This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.
Posh women are increasingly returning to the arms of their old beaus, even if they’re as fat, bald and stinky as their husbands, in a phenomenon Shukan Gendai (8/18-25) labels “recycling sex.”
“Mie,” as we’ll call the 38-year-old housewife, comes from a more expensive part of Tokyo and is a case in point.
“I live in a brand-new expensive condo with my doctor husband and our daughter. My husband makes 30 million yen a year. My favorite labels are Chanel and Hermes. I’ve recently joined a member’s only gym, which I visit two or three times a week. I belonged to a tennis club that recently had a reunion, where I met up with my old boyfriend,” Mie tells Shukan Gendai.
A week after the fateful meeting, Mie and her ex met again, this time at a swank hotel in Yokohama where they had wild sex.
“My husband is in a relationship with a Roppongi nightclub hostess, so he hardly ever comes home on weekdays. It’s not like I’m disappointed with my husband. And I haven’t fallen back in love with my ex-boyfriend. But we just have more and more of our secret trysts. Recently, I’ve probably been inviting him out more than he’s asked me. If your lover is someone you’ve known for a while, it’s much less risky than finding someone on a personals site. Sex with my ex-boyfriend is a simple way for me to get refreshed.”
Relationship counselor Fusako Ando is seeing more women like Mie.
“These women care about their looks and are keen on keeping up with the latest trends. They’ve often graduated from prestigious women’s colleges, married elite husbands, shop at exclusive parts of Tokyo like Aoyama or Roppongi and enjoy luxury labels. They’ve finished raising their kids and want to enjoy being fashionable again,” Ando says. “They’re the types who use eco bags while shopping and drive hybrid cars. They have a strong awareness of protecting the environment. And they have no worries about going back to old boyfriends. That’s why I call what they’re doing ‘recycling sex.’ ”
There are certain signs men should watch out for that can be a giveaway for wives into “recycling sex,” the men’s weekly says. The first signal is when she prompts him to get into shape. A “recycling sex” wife explains.
“Thanks to sex with my ex-boyfriend, I’ve begun to feel beautiful myself again. It’s not a good idea if I’m the only one to get in shape, I want my husband to look good, too. And ‘recycling sex’ has given me the urge to have more sex with my husband, too,” the 36-year-old Yokohama woman says. “And if my husband and I are going to have sex, it’d be more enjoyable if he was in good shape.”
And a wife doing yoga should also get alarm bells ringing, according to another “recycling sex” wife.
“I don’t know whether yoga increases your female hormones, or what, but since I’ve been doing yoga it’s made sex feel so much better for me,” the woman tells Shukan Post. “Yoga improves your shape and I always have an excuse for getting out of the house by telling my husband I’ve got a yoga session on.”
Note: The article below was originally in 週刊現代 (Shukan Gendai). The title of the original was『デブでハゲで臭い旦那から、昔の恋人に抱かれに行く人妻』
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(The Mainichi Waiwai column ran online from April 19, 2001 – June 21, 2008. It was a much loved form of entertainment amongst foreigner in and outside of Japan. To any reader it was obviously not serious news, but it was a set of articles that portrayed quite well how the Japanese tabloids actually write about their own country. In 2008, a small number of Japanese people bought it to the attention of rival news groups that Mainichi was running an anti-Japan column on its website. With the bad publicity, Mainichi was forced to shut the page down, and take punitive measures against the journalists that were working on it, claiming that it was receiving opinions that were critical of the column, such as “its contents are too vulgar” and “the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad”. A perfect example of how Japanese consider what they write in their own script to be an acceptable secret code, that the rest of the world cant understand. When that same tabloid rubbish gets inconveniently translated to English to make light of some aspects of the Japanese people, it gets canned. Stippy.com finds this unacceptable, and will reproduce as much of the Waiwai content as possible in order to bring it once again to our computer screens for a good laugh. Of course we claim no credit for this content, and attribute it to it’s writers who were former Mainichi employees. Waiwai in its true and glorious form has been discontinued, but it’s legacy will live on at stippy.com for all to enjoy.)