Burusera (ブルセラ) is a Japanese word coined by combining burumā (ブルマー?), meaning bloomers as in bottoms of gym suits, and sērā-fuku (セーラー服?), meaning sailor suit, the traditional Japanese school uniforms for schoolgirls.
 |
| Buru-sera vending machine |
 |
| They sell higher with picture |
Burusera shops sell used girls' gym suits, as well as school uniforms including Catholic school uniforms. They also sell other goods procured from schoolgirls, e.g. undergarments, school mizugi (スクール水着?) for physical education, socks, stationery, sanitary napkins, tampons, saliva, urine and others.
The clothes are often accompanied by ostensibly genuine photos of the girls wearing them. The clients are men who smell or otherwise experience the panties for sexual stimulation. Vending machines were once used to sell packaged used panties.
Schoolgirls used to openly participate in the sale of their used panties, either through burusera shops or using mobile phone sites to sell directly to clients. When laws banning the purchase of used underwear from minors were introduced in Tokyo in 2004 it was reported that some underage girls were instead allowing their clients (called kagaseya (嗅がせ屋?) or sniffers) to sniff their underwear from directly between their legs. Others chose to sell photos of themselves, throwing in the used panties for free.
In August 1994, a burusera shop manager who made a schoolgirl sell her used underwear was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of violation of article 34 of the Child Welfare Act and article 175 of the Criminal Code. The Police exposed the company and the owner under suspicion of violation of the Secondhand Articles Dealer Act which bans the purchase of secondhand goods without authorization.[1]
Child pornography laws imposed legal control over the burusera industry in 1999.[2] However, burusera goods in themselves are not child pornography, and selling burusera goods are an easy way for schoolgirls to gain extra income. This has been viewed with suspicion as child sexual abuse.[3]
Prefectures in Japan began enforcing regulations in 2004 that restricted purchases and sales of used underwear, saliva, urine, and feces of people under 18.[4] Existing burusera shops stock burusera goods from women at least 18 years old — most of them are alumnae of high schools.
Japan for the uninvited
Enjo kosai (Compensated dating)
Enjo kosai is one of Japanese society’s most infamous phenomenon: schoolgirls dating older men for money. Although many encounters don’t involve sex, this prostitution of Japan’s youth has been cause for serious concern.
Telephone Clubs
Enjo kosai emerged towards the end of Japan’s 1980s economic boom. Young, middle-class girls had become used to an expensive lifestyle, funded by their prosperous fathers, but the economy was starting to fall apart. With their families unable to fulfil these materialistic needs, but discouraging them from taking part-time jobs, many girls looked elsewhere.
When you’re a middle-aged man, it isn’t easy to pick up schoolgirls. Where do you meet them? You’d look ridiculous if you started hanging around outside high-schools or purikura, and you’d soon get pestered by the police. “Telephone clubs” sprung up to solve this problem. These are places where men pay for a girl’s mobile phone number. Apart from that, all negotiations are between the schoolgirl and the dirty old man.
The internet has made telephone clubs largely redundant. Safer and cheaper, it also allows men to contact a greater number and wider range of girls. All he has to do is put an ad (“40,000 yen for dinner and sex”) on the message board with his contact details, and he can choose the most alluring response that rolls in.
Bura-Sera
These sugar daddies are usually middle-aged, married men with children of their own. Why do they pay so much, and take such great risks, to have sex with young girls? Many describe this craving as “tamaranai”, an “uncontrollable attraction”, which hardly seems to excuse the fact that they’re exploiting girls their daughter’s age.
“Lorikon” (Lolita complex) and “bura-sera” (the erotic fascination with schoolgirls) are crucial aspects of modern Japanese sexuality. The ubiquitous sailor-suit school uniform is as important a feature of Japanese pornography as breast implants are in Western filth. Bura-sera also drives the thriving trade in used panties.
Kogals
This widespread sexual fetish is exploited by the “kogals”, young Japanese women who wear school uniforms, loose socks, and heavy make-up as a fashion statement. Many of these girls finished high school years ago, but enjoy the attention the outfits get from men.
It’s easy to understand why middle-aged men want to have sex with young girls. But why do the girls do it?
Japan has always been a country where external appearances are important. Traditionally, social prestige has been held in material symbols (samurai’s swords and hairstyles, exclusive aristocratic colours), and nothing has changed. The rabid desire for flashy designer clothes, born during the economic “miracle”, hasn’t been stemmed by economic problems.
It’s not all about money and fancy clothes. Japanese children lead a restrictive life at home and school, so enjo kosai could be seen as a sexual rite of passage for curious young women.
There will be more later, for those of you who liked it :p
