Sexual behavior of Japanese tourists visiting Thailand a key informant approach

Abstract

        This study described the sexual behavior of Japanese tourists with local people during visiting Thailand, through qualitative and quantitative data collected from key-informants related to tourism (i.e. sex-workers, tour guides, and beach/boat boys) in 6 major tourist sites during the period from September 2006 to March 2007.
        This study illustrated that some Japanese male and female tourists, may have sought sexual services from several sexual behaviors during their visit to Thailand. Some Japanese male tourists did not want to use condoms, and were only forced to do so by Thai sex workers. Equally important was the observation that certain female Japanese tourists engaged in sexual activities with Thai males, including tour guides, beach-boys/boat-boys, and male commercial sex workers. Although many of them used condoms during their first sexual act together, condom usage dramatically declined with every subsequent sexual act. This study illustrates that some female and male tourists, while visiting Thailand, engage in high risk sexual behavior. Surprisingly, it was found that some Japanese females, especially those under 30 years of age, exhibited sexual behavior that can facilitate the contraction and trans- mission of HIV as well as other sexually transmitted infections. The findings from this study show that educational initiatives should be undertaken in both Japan and Thailand focusing on consistently using condoms with vaginal , anal and oral sex.