Tall stories from Japan
Sir: Not long ago you published a story by a woman who claimed to have been the vic- tim of a rape attempt by a geisha in Japan (`Girls will be boys', 17 September 1994). Now you grace your pages with the unsup- ported assertion that Japanese mothers habitually commit incest with their sons, with whom they apparently sleep into their late teens (Where some sons do have them', 18 January). Worse, you used both stories to lend your cover a prurience unworthy of you — doubtless to attract sales. Ho, ho! you seem to be saying; aren't Japanese sexual habits peculiar! A soft tar- get, since you can be sure not to get a sting- ing riposte from Tokyo.
As a journalist you, in the tradition of your distinguished predecessors, ought to denounce ignorance and credulity — not condone it. Or do you actually believe this Sunday Sport-style nonsense? I might just might — be inclined to give some cre- dence to these claims if I didn't know the authors as both friends and contemporaries when I, too, lived in Japan. It is well known that long-term foreign residents who nei- ther speak nor read Japanese suffer from a form of sensory confusion which eventually undermines their grip on reality.
Now, what I can reveal is that Japanese women have a . . . well, I'm sure you'll find someone to write about that, too.
Stephen Barber 11 Chepstow Villas,
London W11
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