Posted on 01/23/2006 6:24:15 PM PST by Angus MacGregor
Philippines sees rise in "Desperate Japanese" Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:29 AM GMT
By George Nishiyama
MANILA (Reuters) - They come to the Philippines hoping to start a new life, often with a new young wife.
But most of these middle-aged Japanese men end up without money, abandoned by their Filipino wives and with nowhere to go.
The number of these men, known as "Desperate Japanese" among the local Japanese community, has increased in recent years, an embassy official said.
"One would show up at least every two days," said a consular official with the Japanese embassy in Manila.
He said most of them were married men who had fallen in love with Filipino bar hostesses in Japan and had followed the women to the Philippines, leaving their families behind.
"They would seek early retirement so they can come here chasing the women. They would start living together, then buy a house, then a car," said the official who declined to be named.
The lower cost of living in the Philippines allows them to enjoy a good life initially, but unable to speak English or the local language, the men, mostly in their 50s, cannot find work and use up all of their money in a year or two, he said.
With the money gone, their Filipino wives usually leave them, and shunned by their families in Japan, the men come knocking on the embassy's door for help.
"It's a case of self-destruction," said the official.
Some of the men also turn to the local Japanese community for help, said Masahiko Ieda, 67, a senior member of the Japanese Association in Manila.
"Many have even sold their passports and although they don't go begging in the streets, they don't have the money to carry on a living," he said, adding one followed him into a Manila restaurant asking for money.
EXCLUSIVE TO PHILIPPINES
Nearly 80,000 Filipino women go to Japan every year on entertainment visas, and most end up working as bar hostesses, although the number is expected to fall after Tokyo tightened visa rules last year.
The 67-year-old Ieda, who has lived in the Philippines for 45 years, said it is only recently that these troubled men have shown up in such numbers.
The consular official said the embassy had dealt with less than 50 "Desperate Japanese" until 2000, arranging their return to Japan, but the cases had risen in the last five years with the number rising to around 180.
Toru Nishimoto, a Japanese Christian priest in Manila who has helped some of the men, said in addition to those who came after the Filipino women, there are some who come to the country hoping to make it big in business and end up penniless.
The Japanese community in the Philippines is the sixth largest in Asia with around 12,500 people, mostly expatriates working for major corporations, but the number could double if unregistered Japanese were included, the Japanese official said.
He said "Desperate Japanese" as a phenomenon was almost exclusive to the Philippines, adding that the "Philippine pubs", found even in rural Japan, provided comfort to the men facing a midlife crisis.
"These men, they may have been victims of their company's restructuring and may have felt isolated at home," he said.
"So they may have been heartened by a young Filipina at the local hostess bar and decided: 'what the heck, I'll go to the Philippines.'"
Me so horny? Ruv you rong time?
Oh, I remember about the time I turned 50, I kept thinking, "Is this it?"
Oh, I remember about the time I turned 50, I kept thinking, "Is this it?"
Is the real reason this very, very minor and otherwise insignificant phenomenon a wire story because it fits the "dumb male" or "male mid life crisis" stereotype?
It certainly isn't internally consistent. First it says that a Desperate Japanese man shows up every other day at the embassy. That is about 182 persons per year, on average. Yet the article elsewhere states that there are a total of 180 DJs and that a noticeable increase has occurred in the last few years.
This story doesn't add up in at least these ways. But then it is Reuters.
L
This story can't be true. I read on FR that Philippine ladies make much better wives than American ones. They'd never leave the poor guy if he had ran out of money.
You cruel destroyer of illusions :-)
They really should get a hobby. LOL.
Well, at least the headline didn't say "Philipines Seas Rise in Japanese Ladies."
Whyisatexasgirlinpacheckingherbathingsuit?
"Me so horny? Ruv you rong time?"
It's really disheartening to see people demean Filipinas like that.
In the first place, that "me so hawney" crap is a Hollywood invention. In the second, Filipinos don't have problems with "L" and "R." In the third, the majority of Filipina women are not prostitutes. And in the fourth, of those who are, some are trafficked against their will, and some are actually forced to it to keep their families from starving.
The Philippines, despite everything, has been one of our staunchest allies, and they deserve better than that.
And once again I will say, it ain't the country, it's the lady.
Doesn't matter what country you go to, there are gold diggers and there are ladys.
Better make sure which you have before you marry.
In Japan you have a highly pressured, conformist society with lots of arranged marriages. It is easy for a 50ish guy in a rut in a loveless marriage to dream of doing a Gaugain with a lovely young girl.
