By all appearances, 71-year-old Shozo Ikeda leads a life many men of his age would dream of. For starters, his wife, Jo, at age 42, is young enough to be his daughter. The happy couple live in Thailand, Jo's home country, where the low cost of living means that Ikeda, a former taxi driver, can live like a king on his pension of ¥160,000 a month.
As a Japanese living the high life in Thailand, Ikeda is hardly alone. In the city where he lives, Chiang Mai, an estimated 3,000-4,000 Japanese are long-term residents. Like Ikeda, most are elderly and male.
What's the draw? According to the magazine, it's largely the local women.
I don't think old men with money marrying young women without is news to anyone from any part of the world in any moment in history. And mixing up the formula by getting married in foreign countries is just a minute detail of globalism. But every time this topic comes up, I am forced to wonder what's worse:
women marrying for old money, or men marrying for young poonany?
Monday, September 24, 2007
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3 comments:
Hey Anne,
I guess I'm the sweet young thing who imported an older guy from abroad.
Oh well!
Laurel
Men marrying young women for sex is worse, because the alternative for men who have decent economic resources (having to find and sustain relationships based on social interaction instead of commerce) is not as awful as the alternative for women don't (living in grinding poverty while trying to pursue limited opportunities in less than hot economies).
Laurel - is your older guy rich, though? hahaha.
anonymous - (is this the same one who corrected my "60m" error?) you are absolutely right.
sidenote: my support always tends towards the "vaginaed" party in the equation. it's even perversely impressive to me when a woman can take complete control of her life and then her man's. (different when they command women lovers, for some reason.)
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