Sexual healing in Japan- Paging Marvin Gaye

"THE women who flock to Dr Kim Myong-gan’s clinic in a western suburb of Tokyo are desperate. Invariably they are well-dressed, intelligent and from outwardly stable and normal households.

There is, however, something very important missing from their married lives: sex. "Almost all the women who come to the clinic are married, but those marriages have been sexless for five years, 10 years, even 15 years," says Kim, a sexologist whose radical therapy techniques have won him adulation among Japan’s long-suffering female population.

The prescription for their pain is a date with a member of his hand-picked "sex volunteer corps". A team of 40 men, aged between 32 and 60 and chosen for their looks, sense of humour and ability to listen while the woman unburdens herself of the shortcomings of her husband, is operating in six Japanese cities.

After a meal in an up-market restaurant and a couple of drinks in a bar, they retire to a hotel to complete the healing process."

It is a dangerous job, but someone has to do it.