Japan love hotels not just for "love"

By Emi Foulk Fri Aug 31, 1:59 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Long associated with seedy red light districts,
 sleaze and sex, Japan's love hotels are growing up to be socially acceptable
 and even classy, says the author of a new book on the subject.
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In fact, many aren't even being used for "love" anymore.

"Increasingly, people are frequenting love hotels who have no intention
 of having sex with each other," said Sarah Chaplin, author and
 professor of architecture at the U.K.'s Kingston University.

Although love hotels continue to do brisk business in Japan, raking in
 nearly 4 trillion yen (17.1 billion pounds) in annual sales, according
 to Chaplin, the 1.3 million people who visit the 30,000 hotels each day
 often go there just to relax.

Some also go there for groups parties or for quiet time alone, she said
 in a phone conversation with Reuters.

"If you look at Japanese demographics on marriage and relationships and
 sales of condoms and all sorts of things, there is a kind of voluntary
 abstinence going on," Chaplin said.

Japan ranked last in a 26 nation survey of sexual activity released in
 July by condom maker Durex. The average Japanese had sex 48 times a
 year, well below the global average of 103 times.

The love hotel, Chaplin said, has been a cultural barometer since its
 beginnings in the 1950s. In their 1970s heyday, the hotels were gaudy,
 masculine and ultra-sexual with amenities such as revolving beds and
 ceiling mirrors. A decade later, they became more "kawaii," or cute,
 reflecting a trend toward infantilised sexuality, she said.

In recent years, love hotels have abandoned cuteness, going for a more
 sophisticated look. Of the 350 hotels Chaplin studied over 10 years for
 her book, "Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History", many were
 renovated with higher quality materials -- using an austere stone front
 rather than flaunting a mock-castle look, for instance -- and interiors
 characterised by subdued colour schemes and simple elegance.

"The pleasure is less to do with a visceral pleasure of the body. If
 there is any kind of visceral pleasure, it's more to do with outwardly
 appreciating the material and the quality of the workmanship and
 interior," Chaplin said.