# Do Japanese Mothers Masturbate Their Sons To Put Them To Sleep?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 29, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090 "2004-03-29T15:49:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/1 "2004-03-29T15:49:30Z")
Is it true that it is not an uncommon practice for Japanese mothers to manually masturbate their sons’ penises to help them fall asleep at night?
Also, is it true that in Japan, the parents sleep in the same bed with their children, and that this practice is continued throughout childhood? If so, do the parents have sex with one another while the childen are in the same bed, or are they asked to sleep in their own beds on certain nights??
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/2 "2004-03-29T16:02:37Z")
Is it true that hate speech threads can get you banned? :rolleyes:
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/3 "2004-03-29T16:04:43Z")
I believe this has been discussed here in a previous thread. Still, I’m at a loss to explain why the sons can’t just do it themselves. Freud and Pavlov would have had a field day with this one.
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/4 "2004-03-29T16:15:08Z")
> [@lieu](#):
>
> I believe this has been discussed here in a previous thread. Still, I’m at a loss to explain why the sons can’t just do it themselves. Freud and Pavlov would have had a field day with this one.
Because they would be too young, I would assume. I heard the same story about some african ethnicity. But it refered to babies, who wouldn’t be able to do it themselves.
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/5 "2004-03-29T16:20:12Z")
#1 seems to have originated as a tabloid-style sensationalist report in Japan about the “overworked high-school-student with obsessive parents” phenom (“anything to help him make the high exam score!”). It’s not _normal_, not any more than the people on the Springer show are normal Americans. Of course, those lovely folks out there in Japan, the authors of porn comics, knowing a good sick kink when they see one, have proceeded to crank out several million pages of these scenarios thus further embedding it in the collective media-cliché consciousness.
#2 is more of a misconflation of various ways of living through history. Through most of the past, most of the population would indeed have grown up sleeping in the same room, on the same floormat, _because that was all there was_. Well, guess what, the-whole-family-in-the-same-room was the norm in a LOT of the world, through a LOT of recorded history. I’m pretty sure the Japanese managed the same way _our_ ancestors did.
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/6 "2004-03-29T16:24:36Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#):
>
> Is it true that hate speech threads can get you banned? :rolleyes:
And how do you construct the OP’s apparently genuine question as being hate speech? To be so, it should be :
-A statement, while it’s a question
-False, which has not been established yet.
-And finally offensive, and apart from your “eek” factor, I can’t perceive anything inherently wrong with a mother masturbating her baby in order to put it to sleep.
---
### Author:  [@Greyson3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greyson3)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/7 "2004-03-29T16:27:38Z")
> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> Because they would be too young, I would assume. I heard the same story about some african ethnicity. But it refered to babies, who wouldn’t be able to do it themselves.
Babies can do it themselves. I really, really hope I don’t need a cite for this.
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/8 "2004-03-29T16:28:14Z")
Wasn’t the “original” report of the mother performing oral sex on her son?
Gawd, don’t let my mind have made that part up.
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/9 "2004-03-29T16:31:37Z")
Yeah, it was oral.
Man, that just gives me the shudders.
---
### Author:  [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/10 "2004-03-29T16:32:27Z")
Thanks, **clairobscur**.
To clarify, I’m not suggesting that their is anything ‘wrong’ with either of these two practices, I’m just looking to verify some things I had read over the weekend.
And **JRDelirious** ’s point about families sleeping together being the ‘norm’ throughout human history is well taken.
---
### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/11 "2004-03-29T16:52:13Z")
[Here is the “original report.”](http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0201/020106moms.html) As you can see, the source for this ranks right up there with some of the goofier tabloids available in the US and UK.
---
### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/12 "2004-03-29T17:07:16Z")
Some time ago I was visiting a couple who have two young daughters. We were in the living room and the one aged almost 4 was watching TV, sucking her thumb, sitting on an armchair with her legs spread out, one over each armrest. She looked quite cute and I called her mother’s attention to her as we talked. The mother looked at her and said to me “Yeah, she masturbates all the time”. Only then did I realize her other hand was down her pants and what she was doing with it. I was quite embarrassed for a moment but thank goodness the conversation just went on. I was just taken aback for a moment at how naturally it was said. In later visits I have noticed the girl does enjoy touching herself and sucking her thumb and nobody has told her not to do it. I hope she stops doing it in public before she turns 18.
