Long associated with seedy red light districts, sex, Japan's love hotels are growing up to be socially acceptable, says the author of a book on the subject.
Each day, 30,000 people visit such hotels to relax, spend time with themselves or have group parties
TOKYO: Long associated with seedy red light districts, sleazy and sex, Japan's love hotels are growing up to be socially acceptable and even classy, says the author of a new book on the subject.
In fact, many aren't even being used for "love" anymore. "Increasingly, people are frequenting love hotels who have no intention of having sex with each other," said Sarah Chaplin, author and professor of architecture at the UK's Kingston University.
Although love hotels continue to do brisk business in Japan, raking in nearly 4 trillion yen ($34.5 billion) in annual sales, according to Chaplin, the 1.3 million people who visit the 30,000 hotels each day often go there just to relax.
Some also go there for groups parties or for quiet time alone, Sarah Chaplin said. "If you look at Japanese demographics on marriage and relationships and sales of condoms and all sorts of things, there is a kind of voluntary abstinence going on," Chaplin said.
Japan ranked last in a 26 nation survey of sexual activity released in July by condom maker Durex. The average Japanese had sex 48 times a year, well below the global average of 103 times.
The love hotel, Chaplin said, has been a cultural barometer since its beginnings in the 1950s. In their 1970s heyday, the hotels were gaudy, masculine and ultra-sexual with amenities such as revolving beds and ceiling mirrors. A decade later, they became more "kawaii," or cute, reflecting a trend toward infantilised sexuality, she said.
In recent years, love hotels have abandoned cuteness, going for a more sophisticated look. Of the 350 hotels Chaplin studied over 10 years for her book, "Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History", many were renovated with higher quality materials - using an austere stone front rather than flaunting a mock-castle look, for instance - and interiors characterised by subdued colour schemes and simple elegance.
"The pleasure is less to do with a visceral pleasure of the body. If there is any kind of visceral pleasure, it's more to do with outwardly appreciating the material and the quality of the workmanship and interior," Chaplin said.
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