Asia After Hours

Weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino is likely not the first publication one might peruse for updates on the ongoing developments following the Great Tohoku Earthquake — that is, unless there is an interest in how the region’s sex-related establishments are faring.

In its Mar. 31 issue, the tabloid somewhat surprisingly reports that Miyagi Prefecture’s biggest adult entertainment area in Sendai is functioning on a limited basis.

The lifelines of Sendai, which has suffered greatly following the Mar. 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, are starting to come back to life. Shops have begun to operate as their services are gradually being restored.

From the area’s largest red-light district, Kokubuncho, located in the city’s Aoba Ward, a reporter tells Asagei that electricity and water services are slowly coming back to life. “Some shops have started to sell yakitori on the streets during the day,” the source adds. “A convenience store has reopened and there are long lines. Ladies can be seen wearing make-up and sporting mini-skirts. We are beginning to see the light.”

However, only some entertainment establishments are in operation during the evening.

“A few bars are open, but they don’t have any food, only drinks,” continues the same reporter. “Only one kyabakura club is open, and the three hostesses who were able to show up for work were accommodating ten customers. These guys looked to be locals in their 40s and 50s.”

During the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, soaplands offered their bathtubs to those impacted by the disaster. Sendai, the tabloid postulates, has not yet reached that stage.

In midst of this, however, deri heru joints (out-call sex operations) are functioning, with some even offering housing to displaced female staff members. The magazine advises that services are limited to the central part of the city.

One of them is Celeb Garden, which began operation four days after the earthquake.

“While customers are calling, we are just operating on a limited basis,” says a representative of the club, whose Web site offers a hotel plan that starts at 17,000 yen for 70 minutes. “Unfortunately, out of 100 girls, there are a few whose whereabouts we cannot confirm. I just wanted to reassure them by opening the office to offer them a place to stay if they had lost homes.”

The manager at club S-style tells the tabloid that they are also trying re-establish contact with some female employees. “One of our girls lives in the central section of Sendai,” says the manager of the club, which has been steadily receiving reservations from customers. “She encouraged me by saying that the club has to keep moving forward. Our competitors may be closing their shops, but we cannot let all the lights go out in Sendai.” (K.N.)

Source: “Hisaichi no kanrakugai ha ima Sendai de deri heru eigyo shite ita!” Shukan Asahi Geino (Mar. 31, pages 34-35)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: unranked

At around 22:50 on the evening of Feb. 4, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27) investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Dept. raided “United Lounge Tokyo,” a high-class cabaret club allegedly operating illegally in Tokyo’s ritzy Azabu district.

Once their eyes adjusted to the surroundings, the cops blinked and ogled in astonishment.

“It was like we were standing in a deluxe hotel,” one is quoted as saying.

Occupying all 80 tsubo (about 265 square meters) — an entire floor in a four-story building in one of Tokyo’s swankest residential areas — United featured private rooms equipped with karakoke, expensive sofas and an enormous wine cellar stocked with Chatau Margaux, Romanee-Conti and other premium labels priced as high as 1.5 million yen per bottle.

Another attraction was its grand piano, described as a type so rare only a few exist in the world.

“United had about 6,600 members who each paid 10,000 yen to join,” says the police source. “The members included politicians, entertainers, professional athletes, business executives and the like. One famous singer would come here and drop about 1 million yen in the course of one evening.”

Another of United’s attractions was 101 women who were registered to work there as hostesses, all described as “good-looking and fashionable women in their early 20s.” Some of them reportedly held daytime jobs as “race queens” or models, but about one third were students at prestigious private or public universities in the Tokyo area.

“They could earn 100,000 to 150,000 a month working there part time, but actually the had an ulterior motive for working there,” the investigator explained.

It seems that with the “ice age” situation in corporate hiring this year’s university graduates are currently facing, the young women were hoping that by toiling evenings at United they might get lucky and link up with some free-spending businessmen and other patrons, and hopefully landing a job in the process.

But United had not obtained an entertainment business license, and instead of giving its hostesses a contract, had treated them on the books as “customers.”

Under police questioning, reports Sankei, the young women had given such explanations as “There were some customers in showbiz, so I thought I might get a chance to find work,” and “My ulterior motive for working there was to charm my way into a job.”

