| The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
| They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
| In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
| このページは、毎日新聞事件の検証のための配信記事対訳ページです。直接ジャンプして来られた方は、必ずFAQをお読みください。 |
| ※ この和訳はあくまでもボランティアの方々による一例であり、翻訳の正確さについては各自判断してください。 もし誤訳（の疑い）を発見した場合には、直接ページを編集して訂正するか翻訳者連絡掲示板に報告してください。 |
Might as well face it, you're addicted to sex 2007,07,09
Spa! (7/10) By Ryann Connell
Japan is starting to come to grips with tackling sex addiction, but the front lines in the fight are hurting, according to Spa! (7/10).
It took until April last year for the Justice Ministry to finally create a sex offenders' program that makes it obligatory for habitual sex criminals to undergo correctional behavior training and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University set up a sex offender's counseling service to match.
Enomoto Clinic in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district is one of only two medical clinics in Japan devoted to treating sex addiction.
"One of the features of sex addiction is denial.
There's a really strong trend for patients to refuse to recognize things they've done, and they rarely acknowledge guilt even when presented with material evidence of crimes they've committed," social worker Akiyoshi Saito tells Spa!
"Nearly all the people who come here are either brought in by their families, or they have suffered some sort of social loss in the form of a conviction or the like."
Another feature of sexual addiction is that it's extremely difficult to self-diagnose.
That means there are potentially enormous numbers of sex addicts on the streets and they are unlikely to be aware of it.
"Another problem is that awareness of wrongdoing is so weak because many tend to belittle women.
For instance, some sex offenders can't understand why they've been arrested, often saying that the woman they had targeted was enjoying it," Saito says.
"Unless the offender is strongly motivated to be healed, there's no way that treatment will ever work."
Saito says sex addicts can be divided into the aggressive, who have strong sexual desire and emotional control, and the impulsive, who have no control over themselves and are emotionally detached at the time they commit sex crimes.
"Taking train gropers as an example, over half the offenders are impulsive, with one study showing that they rarely became erect in the midst of their crimes," Saito says.
"Their actions are impulsive, spontaneous and it's only after they've been arrested that they finally realize that they've done something they shouldn't have."
Sex addiction in Japan is currently being treated in three ways -- sex offender's programs in prisons, private counseling and group therapy.
In addition, there is also Sexual Compulsives Anonymous (SCA), a self-help group modeled along similar lines to other organizations committed to combating addiction like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous.
An SCA member, himself a convicted sex offender, explains how it works.
"SCA works on the concept that those involved realize that there is no cure for their addiction.
I used to think that I could heal myself by reflecting on what I'd done, restraining my urges and practicing self-control.
But once I admitted to myself that I couldn't control things, it made me feel surprisingly liberated and my thoughts have changed from trying to be healed to trying to control my impulsive urges and my weird behavior began to be more controllable," the sex addict says.
Not all work with sex addicts is proving as successful, though. Social worker Saito elaborates.
"I've treated over 60 patients up until now and there are still around 10 who commit sex crimes again even after a year of group therapy.
Other patients stop treatment along the way.
Treatment is only ever up to the individual, we can't force it on them.
We've got family participation clinics starting next month, which will strengthen the support system," Saito says.
"But there's a bigger problem in the country.
There simply aren't rural clinics that can deal with sex addiction.
To help sex addicts in the countryside we need national government support and a far greater understanding of the problem of sex addiction."
Treatment of sex addiction barely has a history in Japan.
It's still fraught with all sorts of problems that are being compounded because there are few clinical examples to draw on in the little more than a year that formal programs have existed to deal with it.
"There are still major divisions on whether masturbation is good or bad when a patient is on the road to recovery.
There's also considerable debate about whether adult movies and the sex business are aids to preventing sex crimes or inspirations.
And because of cultural and legal differences, it's not really easy to use data on treating sex addiction obtained from overseas in cases in instances that are occurring in Japan."
(By Ryann Connell)
July 9, 2007
