The fetishization and hypersexualization of schoolgirls in Japan is seen throughout the country. The desire for these girls has led to the creation of countless businesses, all attempting to profit off of exploitation. Within these businesses is a trend: each one caters to a specific, singular desire. One such business is the cuddle cafe. In this paper, I research their recent popularity in Japan. I give a brief overview of the existing sexualization of the schoolgirl figure, as well as a look at other businesses that successfully commodify youth and sexuality. Throughout the paper, the term “schoolgirl” is used to refer to a Japanese girl of high school age, ranging from approximately fifteen to eighteen. The vague nature of the term is intentional: it demonstrates how the lines of age are consciously blurred within their sexualization. Keeping in mind my position as a researcher with an outsider’s perspective of the culture and country, I end with an examination of the United States’ own cuddling services, and study the ways in which they differ from those in Japan. This research is done with the intention of proving the ways in which Japan’s cuddle cafes both contribute to and encourage the sexual exploitation of Japanese schoolgirls.

Schoolgirl sexualization is deeply embedded within Japanese culture. It is not confined to pornography, where this fetishization has become so commonplace that it is now a genre on pornographic websites across the world. Throughout Japan, schoolgirls are advertised as sexual objects in everything from manga to pop music. Japanese pop, usually referred to as J-pop, has become a popular source for the commodification of the schoolgirl. J-pop’s target audience is not adolescents, despite their songs appearing most relatable to a young audience. Rather, J-pop is specifically geared toward middle- aged Japanese men that engage in schoolgirl fetishization. Their performances are sexually charged, aiming to please the men that fill their audiences and buy their merchandise. After shows, the men are allowed to shake the hands of the performers, often engaging in short conversations with their favorite member of the group. J-pop does not sell music; it sells the girls that perform it.

The J-pop group AKB48 became infamous after their music video for the song “Heavy Rotation” went viral. The video features over a dozen of the group’s members on a set meant to represent a child’s bedroom: the floor is covered in bright, multicolored padding; the walls are decorated with pink butterflies; pillows and stuffed animals can be spotted every few feet. In stark contrast to this setting, the members of AKB48 are dressed in lingerie and fishnets. The video alternates between group shots of several girls and close-ups of an individual girl’s thighs, hips, and backside. More than once, the performers straddle their microphone stands, which are topped with oversized flowers; in other shots, they are seen sleeping and cuddling teddy bears, still dressed in corsets and stockings. The video also includes a scene in which the girls are dressed as kittens, biting into pastries that shoot out cream (“Heavy Rotation”). The video makes childlike innocence indistinguishable from eroticism. The youth of AKB48’s performers implies a demand for the genuinely young: some of the girls in the “Heavy Rotation” video were thirteen years old at the time of production (“AKB48 Birthdays”).

As in J-pop, schoolgirls are often sexualized in anime and manga. A large portion of manga, which “permeates Japanese culture,” represents schoolgirls as weak and defenseless, as well as inherently sexual (Ripley and Whiteman). In mainstream manga, schoolgirls are never depicted as actually engaging in sex— but existing just beside the mainstream is a market for exactly that. Many manga stores in Akihabara, Japan’s “anime district,” include adult-only sections. Within them, the manga displayed is incredibly graphic. While this alone would simply be considered pornography, there is a disturbing trend within the sex shown: it is impossible to tell whether or not the feminine characters are adult women or actual children. They are often drawn wearing “school uniforms, hair clips and innocent expressions,” partaking in “violent sex acts” with the male characters (Ripley and Whiteman). Because manga is drawn, rather than photographed or recorded, it is impossible to definitively prove whether the characters are actual children or consenting adults taking part in role play. This intentional vagueness is what helped seuxal manga evade Japan’s ban of child pornography, which became law in June of 2014. Whether or not these drawings are meant to be of actual children, this sub-genre of manga is designed to forge a connection between school-age girls and sexual relationships.