Somewhat strangely, the article did not mention any names of persons arrested in the sweep. (K.S.)

Source: “Hosutesu nerai wa shukatsu,” Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27, page 26)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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The arrival of a Hooters outlet to Tokyo earlier this year caused many tabloids to associate the move with kurofune, or black ships, a term often used for a non-Japanese person or entity who holds a threatening marketing position, but Shukan Taishu reports that Japan is no slouch when it comes to dining in a sleazy atmosphere.

With the economy still in a tailspin, the weekly tabloid explains that it is important to understand is that customers are still tight with their spending.

“Restaurant businesses in Japan typically provide a wide variety of choices,” says a reporter from the economic section of a national newspaper. “But offering good-tasting dishes alone is not enough to attract customers. With deflation ongoing, price competition is very tense, and services need to be designed such that they go beyond what has been in the past.”

The “girl’s izakaya,” which is an establishment characterized by waitresses with exposed midriffs, is now garnering attention.

Tokyo’s Kanda district appears to be a decent place to get a taste, so to speak. At Izakaya Tsubasa, the female servers serve pork dishes while outfitted in an “army look,” which means very skimpy camouflage skirts and tops. Also in Kanda is Izakaya Anzu, where signed photos of the waitresses are available as souvenirs.

If mini-skirted kimono gals are your preference, then Shinjuku’s Komachi is a good option. But if you find shirt sleeves a tad confining, stop inside Izakaya Sakura Project, where the ladies are bare from finger to shoulder. Got a thing for nurses? Well, then head down to Osaka’s Izakaya 1969, where white-uni-clad gals offer beer and a menu similar to that of a hospital.

“The price range is reasonable,” says a managing director at one of the izakayas, “and these places are popular among those who cannot afford girl’s bars and kyabakura joints. While there is no intimate hospitality, customers are allowed to enjoy casual talk with young and sexy ladies.”

Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 6) covers similar territory but digs a bit deeper to find a few places that are more interactive. At Peachs John in Tokyo’s Tachikawa district, guests ordering the “marshmallow catch” are entitled to snatch a sugary treat that has been suspended from the crotch area of a hostess.

Shukan Taishu adds that securing staff at one of these outlets is a challenge. “Good looks and an outgoing personality are important,” explains another managing director. “We only find 2 or 3 suitable gals out of ten we interview. These qualities are something we cannot compromise upon.” (K.N.)

Source: “Ichido ha itte mitai 20 uniiku izakaya,” Shukan Taishu (Jan. 3)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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A young girl plying the trade known as enjokosai, or compensated dating, is hardly new. Yet, observes Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 19), the glut of school gals on summer break and the harsh economy are combining to make present conditions in Tokyo anything but a seller’s market.

The tabloid cites the entertainment areas of Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Shibuya as common hot spots. Many young females migrate from the countryside and must offer sharp discounts, or gekiyasu enko, as slashed bonuses for salaried workers have become the norm.

Seated on a street corner is a 19-year-old from Niigata Prefecture. “I came to Tokyo to earn money for one week,” says the brown-haired girl. “I have only have a few hundred yen. Tonight I can’t find anyone. If someone will pay 5,000 yen and the hotel fee that’s acceptable…”

In Shibuya, the writer finds a deeply tanned female in a miniskirt. She does not offer sex, only hand-jobs, and handles five customers a day. Referred to as tekoki enko, the service costs 3,000 yen a pull.

Oftentimes, however, the girls will abstain from independent contracting and utilize agents, who entice prospective talent with rates of 50,000-yen per day. On websites or through ads in evening sports newspapers, the pimps will collect clients interested in Lolita-like lasses and arrange a deri heru, or call-girl, setup at a love hotel.

“A high school girl and can get 50,000 yen a day,” explains a writer for a national daily. “For a middle school girl it’s around 70,000 yen. But recently elementary school girls have been able to fetch 120,000 yen for one shot.”

The money is just one thing, says the writer. The girls also find the arrangement safer than working solo as the chances for trouble from an uncooperative client are reduced.

“If the police crack down on one organized service,” continues the source, “there will always be another ready to serve. There are so many students out on summer vacation.”

