49 admitted to having had an affair recently compared to 11 percent of women of the same age range. Since a 1979 Supreme Court decision, anyone who knowingly has an affair with a married partner is obliged to pay compensation.