The dark side of Japanese society: The girl waiting for God

Do you know what "God treats girls"?

The "God-Waiting Girl" that emerged at the transition between the 20th and 21st centuries is written in Japanese as "Kami-Wai-Shoujo" (meaning "The Girl Waiting for God"). The "girl" here is not the common shrine maiden in Japanese culture. In fact, it has nothing to do with religious discourse, but a reference to a certain phenomenon in modern Japanese society.

The "god" here can be anyone. As long as you provide meals and accommodation for free for runaway girls ("runaway girls" in Japanese) who have no fixed place to live, you will be their god.

Women who have nowhere to go carry small suitcases or commuting bags with them, register an account on a specific BBS forum or web page, fill in their age as octogenarian, and post to indicate their location. It is said that "I hope a 'god' will entertain me for free", and those who respond are usually men, known as "Tomari men". Seeing this, readers who are familiar with Japanese culture may ask a question: How is this different from the "aid communication" (meaning selling sex) that is common in the custom industry?

It is said that pie will not fall in the sky, but since girls are asking for "God", they naturally require selfless dedication from the other party. Therefore, after writing their wishes on the website, they will add the sentence "Do not accept any sex transactions" ".

With the same question, a Japanese named Yukihiro Kuroba conducted an investigation into the actual ecology of Kamito Shoujo through one-on-one interviews, and published "The Kamito Shoujo" in 2010. 》 book.

As mentioned in the book, in the past sex trade, the relationship between the two parties was equal. One party sold his body and the other paid money. In the words of the author, "there is pride hidden there." However, God treats girls who do not pay anything themselves, but demand free food and accommodation. This is a new type of value that is different from the former, and is a "lazy and despised" behavior.

Before the formal investigation, the author who took it for granted clearly criticized this.

So what kind of group are these girls apart from being labeled as "home-born" (i.e. "running away from home")? First of all, I would like to present to you this kind of Japanese social ecology:

In Japan, cases of runaways or missing persons (the former is included in the latter) have always been a headache for the Japanese police. The department publishes relevant data every year, and this only represents the number of cases accepted by the police. The real situation must exceed the statistics. Readers who understand Japanese may have seen missing persons notices posted by family members on street bulletin boards when traveling to Japan.

The number of cases has declined since 2005, and the number of runaways has stabilized at around 80,000; in the early 21st century, it even peaked at more than 100,000. Among them, people aged 10-19 account for about a quarter - the number of children who leave home during adolescence cannot be underestimated.

It is worth noting that there are also many people of other age groups. When investigating girls treated by gods, Kuroba also encountered wandering adult women.

"Home-born girl" has even become a fixed collocation in Japanese. The reasons for running away can be roughly divided into the following categories:

Similar to the first reason in the picture above, the girls who were favored by Kuroba all had to do so due to various family reasons. He left his parents early and "struggled" alone.

As a branch of "home-born girls", the family reasons encountered by God's girls include parents' divorce, domestic violence (abuse), one parent being an alcoholic, etc. Some girls are even accused in person by their drunk mothers. "If only I hadn't given birth to you, I wouldn't have lived such a miserable life."

Unable to receive warmth from their native families, they entered society and became "losers" ("negative dogs" in Japanese, meaning losers) in the eyes of others. A certain god-like girl told Kuroba in an interview that she could feel the contemptuous gaze of her "god" when he looked at her. Some divine girls suffered from severe depression during their wandering years and unfortunately committed suicide.

When there is no "god" to accept them, they can only stay in McDonald's, Internet cafes, and manga cafes. They may be called "McDonald's refugees" or stay up all night in a small cubicle.

After investigating, Kuroba realized that the original idea that "gods treat girls very badly" was too one-sided. Instead of criticizing the inappropriate values ??of this group, it is better to think about how to solve the consequences of the misfortune of the original family on the children, and how to deal with and improve the problems of people who run away from home. After all, most of the girls who are forced to be "treated by gods" are society The biggest problem victim.

After Japan's repeated amendments to the customs business law, many customs shops have declined in business. In the past, some runaway girls who could only rely on the customs industry had to go underground to continue their difficult survival. Kuroba also met people from Women who "change careers" in the custom industry to treat young girls like gods. Such measures only block the flow of water, rather than correcting it from the source.

There is a section in Hirokazu Kore-eda's work "Nobody Knows" that also reflects the Japanese reality composed of three points: "underage, misfortune of the original family, and customs". This movie is adapted from real events. It tells the story of a single mother who rents a house with her four children in Tokyo, but claims that she only has one child (the eldest son, Akira Fukushima). In fact, the other three are "black households". An existence that cannot be known to others.

Four children with different fathers can only stay at home. Later, my mother ran away from home for some reason, leaving behind a note and 200,000 yen in cash.

Fukushima Akira had to perform the caretaking duties on behalf of his mother, and a series of sad stories happened after that.

A mere 200,000 in cash could not support the lives of four children. Fukushima Akira had to ask for help from a new friend he made, the withdrawn and kind-hearted Saki Mizuguchi, but she was not old enough to work. Also stretched thin. The little girl thought for a while, then said with a smile and mystery: "Go out and make some money":

Shocked Ming watched Saki approach him from a distance. When she handed over 10,000 yen with a 60% discount, he refused.

"No! No!"

"Why? I just sang karaoke with him."

"No!"

He knocked Saki's hand off and ran away.

There are countless hints in the movie that Saki is also an unattended child - although she lives in a seemingly high-end apartment, the director gives the apartment a gloomy color, and Saki never mentions it. At the same time, at school, Saki was regarded as a freak and was ridiculed and isolated by her classmates. But in the process of getting along with Fukushima Akira's family, she was treated fairly and warmly.

She never realized that it was abnormal for a girl of her age to even accompany her uncle to sing karaoke, so the director arranged for Fukushima Akira to feel embarrassed for her - which was also the eldest son's venting of his grief for his situation. And the regret of making friends sacrifice themselves here. The five children, who lacked parental care, had to hug each other for warmth.

A 17-year-old girl who was serving as a bartender at a custom club confided to Kuroyu:

When I posted a post on the website as a godly girl, I received many replies. When I was young, I found the value of life.

There are also some amazing girls who said that by talking to people in this way, they gained a sense of identity and confirmed the reason for their survival.

In fact, most of the "gods" regarded as salvation by these girls are not as simple as what most people imagine. After Kuroba's investigation, it was found that the vast majority of these men Some of them are also "lost dogs" in the minds of normal people, so incidents of treating girls with free entertainment and violence at the same time occasionally occur.

However, after being dubbed "神道ち", this more covert behavior was justified in people's consciousness, and those websites that allowed the existence of God's posts evolved into sites that breed hidden dangers of crime. hotbed.

How to solve these sad and deplorable social hidden dangers?

The above topics about God’s treatment of girls, girls born out of families, and child abuse are actually ever-present in Japanese sociological research and are closely related to the well-being of life. At the same time, some people believe that liberal education is the cause of social phenomena, causing young people to pursue getting something for nothing and giving up competition.

Regarding child abuse, a documentary called "くらやみにまけないで-Abuse Memoryとの闘い-" ("Can't Lose to the Haze-Fighting the Memory of Abuse") was the 14th As a candidate for the FNS Documentary Award, the protagonist used the camera to talk about the sequelae of abuse he suffered, and the photographer also used this to explore the existing institutional problems of children's counseling centers.

When conducting research on this type of social issues, in addition to using one-to-one interviews, filming video works is also a good choice. This is also popular in the new communication-related research section of the Department of Works. welcome.