Cafes described as deai-kei establishments oftentimes will specialize in matching hookers with Johns. Girls enter free and can enjoy surfing the Web or reading manga comics. Guys observe their activities through a one-way mirror and then choose a girl who meets their fancy. The couple will then move to another booth and talk for 10 minutes. If an agreement is brokered, the guy will pay a fee to the cafe and transportation costs to the girl before heading out on a date.

Once summer vacation starts, Shukan Jitsuwa notes, the cafes are at full capacity.

“Most deai cafes are just for prostitution purposes,” explains fuzoku writer Yukio Murakami. “Probably 70 to 80 percent of the girls will allow sex if the money is right.”

The magazine then moves on to a street filled with kyabakura clubs, which offer hostess services, to examine the swindling of university students.

Waseda, Rikkyo, Meiji and Gakushuin universities are usually well represented but nowadays Tsuda College and Aoyama Gakuin University, known as “princess” schools since girls from wealthy families often attend, are entering the picture.

The con takes place at the recruitment stage. Students will be offered a generic kyabakura role only to later find out that the establishment is a sekukyaba,, where the kissing and fondling of exposed breasts is offered, or ichakyaba, in which touching takes place through worn garments.

“Even when they find out that touching and kissing are allowed they won’t quit because they are getting paid,” says a kyabakura employee. “It’s easy to trick them because they don’t know how the night world works.”

Runaways, it seems, have it no better. Wayward females will post requests for lodging on online sites. “In the postings, they’ll use the word kami (god) to describe the potential suitor but really he is an okami (wolf),” explains an editor at a fuzoku rag. “Since no one will offer free lodging, they are going to want sex. And since they are runaways, they have no means of recourse if there is a problem. I know of one girl that wound up shooting up on dope and got raped.”

Speaking of drugs, the use of shabu is escalating at an alarming rate, reports the magazine. Inexperienced girls will try it for the first time at a club, perhaps in Shibuya. “The girls will be told by a seller that they can get high on MDMA for 5,000 yen,” says a person in the club industry. “MDMA is a drug that enhances sexual pleasure, and one hit could lead to repeated use.”

Law enforcement authorities tell the tabloid that summer can be the start of a dangerous descent. “They might think that they are doing enko ‘only for summer vacation,’” says a source related to the police. “But that is just the beginning. There could be stress so they might go to a host club. They might also start up with drugs, pile up debts, get mentally sick or suffer a physical ailment. Life can get bizarre. It’s dangerous earning money in the sex trade, and it’s best to be on guard.” (A.T.)

Source: “Nettaiya ni ugomeku aoise wo uru shojotachi michaku 24ji,” Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 19, pages 52-54)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: unranked

With the illegal gambling activities of sumo wrestlers having been duly exposed in recent weeks, Weekly Playboy (July 26) reports that underground casinos are now coming under fire.

“After the story concerning sumo wrestlers and baseball betting broke, three illegal gambling operations in Kabukicho were raided,” explains one illegal casino operator. “They included an a gaming room, an Internet operation and poker game shop. I am very worried about a raid on my place.”

What’s going on?

“Normally there are two patterns for the raids,” explains a member of the National Police Agency, who refused to be named. “The first case is when customers or others in the industry report an illegal operation. The second occurs when higher-ups order the police to raid a particular place.

“If it’s a customer or person in the industry leaking information, then the raid will be only place shop,” the source continues. “However, if (Tokyo Gov. Shintaro) Ishihara announces that he wants to pursue the establishment of a legal casino in Tokyo, for example, multiple places will be raided.”

The representative of the police adds that the Japan Racing Association may also request the busting of operations offering illegal, off-track satellite wagering. The crackdown then on the three Kabukicho parlors is unprecedented, the source says.

Customers are feeling the backlash.

“At poker clubs in Kabukicho, it used to be that players could start out up 500,000 yen and then if they continued they might go down one million yen,” explains an owner of a kyabakura chain who enjoys betting on poker machines. “Now, you can burn through two or three million yen from the start and not see one royal flush or a four of a kind.”

The owner of a fuzoku club likes baccarat. “Before, it would be 50-50, win or lose,” the source says. “Not knowing whether one will win or lose is the is the fun of gambling, and the customer would keep playing. But now, it’s all losing.”