The condemnation of child pornography has not made the sexualization of schoolgirls any less extreme; if anything, the obsession is growing. Within Japan, searches for “Japanese schoolgirl” on Pornhub increased 191% from 2014 to 2015 (“Pornhub’s 2015 Year in Review”). Mediums such as music videos and manga, which enocurage the viewing of schoolgirls as seuxal commodities, have created a demand for the companionship of these girls. The demand has become so extensive that specific services have been created to meet it. Throughout Tokyo, high school-aged girls attempt to use their fetishization to their advantage. Dressed in their school uniforms, they invite men to join them inside joshi-kosei, or JK, cafes. The girls that work in these cafes “earn about $8 an hour to socialize and serve food and drink to men often more than twice their age” (Ripley). The popularity of these services shows just how intense the desire for schoolgirls is within the culture: men are willing to pay just to sit in a room with them. At the surface level, these cafes provide a way for the recipients of hypersexualization to profit off of it. In reality, however, the girls that work at these shops are often in danger. A common pattern develops: men who patronize the JK shops will ask the employees out on dates. The girls, under the impression that they will be paid for their time, agree to the dates. Once alone with the men, and outside of the safety net that the cafe provides, the girls often become victims of rape, human trafficking, and/or forced prostitution (Ripley). Their uniforms and youth have become intrinsically related to being sexal objects, and in the eyes of the men who commodify them, they are products rather than people.

The JK cafes alone are not enough to curb the demand for the companionship of a schoolgirl. They are missing two important elements: youth and physical interaction. In these cafes, the schoolgirl fantasy begins and ends with the girl’s uniform; there is nothing else within the shop to confirm the youth of the girls. Second, and perhaps more importantly: these shops do not allow for any form of touch between the customers and the workers. The tables at which they eat provide a barrier between their bodies; the men risk being banned from the cafe if they try to encroach on a girl’s space. In response to both of these issues, and the growing demand for physical companionship, Japan has made another attempt at a solution: cuddle cafes.

Soineya, Japan’s first cuddle cafe, was opened in the fall of 2012 (Simonitch). The shop’s customers pay money to cuddle with employees, and there is a menu of options with varying prices for additional services. The idea behind the cafe seems relatively harmless: it provides a way for customers to relax, and gives them an outlet for physical connection that they may be lacking in their personal lives. In practice, though, these cafes simply provide another outlet for the fetishization of schoolgirls. Masashi Koda, who owns Soineya, claims that his employees are all “from 17 years-old to 25-years-old” (Cho). According to the application, however, any girl in high school is welcome to apply. This means that a girl as young as fifteen would be eligible for a position at the cafe. The problem is not one of legality: the age of consent in Japan is thirteen, and children are allowed to hold a job at age fifteen. Rather, the problem stems from the simultaneous infantilization and sexualization of the girls working in the cafe.

Just as in the “Heavy Rotation” music video, the entirety of Soineya is decorated as a child’s bedroom would be. Each of the seven rooms in which customers can cuddle is “decorated with stuffed animals, heart-shaped cushions, cloud-shaped lamps, and accessories that play lullabies” (Cho). A CNN video taken inside the cafe shows similar findings: softly glowing heart-shaped lamps on the walls, children’s purses and dress-up clothes, stickers, and pastel pillowcases patterned with princesses or cartoon kittens (“Want to Cuddle a Stranger?”). The rooms are small, constructed out of half-walls and bed sheets. Each one barely fits a mattress. The size of the room provides little choice for the employee but to be in close proximity to their client at all times (Cho). The girls themselves are paid to engage in the schoolgirl fantasy. They wear pajamas, as seen in a second video taken within the cafe. The employee on camera wears baby pink pajamas covered in white rabbits, and lacy socks patterned with hearts (“The Japanese Love Industry”). Outfits like these are designed to emulate femininity, innocence, and above all, youth. If the customer prefers, he can pay a fee for the cuddler to wear a school uniform, or a sailor suit (Cho). The customers themselves are permitted to bring pajamas, but are allowed to wear whatever they enter the store in as well— in both videos, those receiving the services are dressed in street clothes, displaying an obvious juxtaposition between the workers and clients. The cafes actively encourage the desire for childlike innocence, taking care to continue the fantasy from start to finish.

