Women's Universities Listed By Sexual Availability Of Students In Japanese Magazine

Shuukan Spa, a Japanese magazine, faced widespread criticism for publishing an article that ranked a few Japanese women's universities based on their students’ availability for having sex at drinking parties. The magazine, however, apologized following outrage on social media.

The magazine published an article based on drinking parties in its Dec. 25 issue. The article ranked five women's universities based on how easily the girl students could be convinced for having sex at those parties, local daily Mainichi reported. The article further wrote about how to “coax” women and to gauge whether a woman was available for sex based on her dressing style and clothing, BBC reported.

Following the furor, the editorial department of the magazine issued a statement extending an apology.

“We would like to apologize for using sensational language to appeal to readers about how they can become intimate with women and for creating a ranking... with real university names... that resulted in a feature that may have offended readers,” the magazine’s editorial department said in a statement seen by Agence France-Presse, and quoted by several media outlets.

Takashi Inukai, editor-in-chief of the magazine, reportedly said they used the controversial description in an attempt "to try to appeal to readers." Takashi further said they should have chosen some other description like female students with whom "you can have a closer relationship."

Social media was flooded with anger over the article.

Kazuna Yamamoto, a 21-year-old senior at International Christian University in Tokyo, filed a petition on change.org demanding an apology and suspension of the article. The petition had garnered over 40,000 supporters against a set target of 50,000, at the time of publishing this article.

"I would like to fight so that especially on public articles such as this one, sexualizing, objectifying and disrespecting women would stop. We demand Shuukan Spa to take this article back and apologize, and promise to not use objectifying words to talk about women. This sexualizing of women is not funny," Kazuna wrote.

Kazuna also released a video speaking about the article and accused the magazine for frequently writing derogatory articles about women.

Meanwhile, representatives from the universities mentioned on the list also denounced the article.

"In its Dec. 25, 2018 issue, Shukan Spa! published an article that treats women in a disparaging and misogynistic way. This university finds this and similar articles that damage the honor and dignity of women extremely deplorable," Ferris University in Yokohama, one of the five universities mentioned on the list, reportedly said in a statement.

Jissen Women's University, another listed university located in Hino, said the Tokyo-based institution had sent a protest letter to the publisher of the magazine.

"We strongly protest that the magazine printed an article that led to women being insulted and damaged the honor and dignity of our university as well as its students," the letter reportedly said.