An underground casino manager says that everyone is being targeted. “We don’t know which place will be raided next,” the owner explains. ” So the owners of the clubs want to earn as much as possible now. As a result, the regulars lose all the time. I feel bad for them. But I have to do it. I can’t go against upper management.” (A.T)

Source: “Ura kajino jyankii tachi ga rensen renpai no naze?” Weekly Playboy (July 26, page 10)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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In a love hotel district of Tokyo, a minivan picks up a young woman. “What the hell were you doing?” she barks to the driver. “You are behind schedule.”

Kotaro Nishijima, which is not his real name, smiles in acknowledging his female passenger, who is young enough to be his daughter.

He currently earns 300,000 yen each month transporting gals in the deri heru trade (out-call sex) to their clients — a far cry from his days as head of a group of 80 that carried out frauds via phone communication (furikome sagi), which typically involves deceiving victims into wiring large sums of money to the group’s bank account.

With Tokyo cracking down on such activities, the 41-year-old tells Spa! (May 25), in an article that profiles a selection of former philanderers, that in his previous line of work he reeled in 700 million yen a month.

“I used to say that I am making as much in one month as Ichiro makes in a year,” he remembers. “I didn’t purchase big-ticket items, like houses or cars, because if I were to get arrested they’d be used as evidence. Also, when one realizes he can buy anything, one loses appetite for it.”

Nishijima served two years following his arrest. Others, too, have recently been taken into custody, including one group head known as the “king,” who was served a 20-year term by the Tokyo District Court.

While one may assume that these aggressive moves by law enforcement are paying off, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department reported 155 cases of fraud in the month of April alone, the most in a single month since November of 2008.

“Those who engage in such fraud are either small-timers or those who are operating at the bottom rungs of organizations with a lot of money,” explains a member of an organized crime group.

Research dating back to 2006 reveals that there were six groups engaged in these scams. Four of them, including their subgroups, had withdrawn by 2007 and focused on other businesses.

“Those who couldn’t reinvent themselves at the time or switch over to different lines of work are going down pretty hard,” says the same gangster.

Nishijima reveals to Spa! the often splurged his gains inside kyabakura clubs. “My subordinates and myself would sit in one place for 5 minutes and then move onto the next,” he explains. “We were playing such foolish games. There was a time when we went to 20 of these places in one night, using around 6 million yen. One time we reserved the entire place and hid one million yen in cash for a treasure hunt. We also splashed Dom Pérignon Rosé on the waiters.

“We wound up buying one kyabakura joint specifically for money laundering,” he continues. “I managed the place but concealed my ownership, and since the money I used there would be coming back to me I appeared to be a very affluent person. The girls thought I was rich, and I was banging many of them. Personnel costs, however, were more than I had expected, and the money laundering angle didn’t really work out as expected.”

Nishijima eventually became a high-profile person, which led to an attack by thieves. “I woke up one night in severe pain. Masked men had beaten me up bad and I passed out. I found that 200 million yen hidden under floor boards had been taken. I knew this was done by a former subordinate. When groups dissolve, people can get physical to find cash.”

He just took the hit as he was afraid of arrest if her reported it to the police. Nonetheless, the group did get busted later on. But since his role as a senior member was not proved, he only had to serve two years.

After his release, he used 100 million yen that he had been hiding to open a hamburger shop, but that failed and he was left with no money.

“Even today, I dream those days when I was playing at the kyabakura,” says Nishijima who nowadays hits a cheap izakaya two or three times a week. “But then I wake up to realize that I am here in this six-tatami room. It makes me really sad.” (K.N.)

Source: “Furikome sagi tachino awarena batsuro” Spa! (May 25, pages 28-29)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Although the practice has been banned by local ordinances, aggressive “scouts” can still be found on the streets of Tokyo and other big cities, energetically recruiting young women to work in bars and sex shops.

To get around the laws, some have moved their activity indoors, only to find that illegal as well. Last week Yasuhiro Fuseishi, a 36-year-old former actor, was arrested for arranging parties at which young women were encouraged to take up the world’s oldest profession.

In addition to Fuseishi, Nikkan Gendai (Mar. 13) reports that a group of these scouts, numbering a dozen in all, were arrested on charges of violating the section in the employment law banning recruitment activities for “undesirable” professions. Police claimed that the group had dispatched between 50 to 70 young women to sex shops, which were kicking back between 10 to 15 percent of the girls’ take, which came to between 3.5 to 4 million yen per month, to the scouts.

