A Day in the Life of a Schoolgirl Pantsu Seller

Selling used underwear to Japan’s ample population of perverts now ranks alongside “enjo kousai” prostitution as a way for Japanese schoolgirls to easily trade their dignity for quick cash with which to fund their need for designer goods and extra pocket money; one plain-looking 13-year-old girl, still a virgin, candidly discusses her line of work.

She begins:

“I’m earning money selling my pantsu.

The market rate for a pair I’ve worn a day is ¥5,000, for 2 days it’s ¥7,000. A week’s wear is worth ¥10,000.

Basically you hand them over in person. If you sell them by mail the price drops. Options like taking them off ‘fresh’ or having ‘touching’ increase the price.

For some reason even boys can sell them – gyaru-oh [male equivalent of ‘gyaru’] can sell them for a similar price. But female gyaru [female fashion tribe] aren’t very well received.

A girl like me, who looks normal, is best.”

She explains how she uses the Internet to lure out perverts so she can hawk her soiled underwear to them for easy megabucks:

“I access BBSes with my mobile, with pitches like ‘Young girl selling pantsu’ and ‘I’m a JC [middle school girl]. I have pantsu.’

People who want to buy them will send mails. We decide the date and time and meet in person to exchange them.

Often the place is the stairwell of one of the commercial buildings in Akiba. Frequently I meet my friends doing the same thing there too. There are a lot of girls doing this who are virgins and don’t sully their bodies.

But there are some who’ve been blackmailed – ‘If you don’t do it with me I’ll expose you’ – they went to the police.”

She describes a typical business excursion – she buys 4 pairs at a supermarket for the sale price of ¥1,000 in advance of the day, then goes off with a friend to meet a buyer arranged previously, telling her mother she is going to study:

“The pantsu I sell I buy myself, then wear and store them. Actually I have three here I wore for a day, and one pair I put on for 5 minutes in a rush this morning. I’ll keep that secret from the customer.”

This time she is set to receive ¥20,000 for 4 pairs, all of which she plans to spend on a fashionable bag the same day. After half an hour of waiting she gives up, her buyer a no-show.

“About a third of the time they don’t show.

I think they’re just window shopping or getting cold feet on the day.

Ah, goddamn it!”

The girl’s polite veneer begins to crack upon learning that her designer bag will have to wait until another day – there are, however, always other fish in the sea.

Although outlawed in many areas, selling used underwear to Japan’s seemingly well-heeled population of pantsu sniffing hentai remains an irrepressible trade, with word of mouth long since having given way to mobile phones and the Internet, despite government efforts to censor the Internet access of minors and regular police action against the virtual venues in which the trade continues.

Searching online reveals such adverts in locations running the length of Japan, from Kyushu to Hokkaido:

“It’s a bright day and we’ll be in Akihabara today to sell our pantsu. Two JC. ¥1600 a pair.”

“I’m looking for a pantsu buyer in Kanto. JC. I really need the cash, so please get in touch soon!”

Where legal loopholes exist the trade takes place in the open, otherwise Japan’s vast network of underground BBSes make finding a buyer easier than ever, serving every deranged need from coordinating gang molestations to trading pet schoolgirls.

Perhaps the only mystery about the ongoing trade is just how so many Japanese men became obsessed with schoolgirl pantsu sniffing.

Sniffing used undergarments might be big business, but this trade may be but the tip of the iceberg.

An apparently unprecedented number of Japanese girls now see that the easiest way to keep themselves supplied with brand goods is to hawk their flesh online, trading sex to strangers and classmates alike, safe in the knowledge that the law will always regard them as victims and police are always on hand to arrest problematic patrons if need be.