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I have seen the words 売春 and 買春 pronounced "ばいしゅん". From my understanding 売春
is taken from the perspective of the "seller" whereas 買春 is taken from the
perspective of the "buyer". However, when I pronounced the later as "ばいしゅん" in
front of a native, I was told that it is pronounced "かいしゅん" (買春). Is this
reading valid and does it carry a different context when pronounced this way
than the former reading?
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2012-05-30T23:42:58.213
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2012-09-23T00:43:15.343
2012-09-22T06:50:22.520
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question
usage definitions readings
Is "かいしゅん" a valid reading for 買春?
Short answer: Both readings have the same meaning. Whether you consider かいしゅん
as a valid reading of 買春 or not depends on what you count as “valid.”

Some Sino-Japanese words have not only an _on_ reading which is shown in
dictionaries as the primary reading but also an alternative reading which
avoids ambiguity with some other words. 買春 is such a word. According to
dictionaries
([Daijirin](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0ss&stype=1&pagenum=1&index=115469600000),
[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=1&index=14573700&pagenum=1)),
買春 is primarily read as ばいしゅん, but it is often read as かいしゅん to avoid possible
confusion with 売春 because the context is not always enough to distinguish 買春
and 売春. Here かい comes from the _kun_ reading of kanji 買. Whether it is read as
ばいしゅん or かいしゅん, the meaning of the word 買春 does not change.

[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E8%B2%B7%E6%98%A5&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=1&index=02800650&pagenum=1)
lists かいしゅん as an alternative reading of 買春. Daijirin does not. (I suspect
either the word 買春 itself is new or it became common recently, and that the
need for the alternative reading arose recently; but I do not have any source
to back up this speculation.)

Other examples of alternative readings like this are 市立 and 私立. The primary
readings of both words are しりつ, but particularly when talking about schools,
しりつがっこう can mean both 市立学校 (school operated by a city) and 私立学校 (school
operated privately), and this is extremely confusing. Therefore, 市立 is often
read as いちりつ and 私立 is often read as わたくしりつ.

Returning to your question, whether かいしゅん is a valid reading of 買春 or not
depends on how you define the word “valid.” It is common, and there is a
reason for this reading. My personal impression is that reading the word 買春 as
かいしゅん is much more common than reading it as ばいしゅん; at least, I have never
heard 買春 read as ばいしゅん. I think that these are the reasons why you were told
that it is read as かいしゅん. However, not every dictionary lists it as a reading
of 買春.
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2012-05-31T00:31:25.907
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2012-09-23T00:43:15.343
2012-09-23T00:43:15.343
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answer