Before I start, a video to present:

Rape Club – Japan
(I cannot present the video here as the video cannot be embedded)

Waseda University. One of the top universities in Japan, and maybe perhaps the world.
So how did such a prestigious school have such a horrifying club? Or better to be termed as, syndicate? How did it manage to ‘survive and grow’, despite the many controversies surrounding it?

In my interpretation of this case, I view all members of this ‘club’, masterminds and potential victims alike, as one single group.

Firstly, group socialisation.
A situation where the individuals and the group seek to influence each other to best meet their needs.
Let’s bring to mind the mastermind first, Wada Shinichirou and his fellow founders of ‘Super Free’. They have much in common; they are the elites, being Waseda students, and they have uncontrollable desires for lust and money. And so they came together, devising a plan for a club where they can satisfy these desires of theirs.
Now, the potential victims, namely the ladies. Plus a few guys, who are there for the money and, well…sex, as well. Focusing on only the women, as the video as pointed out, the main attraction of such a club was that they could know elites from a much higher school, thus a chance of meeting their prospective SUCCESSFUL partners in life.
And so, they formed a sort of inter-reliance with one another, and this led to the start of the expansion of the club.

Then the evaluation process comes in.
Disregarding the victims (sadly) in this case, the members continued to stay on in such a club because of the benefits. Like in the video, other than the rave parties they hold all the time, profits from the membership of the club were also distributed to the members. Taken from Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, July 1, 2003:
“High-ranking members reportedly received a bigger share of profits from the ticket sales“,
it was clear that the duration of the membership was recognised as some sort of allegiance to the club, thus illustrating the fact that full membership had to be grown.
And now giving the benefit of doubt to the other male members of the club, some might not have agreed to the idea of rape, but they may have been too tempted by the presence of monetary gains to risk rejection by the other members, and especially the founders, and so they had to ‘acquire idiosyncrasy credit’ by accepting the ‘norm’.

Then comes groupthink, which I believe is the glaring similarity between all cults.
On groupthink: “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action”
-Irving James
This ‘Super Free’, as mentioned in the video above, functioned close enough like a cult. Groupthink is rather prominent in ‘Super Free’, though it’s more for the male members of the group. They, especially Wada, believed they were untouchable. As taken from an article by Ryann Connell, staff writer for Mainichi Shimbun:
“twisted Liberal Democratic Party stalwart Seiichi Ota publicly defended the accused rapists, calling them “close to normal” and saying that rape was a sign of virility“.
Wada and the rest clearly had some sort of support from a much higher authority, thus their belief in the club’s invincibility. And with this belief, they were free to follow their set of rules and morals, or in this case, immorals. The male members start to expect a new victim after every rave party or gathering. These acts are, in no doubt, vile, but these lustful young men totally disregard such a notion and continued in what they had grown to believe as ‘normal’.
Collective rationalisation at work here?

Well, I believe many would be ‘pissed’ at the existence of such a club. (Boys with weird thinking, please do not comment~)
This may not appease everyone, but the reason I wrote in past tense for this case is because Super Free had been disbanded, after Wada and around 13 others were arrested and jailed.

Now, would you still sway unconditionally towards any ideas, as long as ‘elites’ are involved?
(Hope my grammar…can be understood.)

References:

Wikipedia – Super Free

Geocities – Mainichi Shimbun INTERACTIVE

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