Maternity Leave in Japan

Worried about not being able to have kids with your "part-time" English teaching job? Well, I've got some news for you which I hope will make you as happy as it made me.

Q&A: Osaka Nampa Master

Nampa is the Japanese term for guys picking up on girls in public locations, usually with the sole aim of getting them into bed. A whole subculture has sprung up around the word, and akin to titles like "How to Talk to Women" and "How to Make Someone Fall in Love With You in 6.7 Seconds" in English bookstores and across English webpages, "How to Nampa" is a term probably every magazine with a 20-something male target audience in Japan has published articles about.

The Cost of Giving Birth in Japan

I hope this doesn't excite my family too much, but recently I've been looking into the logistics of childbirth in Japan. Hence the forthcoming post on maternity leave (see next week).

Contraception in Japan

The leading choice for contraception in Japan is condoms, the second most popular (almost 20%) being pulling out, followed by the rythm method. The pill languishes in last place with an audience of just over 2% of the female population (vs. 18% in the US, 25% in the UK and 52% in Germany, for example).

Not surprisingly, this leads to a fairly large number of abortions. 28% of the 300,000 or so women who underwent abortions last year claimed not being married as the primary reason.

Soaplands: the Japanese Brothel

A soapland is a brothel. You pay a woman to use her naked body to clean you. She gets you all foamed up, uses her boobs and ass like a sponge and then fulfills the rest of your agreement.

If all this is making you reconsider your opinion of prostitution then you certainly aren't alone.