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Disconsolate Johns’ ‘fuzoku loss’ provides new fodder for head shrinkers

Nikkan Gendai June 3
Nikkan Gendai June 3
When a person’s dog dies, cat collapses, parakeet poops out or goldfish goes belly up, grief, confusion, anger, guilt and depression often result. These are said to be typical symptoms of “pet loss” following the death of a beloved animal friend.

In the latest installment of an ongoing column series by a veteran “pink” reporter, titled “Fuzokukai no Yami” (the darkness of the world of the sex trade), Nikkan Gendai (June 3) looks into a similar phenomenon it has termed “fuzoku loss.”

It is most common among younger patrons and usually occurs when a customer goes to a sex shop for a romp with his regular and is informed by management, “XXXX-chan doesn’t work here any more.”

Upon receiving the bad news, the customer may turn pale and appear on the verge of weeping. Another reaction is to initiate a frantic search for the woman in other shops.

Part of the reason for this mindset may be due to a practice widespread among practitioners of the trade, who will whisper to their customer, “During the allotted time, let’s be just like lovers.”

Often it’s a young male’s first time to receive oral sex or honban (intercourse), and he forms an emotional attachment to the girl bordering on dependency. Indeed, some Johns have been know to exhaust their savings and even take up part-time jobs just to obtain additional funds for frolicking.

But once their favorite female has flown the coop — either to get out of the life or to flee something particularly unpleasant — finding them is usually an exercise in frustration. Many times the woman’s purpose is to escape from the clutches a pimp or gangster, which means she will go to extreme lengths to change her professional name and even her appearance.

“I’ve received desperate requests from young men asking me to help them track down a girl,” the reporter writes. “One university student in Kanagawa Prefecture went so far as to beg me, saying, ‘I’ve been in therapy. Please help me find her.'”

Another time, a man in his 30s poured out his woes on the telephone for a full hour, blubbering to the reporter, “If I can’t see her again, I want to die. I’m left with no dreams and no hopes.”

Out of the 30,000 Japanese who commit suicide each year, Nikkan Gendai wonders, how many were moved to snuff out their own lives due to the inability to cope with this dreaded “fuzoku loss”? (K.S.)

Source: “Fuzoku rosu de shinitagaru otokotachi,” Nikkan Gendai (June 3, page 20)