“The scouts would accost about 200 women a day,” says a police source. “They even compiled a manual giving pointers on who to approach, with contents like ‘Gals carrying expensive brand-name bags like to show off and are easy to persuade.’ At its peak the group had 16 members.”

“Most of these scouts get about 10 percent of the girl’s monthly turnover,” says “pink” journalist Ikuo Murakami. “In the case of real beauties — rated ‘class A’ — it can go up to 20 percent. If the girl does 3 million yen worth of business, that’ll earn the scout 600,000 yen a month right there. And the money keeps coming in for as long as she stays in the business.

“Sometimes the scouts will work as a girl’s bodyguard on the side as well,” adds Murakami. “But while those at the top of their profession make over 1 million yen, over 70 percent make 200,000 yen or less. Some of them are moonlighting salarymen, who do it to supplement their pay. They make out pretty well, raking in half a million yen or more in a month.” (K.S.)

Source: “Sukautoman wa doredake mokaru?” Nikkan Gendai (Mar. 13, page 7)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Once known as Asia’s top entertainment quarter, Shinjuku Ward’s red-light district of Kabukicho has seen a hallowing out at its core. Monthly magazine Takarajima (April) takes a look at the devastation wrought by police crackdowns and the ongoing recession.

At the end of 2008, the multi-use Koma Stadium, notably known as a home to enka theater performances for a half-century and situated at the heart of Kabukicho, shut its doors. Over a year later, a construction plan for the site has not been set in place. Meanwhile, near JR Shinjuku Station, a large 10-screen cinema complex has since opened at the edge of the Kabukicho boundary. This encroachment, which has forced the shuttering of other long-running theaters in the area, combined with the closing of the cinema screens inside the Koma Stadium complex, has left only four screens remaining in all of Kabukicho, which was once regarded as a cinema Mecca.

The article observes that the buildings surrounding the plaza fronting Koma Stadium have closed many of their shops. The plaza has now become a village of cardboard boxes for homeless seeking low-end lodging space. Visitors are left to wonder where the passion and wildness that once characterized the area has gone.

The downfall commenced in 2003, when Yutaka Takehana was brought over from the National Police Agency by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. Soon after his appointment as vice-governor of public safety, 100 non-licensed businesses, such as ime kura (image clubs), deri heru (delivery health) and pink salons, were closed. By 2004, this fact became readily apparent as the outside of numerous buildings that once housed those establishments were lacking their distinguished signs and had instead been covered with blank placards. Kyabakura (hostess) clubs and shot bars, even those with proper licenses, also came under police scrutiny.

Since then, It has gotten to the point where Kabukicho has lost its sex-service cache: a mere six soaplands, 15 fashion health clubs, and two pink salons are all that remain.

“Shops operating with licenses acquired in the ’80s have a solid reputation for quality services and good-looking women,” explains a fuzoku writer who has knowledge of the area. “They have many regulars. Yet the sexual services they render are conservative and, unlike those shops that arrived in the ’90s, which maintain illegal operations, they do not offer hardcore services. Thus, they are not receiving media attention and do not see first-timers or tourists.”

The same writer further says that walk-in guide shops are using catchy signs to promote deri heru escort services, whereby girls meet clients at love hotels. “The prices are reasonable,” he says, “and this is something available all throughout Tokyo. Love hotels near nearby JR Shin Okubo station are cheaper so there is no real merit for remaining in Kabukicho.”

Also seeing tough times is the anarchy-like area behind the Koma Stadium, known as “Video Village,” where shops sell uncensored DVDs — meaning they lack a scrambling mosaic over the genital areas.

Regarding a police sweep last fall, Takarajima is told by a fuzoku writer that most of the shops in that district were shut down. Further, the profit in peddling illegal DVDs had been small, with 20 copies fetching only 10,000 yen.

“Online it is possible to purchase 30 to 40 DVDs for that same price,” says the writer, “and deflation is also something that they had to contend with. In the past, these shops had a function in that they did not give up your name and accepted cash. Salaried men who came to Tokyo on business trips made visits. Now the village has been destroyed. But if you walk around the neighborhood a guy might approach and ask, ‘DVDs?’ He’ll then take you to a room in an apartment where prices seem to be reasonable.”

