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.
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