Enjo Kousai

pay up mister

Enjo-kōsai (援助交際?) means "compensated dating" or "assisted dating" (that kinda makes it sound like a elderly assisting program or some dating agency) and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship, and possibly sexual favors.

Reportedly on the decline, the phenomenon once provided relief for two subsections of society, Japan's rich but sexually depressed CEO's and the financially impoverished kogaru (young school girls), desperate to keep up with expensive trends and transient fashions.  Although the female participants range from primarily school-age girls to housewives.

A common misconception is that enjo-kōsai always involves some form of sexual activity.  It can and in that sense it is child prostitution, but in most cases enjo-kōsai dates consists of groups of girls going with a group of older men to a karaoke bar for several hours and being paid for their time, its also pretty common in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.