The magazine believes that another domino ready to topple is the world of kyabakura, which is characterized by clubs staffed with hostesses who entertain men. It is suffering from the decline in entertainment expenses doled out by companies. However, clubs offering similar options do exist.

Club Gira Gira, which opened last June, is a combination of a girl’s bar and a show pub. Even on weekdays, a line forms outside, the article observes. As the name of the venue implies (giri giri means bright) the interior design is one of shimmering luminescence. During the shows, which are scheduled for three times a day, the bikini-clad ladies dance through the bar — a photo provided shows many to be skillfully suspending themselves from four poles mounted on a mirror-like stage — while music blasts in the background, something akin to club Juliana’s, the famous discothèque often associated with bubble era of the early ’90s.

“I want Kabukicho to regain its strength,” says Mr. Matsumoto, the manager of the club, which offers new customers a one-hour all-you-can-drink package for 4,000 yen. “That’s why we maintain this extravagant style.”

Takarajima then shifts to the K-Pop-styled Wa Bar, an example of another trend hitting the area — that is, bars staffed with lovely Korean female bartenders who are in Japan as students. “In South Korea, bars with female bartenders have been popular for the last ten years,” says Mr. Kin, the manager. “We have now tried that here in Kabukicho. While we cannot provide intimate services like that of a girl’s bar, these girls are fluent in Japanese. So we want customers to engage in friendly conversation.”

The article explains that Wa Bar is indeed a basic watering hole so a budget of 2,000 yen is feasible. In spite of drooling over the prospect of being served copious amounts of alcohol by lovely ladies, the monthly appears largely disappointed, however, that this type of trend has not been genuinely created from within Kabukicho itself.

Had Tokyo won the bid to host the 2016 Olympics, a motivation often cited for the kick-off of the crackdown of 2003, the fate of Kabukicho — including the Koma property — would have been transformed.

What did the clean-up bring? Perhaps this is the time to reassess its consequences, Takarajima supposes, as well as pursue those who should be held liable for the consequences. (K.N.)

Source: “‘Joekasakusen’ to ‘Fukeiki’ de Kabuki-cho wa yake-nohara,” Takarajima (April, pages 134-136)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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In September 2008, a 23-year-old employee of a cabaret club (kyabakura) approached real estate operator Yu Shimojo, 41, for a loan, saying she needed money to care for her sick parents. Shimojo said he would lend her 850,000 yen on the condition that she work it off in a Yoshiwara soapland.

With interest added, reports Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 10), the woman agreed to pay back Shimojo 1,030,000 yen. The shop where she toiled was one of the more reasonable places in Yoshiwara, charging customers a comparatively cheap 20,000 yen for 70 minutes of sudsy recreation.

The woman took up residence in the bathhouse’s dormitory, from which she was not permitted to leave outside of her working hours.

The timing of her bathhouse employment was particularly inauspicious in that she began servicing the debt just when the “Lehman Shock” precipitated a worldwide recession. Bathhouse clientele tapered off drastically, while the remaining balance of her loan more than tripled.

Realizing she faced an eternity of white slavery, the woman fled the shop and took her tale of woe to the police, who found that Shimojo had lined up similar jobs for several other women.

Shimojo and erotic bathhouse manager Minoru Nagashima, 64, were subsequently arrested on suspicion of violating the anti-prostitution law.

“The shop’s entire monthly turnover only came to around 3 million yen,” says a source in the sex industry. “The girls’ earnings ran from 10,000 to 15,000 per day, and at that rate there was no way they could pay off their debt.

“Before, when times were good, a popular girl could have easily worked off a debt of 3 million in a year’s time, but not these days,” the source adds. “Some soapland masseuses at Yoshiwara who have fallen behind on their payments even moonlight as call girls. The typical pattern is for them work at the soaplands until midnight, then go to date clubs at Uguisudani.

“The soaplands know about the moonlighting but look the other way. They aren’t able to pay the girls a decent wage, after all.”

It seems increasing numbers of hard-up young women in their 20s are turning to soaplands for their livelihood. But a glut of females working in the sex industry can also create problems for society, Nikkan Gendai frets. (K.S.)

Source: “Sooputen kara nigedasu shakkin jigoku no onnatachi,” Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 10, page 7)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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