Compensated dating

Enjo-kōsai (^?, shortened form enkō 援交) means "compensated dating" and is the Japanese language term for the practice of older men giving money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship or possibly for sexual favors. The female participants range from school girls (aka JK business) to housewives. Enjo-kōsai does not always involve some form of sexual activity. In the opposite case of women paying men, it is called gyaku-enjo-kōsai (逆援助交際^?), or "reverse compensated dating".

The nature of enjo-kōsai is heavily contested within Japan. The most common connotation is that it is a form of child prostitution whereby participating girls sell their bodies in exchange for designer goods or money. However, enjo-kōsai is distinct from the most basic definition of prostitution (whereby a person attains money through the exchange of sexual acts) since it can include an array of other activities.

Many groups, including women's centers and associations within Japan, include "the exchange of a girl's company or time" as part of this equation and insist that these other activities define enjo-kōsai. Anthropologist Laura Miller argues in her research that the majority of enjo-kōsai dates consists of groups of girls going with a group of older men to a karaoke bar for several hours and being paid for their time.

Furthermore, in a 1998 survey by the Asian Women's Fund, researchers found that fewer than 10 percent of all high school girls engage in enjo-kōsai and over 90 percent of the girls interviewed attested to feeling uncomfortable with the exchange or purchase of sexual services for money. In 2015 the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography estimated that 13% of minors were allegedly involved in compensated dating.

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