There is merit in what you say, of course, but that's not the whole story.
One is also well served to consider the country involved: how contaminated by feminism is that country, and how strongly affected is the woman you're thinking of marrying?
There are a lot of women right here on FR who are strongly contaminated by the toxic nostrums of feminism, and are not only completely unaware of it, but hostile to the notion that there is any feminism in their thinking.
In general, they're the ones with nasty, spiteful, small-minded things to say about American men who marry women from other countries.
Golddiggers are pretty much the same the world over and that's the kind of girl you are likely to find working as a bar hostess.
"with lots of arranged marriages."
Ummm...no, not for decades, now.
Just funnin' with you guys! The 'Import a foreign bride" threads get mighty spirited. I figured my comment would bring a few out of the woodwork.
Actually there are a couple of Freepers who have married foreign ladies and it's turned out quite well.
In Japan arranged marriages within the company are so common that they call them 'sankan' (three desks away) marriages. You boss will pick you out a wife from the typing pool.
I don't know if it's because feminism hasn't taken hold there, but you can walk down the street today in Angeles City (old Clark Air Base) and see 65-year-old American expats walking down the street holding hands with 19-year-old Filipinas. And these are not rich men, these are usually military retirees living on their pensions. Midlife crisis-- no problem.
I've been married to a Japanese woman for 10 years now myself and it's worked out well for us, but we met while attending college and my wife wasn't interested in marrying me for a green card. I think things are often different when immigration is the primary reason for the marriage.
"In Japan arranged marriages within the company are so common that they call them 'sankan' (three desks away) marriages. You boss will pick you out a wife from the typing pool."
I've been in Japan for 20 years, worked at four different Japanese companies and with a number of others, and never seen it, or heard of it happening.
Maybe it happened on a small scale in bygone eras, but it's certainly not a reality today.
I attended a Southern Baptist college, and in the college newspaper there was a letter to the advice column complaining that the girls at school were not submissive enough to the guys at school, like the Bible tells use to be. I knew the guy who wrote the letter, and I also knew plenty of girls there who were exactly what this guy wanted. The trouble was that he was not interested in or attracted to these girls.
Maybe it's not that many women who act like that, just the majority of women you notice?
Bar "hostesses" in Japan, Philippina or other nationality, are in it for the money. They pour drinks, smile, and offer idle chatter and amazement at the boring stories/antics of their clients. Any fool who thinks otherwise is, well, a fool.
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
ouch!!!!....( go get em girl!)
"And these are not rich men, these are usually military retirees living on their pensions"
I don't know how it is today, but a military retiree used to be able to live pretty well on his pension in the Philippines.
Look at it from the girl's perspective: a man to provide food and shelter, with no more sexual demands than a man of that age makes, and no need to service multiple patrons...beats the hell out of starving or hooking in a bar.
The Chinese used to have a saying: "A man needs a virgin twice; for his first wife, and his last." It's human nature--you know, what feminism is trying to repeal.
I plan to stay with my wife till death parts us, but I'll tell you one thing: If, God forbid, death should take her first, I ain't going to be looking for companionship down at the senior center.
" Golddiggers are pretty much the same the world over and that's the kind of girl you are likely to find working as a bar hostess."
Not necessarily so with regards to Filipinas in Japan ...Most are over here to make money for themselves , and to help their families . I've met quite a few in my 20 years here , and the vast majority I would say were not " bad " girls .
"I figured my comment would bring a few out of the woodwork."
Translation: "I anticipate that if I deliberately and groundlessly insult an entire group of people, some of them might take issue with my inappropriate comments."
Well, they did, but your comments are still groundless and inappropriate.
"complaining that the girls at school were not submissive enough to the guys at school"
I'll believe he said that when you show me the letter.
Till then, I will regard that as an aggressive and tendentious paraphrase of a more reasonable position.
As one of those "couple of Freepers", I concur wholeheartedly...
the infowarrior
droll... very droll...
I love the Philippines.
Which would jive for men in their 50's, wouldn't it?
Well, I understand Pablo Picasso fathered a child in his 80s.
I've been impressed by the stories of Freepers who have married foreign ladies. Many of them are college educated professionals and many are good hearted ladies who came from poorer backgrounds who made wonderful wives. Just like American wives, some turn out to be great, others a disaster.
