Japanese magazine apologises for ranking colleges on how easy it is to have SEX with female students
- Spa! magazine published list ranking women’s universities on ease of seduction
- List ranked on how easy it is to convince students to have sex at drinking parties
- Article caused online outrage and a petition was signed by over 28,000 people
- Editorial department apologised for the article that ‘may have offended readers’
A Japanese tabloid magazine apologised today for an article ranking women’s universities on how easy it is to convince students to have sex at drinking parties.
The backlash on social media came after the magazine Spa! published a list of colleges whose students were said to be ‘easily available’ for sex after drinking.
The list appeared in the December 25 issue of the weekly magazine and prompted outrage, particularly online where one woman launched a campaign seeking an apology and suspension of sales of the offending issue.
Her petition on the change.org platform accused the article of ‘sexualising, objectifying and disrespecting women’ and had collected support from more than 28,000 people by Tuesday.
‘We would like to apologise for using sensational language to appeal to readers about how they can become intimate with women and for creating a ranking… with real university names… that resulted in a feature that may have offended readers,’ the magazine’s editorial department said in a statement.
Japanese tabloid magazine Spa! was forced to apologise for an article ranking women’s universities on how easy it is to convince students to have sex at drinking parties (file photo)
The article was about a practice the magazine described as ‘gyaranomi’ or drinking parties that male participants pay women to attend.
It said the parties are popular among female college students and interviewed the developer of an app intended to help men and women find potential attendees.
The magazine said its list was based on information from its interview with the developer.
The interview with Keiji Isogimi, manager of the matching site Lion Project, ranked five colleges whose students he said were ‘sexually easy’ at parties.
He went on to describe how to ‘coax’ women and judge whether a woman is sexually available based on her clothing and appearance.
‘On issues that involve sex, we will do what we can as a magazine to listen to various opinions,’ the statement from the magazine added.
Kazuna Yamamoto, the senior at the International Christian University who started the online petition, posted videos on Twitter and YouTube criticising Spa! magazine
There was no indication that the offending issue would be taken off the shelves.
Kazuna Yamamoto, the senior at the International Christian University who started the petition, said: ‘I am really happy [about the number of the signatories] because I thought Japanese people didn’t care.
‘I want people to understand that sexualization and objectification is not a joke and not funny.’
Along with the online petition, Yamamoto also posted videos on social media in Japanese and English criticising the magazine over its portrayal of women.
Japan ranks bottom of the G7 countries on female representation in politics and business
Japan ranks bottom of the G7 countries on female representation in politics and business, and campaigns like the #MeToo movement have struggled to take off in the country.
Last year, a leading medical university admitted it had routinely lowered the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women in the student body at around 30 percent.
The discovery prompted a probe that uncovered similar discrimination at several other institutions.