Japan's encounter cafes offer mature liaisons

By Ryann Connell
February 23, 2005

Wrinklies are taking over Japan's "encounter cafes" set up as meeting spots for young men and women looking for their ideal match, says Cyzo.

Growing numbers of deaiai kissa, as the "encounter cafes" are called in Japanese, report more young men asking for the chance to meet women in their 50s or 60s.

And even if there's not a younger person around, graying Baby Boomers and beyond are also turning to the cafes, which are also used as a front by women moonlighting as prostitutes.

"Just recently, I've seen lots of 50- and 60-something couples quietly making their way out of love hotels," an employee of Eve, an encounter cafe in Osaka, tells Cyzo.

Encounter cafes are usually places set up where men and women can meet to chat together and may leave as a couple if they hit it off. Guys pay an entrance fee of anywhere from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen, while most offer women free entry. Some cafes may charge an annual membership fee of about 5,000 yen.

Though designed mostly for young people to get together, clubs like Eve are finding their clientele is often aged at least 40, with Eve's membership ranks including people in their 70s. Eve is so seeped in doing business with the blue rinse set, it has reading glasses set aside at its entrance, which customers can use at any time if they need to.

"They come here for a variety of reasons. You might get a stereotypical geriatric, but most of our customers are fairly refined," the Eve employee says. "It looks like guys suddenly become more attractive after reaching their 60s, so there are a lot of women from their 20s to their 40s who'll go after them, half as much through an urge to take care of them as for any romantic inclinations they may have. We also get loads of young girls who come looking for old guys for 'pocket money.'"

Some of the elderly customers have showed that age does bring wisdom, even if that knowledge has been less than scrupulous.

"We had one old guy matched up with a housewife who complained that she had no money and needed some that day to pay her utilities bill or her water would be turned off. The old guy said he'd pay up if she let him take photos of her in the nude. When she refused, the old guy immediately reduced his offer to half as much as he had earlier been willing to put up," the Eve employee says, adding that another man apparently starved of opportunity for some time started offering a prayer of thanks when the woman he had just met spread her legs for him.

Maguro Shimonoseki, an expert on senior sexuality in Japan, says he's not surprised to see the silver generation on the prowl for partners.

"If both parties are elderly, because women's longevity is greater than men's, the perception is that the guy has less time in front of him and that makes him more popular with the opposite sex. If they're the same generation, they've normally got similar topics to discuss and that makes it easier for love to bloom," Shimonoseki tells Cyzo. "One thing with aging, though, is that it tends to amplify people's characteristics. Those who've always been kind will become kinder, those who've been stubborn will become more stubborn and those who've always been perverted will be more perverted than ever before."

Comment on this story, click here.

Copyright 1999-2004, AsianSexGazette.com.  All rights reserved.  No content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.  Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.