Whoa big fella. I'm not the one who tanks up with a couple of beers and trashes all American women (translation: "insult and entire group of people" - to use your words) while saying all foreign wives are great.
You should check out some of those threads to see how groundless those comments are.
So do I.
"Whoa big fella. I'm not the one who tanks up with a couple of beers and trashes all American women (translation: "insult and entire group of people" - to use your words) while saying all foreign wives are great. "
Well, little lady, I have to wonder how you know whether, what, or how much a poster is drinking.
I also disagree that discussing the extent to which American women have sucked down feminist kool-aid, and now don't even recognize the provenance of the ideas they espouse, constitutes insulting them.
After all, si palman res est, repetitio injuria non est. (My brand of beer has a different Latin proverb on every label for the edification of we who "tank up.")
And finally, nobody has said that all American women are equally bad or all foreign wives equally good. It is a fact, however, that feminism has metastasized to a greater degree in America than in some other countries.
And finally, even if some men here did act as you allege, that would still not constitute grounds for insulting people in international and intercultural marriages.
The bottom line is that men who marry women from other countries are escorting scabs across picket lines, and the women they marry are the scabs. Just as scabs provide employers an alternative to capitulating to the unreasonable demands of striking labor unions, these women offer men an alternative to capitulating to the unreasonable and noxious demands of feminism.
And many American women react exactly as strikers do when scabs cross their picket line: with hatred and fury.
We're just following the example set by Ronald Reagan when he fired the striking air traffic controllers, and I, for one, also try to follow his example when the strikers start flinging mud.
"good hearted ladies who came from poorer backgrounds"
It might interest you to know that the Japanese generally feel that a Japanese woman is marrying down when she accepts a foreigner -- of any description.
The Filipinos are a very ironic people.
I call it the land of the lost opportunity.
In the early 50's to the mid 60's, it was probably the land with the most promise in Asia. The people were smart, Christian, and English speaking with some of the best schools ( including one of the oldest universities in Asia --- Universit of Santo Tomas ).
Unfortunately, they have the knack of electing corrupt politicians and even the deposing of Marcos and the rise of Corazon Aquino never changed their culture of corruption.
It is an irony that the Filipinos do well everywhere else EXCEPT in their own country. The infrastructure of the Middle East was practically built by Filipino Engineers.
Hawaii's immigrant population is 1/5 Filipino.
Just goes to show what happens to a country with talented people when the government sucks --- the best people leave.
James Michener noted that *every* former Spanish colony is beset by political corruption, and attributed it to the corruption of the Spanish colonial governments.
Interestingly, every Filipino I spoke to during the Marcos years complained because Ferdinand and Imelda were funneling all the corruption to their own clique, and not because it was corruption per se.
He was brought down not by "people power" in the Philippines, but by the world's leftist media, and not for corruption, but because they hated him for keeping the communist insurgency from bringing the Philippines into the Soviet sphere.
Those who have succeeded him have been every bit as corrupt, and not the hundredth part as successful at putting down insurgencies.
Considering this was 2 years ago, it may be hard to get ahold of it. I will attempt to get ahold of a friend of mine who still attends school and is on the newspaper staff. She has access to archives, I believe.
I remember that in the entertainment district of Osaka there was at least one bar that boasted, in Japanese script, of its "Filipino talent."
Please ping me. (If I'm already on, I forgot -- sorry.)
My own example is somewhat instructive. Mrs. infowarrior, while perhaps not "college educated" (she holds no degree, but *is* a liscenced practical nurse in her homeland of Peru), did indeed come from a fairly modest background and is my equal, not my inferior, nor superior, in either education nor background. We are both posessed of a bit more than a high school education, and came from lower middle class backgrounds. We likewise have similarities in life expectations. Neither of us seeks, nor even desires great wealth, but are more concerned with having a comfortable, if not lavish life, concentrated more on family than on "keeping up with the Joneses"...
the infowarrior
Mr. Michener is correct in his observation, and may have part of the attribution right, but not totally. Yes, Spanish colonial governance was corrupt, but it was also inefficient, and that, more than anything else, has "stuck". Corruption can be cleaned up, and has been from time to time in the former Spanish colonial sphere, but never has the problem of the inherited inefficieny been even remotely addressed...
the infowarrior
The Filipino workers of Pacific Architects and Engineers have definitely "left their mark" throughout the Middle East, for certain...
the infowarrior
I laughed as hard then as I am now in the retelling. It would appear that this gal had a quite accurate appraisal at the time as evidenced by this article.
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