While cuddle cafes are not meant to provide sexual interaction, Koda and others running similar shops are very aware that the driving force of their businesses is sexual desire. This is most obvious in Soineya’s menu of offered services, and in how prices rise as the services grow more and more sexually charged. The most inexpensive service, standard cuddling, is priced at $40 for twenty minutes. There is a steady increases in price for longer sessions ($77 for an hour, $206 for three hours, and so on). Customers can even spend the night at the cafe: a ten-hour session costs approximately $645. If cuddling is not enough for the men, there are more intimate services offered as well: for $13, a customer can get three minutes of resting in a girl’s arms, petting her on the head, or getting patted on the back. For the same price, the girl can rub the customer’s feet for three minutes— and for double that cost, the customer is allowed three minutes of rubbing the girl’s feet. Another service, and perhaps the most sexually charged, follows the same pattern as the foot massages. For $13, the girl spends three minutes with her head resting in the customer’s lap. For $26, the situation is reversed (Simonitch). In the pricing system, one can witness the compartmentalized commodification of the schoolgirl. Men pay to have their fantasies lived out before them. As they pay for individual services, the fantasies become more realistic, more catered to their individual whims and desires. The popularity of Soineya is due to the way it capitalizes on the fetishization of schoolgirls. The business is not about the physical act of cuddling, but about who the cuddling happens with. Were the employees not schoolgirls, the business would have an entirely different customer base— or simply not exist.

The cuddling services offered in Japan stand in contrast to those in the United States. While the U.S. is certainly not a pillar of gender equality, the cultural fetishization of schoolgirls does not exist to the same extent that it does in Japan, creating a difference in their cuddling service markets. The Snuggery, a company located in upstate New York, provided the inspiration for Koda’s own business (Cho). Jackie Samuel founded the company in 2012, and like Soineya, the offered services do not include sexual interaction. Aside from this grounding principle, though, the two businesses have very few similarities. The Snuggery only employs two women: the founder, and a woman only referred to as “Colleen” on their website (The Snuggery). While Colleen’s age is not specified, her short biography explains that she has a college degree, as well as specialities in several subjects. Samuel herself was twenty-nine when she started the business, and her customers are typically within her age range (Compton). Pictures of both of the women are provided: they are focused on their faces, void of any theme or decoration. The Snuggery charges $60 an hour, almost double the price at Soineya. Differences do not end with price and age: other than an overnight stay, the Snuggery does not offer any of the extra services that Soineya does. The Snuggery does not have a set location; the “snugglers” go to the homes of their clients. Nothing in their business model is designed to emulate childhood, innocence, or sexual desire.

There is a distinct sense of privilege surrounding the Snuggery’s business model: these women feel safe and protected in their work. When asked about the possibility of a customer becoming sexually aroused, Samuel is confident in saying that she could “just communicate” to the client that sexual interaction is not an option. This attitude is one of a person that is in control of their business. The girls at Soineya do not have quite as much freedom of the women working at the Snuggery. While at work, employees of Soineya do not have complete body autonomy— their interactions with clients are negotiated by their boss. There is also a force driving Soineya’s business that does not control the Snuggery’s. This is not to say that the desires of the Snuggery’s clients are any less sexual than those of Soineya’s clients. The difference is in the age of the women being sexualized. The Snuggery is not trying to sell the idea of youth or innocence; the business is focused entirely on the act of cuddling. The women working in the Snuggery may be commodifying physical interaction, but they are not doing so while still in childhood. Conversely, the act of cuddling seems to be the last priority at Soineya. There, the most important part of the service is the perceived childishness and sexuality of the employees.

Cuddle cafes are not the driving force of the sexualization of the Japanese schoolgirl. Were they to be shut down, the market would still have countless outlets for this kind of commodification; new businesses would likely exist in their place in a matter of weeks. The cafes do, however, actively encourage exploitation. By providing men with a service that lets them interact with the young girls they desire, especially in an environment such as Soineya, there is an understood acceptance and approval of the fetishization of children. Japan’s commodification of physical interaction is not unique. It is not inherently bad, nor is it automatically based around youth and innocence. Businesses like cuddle cafes exist because there is a recognition of the demand for schoolgirl companionship within a larger sphere. Cuddle cafes may be nothing more than a passing trend, but the culture that they exist within and profit off of has no intention of disappearing.

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Works Cited

AKB48. “Heavy Rotation.” Vimeo. Vimeo, 2012. Web. 06 May 2016.

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