It seems to me boys could do it just as well.
---
### Author:  [@dorfl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorfl)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/13 "2004-03-29T17:20:36Z")
As far as I understand, technically it is only masturbation when the person has reached sexual maturity, read puperty.
You can already see very small babies (less than 6 months), uh, “touching” themselves.
---
### Author:  [@vasyachkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vasyachkin)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/14 "2004-03-29T17:34:51Z")
> [@sailor](#):
>
> Some time ago I was visiting a couple who have two young daughters. We were in the living room and the one aged almost 4 was watching TV, sucking her thumb, sitting on an armchair with her legs spread out, one over each armrest. She looked quite cute and I called her mother’s attention to her as we talked. The mother looked at her and said to me “Yeah, she masturbates all the time”. Only then did I realize her other hand was down her pants and what she was doing with it. I was quite embarrassed for a moment but thank goodness the conversation just went on. I was just taken aback for a moment at how naturally it was said. In later visits I have noticed the girl does enjoy touching herself and sucking her thumb and nobody has told her not to do it. I hope she stops doing it in public before she turns 18.
>
> It seems to me boys could do it just as well.
aged 4 or aged 14 ?
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/15 "2004-03-29T17:41:07Z")
Talk about turning the tables.
I keep imagining it now being the mother turn to ask the son…
Are we almost there yet?
Are we almost there yet?
Are we almost there yet?
---
### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/16 "2004-03-29T17:41:48Z")
> [@clairobscur](#):
>
> And how do you construct the OP’s apparently genuine question as being hate speech? To be so, it should be :
>
> -A statement, while it’s a question
>
> -False, which has not been established yet.
>
> -And finally offensive, and apart from your “eek” factor, I can’t perceive anything inherently wrong with a mother masturbating her baby in order to put it to sleep.
You’re saying that a false, offensive statement is tantamount to “hate speech”?
Re: you’re value judgment on the act in question, I’m guessing a few tens of millions of Americans would have a major problem with this, especially if it involved, say, a father and his daughter. What the hell’s wrong with a lullabye?
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/17 "2004-03-29T17:49:01Z")
_Rock-a-bye, baby
In the treetop
When the mom blows
The libido will rock
When the kid breaks
The joy juice will fall
And down will cum baby
Color me appalled_
---
### Author:  [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/18 "2004-03-29T18:00:08Z")
> [@Surreal](#):
>
> Also, is it true that in Japan, the parents sleep in the same bed with their children, and that this practice is continued throughout childhood? If so, do the parents have sex with one another while the childen are in the same bed, or are they asked to sleep in their own beds on certain nights??
You make it sound like some bizarre culture-specific practice known only in Japan. Plenty of people around the world, including Americans, sleep in the same bed with their kids.
I believe most people have sex elsewhere or while their children are not in the bed with them.
Here’s a message board of folks who share their beds with their kids:
[http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppfamilybed](http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppfamilybed)
---
### Author:  [@aeropl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aeropl)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/19 "2004-03-29T18:08:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally Posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor:
>
> Is it true that hate speech threads can get you banned?
Is that a joke?
To the OP: There have been many cultures that have had practices that would be considered sexually deviant (even criminally so) in our society. In a Human Sexuality psychology course I remember briefly studying some practices that sounded like the OP, although I don’t think it was Japan.
In particular, I remember one culture where it was accepted for the males to perform fellatio on boys when they reached puberty. Don’t believe me until I find a cite (no time for that now).
---
### Author:  [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090/20 "2004-03-29T21:03:58Z")
> [@aeropl](#):
>
> In particular, I remember one culture where it was accepted for the males to perform fellatio on boys when they reached puberty. Don’t believe me until I find a cite (no time for that now).
You’re probably thinking of the [Sambia](http://www.leidenuniv.nl/fsw/iuaes/aids/sambia.htm), who believe that boys must ingest semen in order to become men.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-japanese-mothers-masturbate-their-sons-to-put-them-to-sleep/237090.md?page=2)