Japan magazine ranks varsities on sexual availability of female students; faces flak

Tokyo, Jan 9: In what made a bizarre news, a Japanese magazine has tendered apology after coming up with an article that ranked women's universities on the degree of ease of convincing students to have sex at drinking revels.

The magazine named 'Spa!', a weekly one, printed an interview of Keiji Isogimi, manager of matchmaking site Lion Project, ranked five colleges the students of which were allegedly "sexually easy" at parties. He also spoke on how to "coax" women and judge whether a woman is sexually ready to be availed based on her external appearance and clothing.

The article led to a severe backlash on the social media. A petition accusing it of "sexualising, objectifying and disrespecting women" got 35,000 signatures as of Tuesday, January 8. The apology came soon after.

It was said on the magazine's behalf that it wrote specifically about drinking parties where men paid fees to women.

"We would like to apologise for using sensational language to appeal to readers about how they can become more familiar with women, and for making a ranking based on (Mr Isogimi's) experience that mentioned real university names - which came out in a way that may have offended readers," Takashi Inukai, a spokesperson for the magazine, said.