One thing I’ve never understood is why people care what others do with their fellow consenting adults. Unless it, say, wrecks their home. Yet, people do care, especially who their politicians are bonking.
In September, just as politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was cleared of a sex scandal, Reuters released a study on which nation was the most tolerant towards such scandals involving celebrities and politicians.
Coming in at number one was Mexico, where 57 per cent of people surveyed would be either very likely or somewhat likely to tolerate those involved in the scandals. Number two was Belgium at 55 per cent, and number three was the United States at 48 per cent.
Japan was the least tolerant of sexual indiscretions of its celebrities and politicians. The country does appear to give male entertainers more room to play around. Take Beat Takeshi, who got in a motorcycle accident while visiting his mistress. The accident left Takeshi with a partly paralysed face–something that probably helped the country to forgive him. Politicians in Japan, like in many countries, aren’t usually forgiven as easily. Case in point: Atsushi Onita.
Professional wrestler Atsushi Onita is the father of Japanese death match wrestling. During the 1980s and 1990s, Onita thrilled fans with his in-ring antics. But by the late 1990s, he was itching for something new.
Onita, a high school drop out, got his diploma and ran for political office. In wrestling-crazy Japan, Onita won in 2001, earning a seat as a representative in the Liberal Democratic Party. As a politician, Onita went on a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan, where he entertained small children by creating a make-shift ring and showing off some moves.
Then, scandal hit. Japanese tabloids broke a story about him having sex with a female bureaucrat, a hostess, and a porn actress in a House of Councilors lodging house. As Kotaku reported in 2007, the incident forced him out of office. Since then, Onita has gone back to wrestling. He’s also run for Governor of Nagasaki. And lost.
While people didn’t seem willing to forgive Onita for his bedroom antics, nobody seemed to mind him putting his name on some Nintendo DS shovelware that same year, Atsushi Onita’s Political Quiz. A far greater offense!
Most Japanese wrestling fans have long forgiven the guy. Voters are slowly coming around. Onita did place third in last year’s Nagasaki gubernatorial election in which he claimed 13 per cent of the vote.
Japan has a large and bustling prostitution industry. It’s estimated to generate $US24 billion a year and account for 2 to 3 per cent of the country’s GDP. Japanese people generally don’t care what others do behind closed doors, and the country lacks religious purity tests.
And yet, many celebrities and politicians — especially politicians — are judged for their indiscretions. It’s not just Japan that’s preoccupied with whom politicians are screwing, but around the world.
I mean “screwing” as in “having sex”, not simply “screwing”, because goodness knows, they’re doing that to all of us.
Culture Smash is a daily dose of things topical, interesting and sometimes even awesome — game related and beyond.
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