Hooker housewives dispense tender, loving care to homesick johns

In 1994, a company called the “Otetsudai-san Haken Center” was established in Tokyo’s Otemachi district and immediately found booming demand for its services.

The firm, relates Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 24), targeted tanshin funin salarymen, company staff assigned to jobs in Tokyo where they were not accompanied by their families.

The center would dispatch housewives, dressed in maid uniforms, to call on the residences of these temporary bachelors and for 30,000 yen dispense two hours of housework, including cleaning and laundry, which culminated in a vigorous tumble atop the bed. Read more

On the ‘Tokyo Vice’ beat with Jake Adelstein

TOKYO (TR) – The extortion, racketeering, prostitution and gambling rings associated with Japan’s yakuza criminal organizations have been written up in books and glorified in films too numerous to count. Yet a substantial first-hand peek inside this insidious underworld by a foreign journalist — not straitjacketed by Japan’s rigid press system — has not existed.

Enter reporter Jake Adelstein, a 40-year-old Jewish-American and the author of the recently released memoir “Tokyo Vice,” an account of his 12-year stint of working the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper.

Following the successful completion of the paper’s entry exam in 1993, Adelstein began covering Japan’s seamier side. Written in a fast-paced, acerbic and sometimes humorous style, “Tokyo Vice” recounts his investigations into serial rape, child pornography, murder and his greatest scoop: providing details on how four gangsters were able to travel to the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 to receive liver transplants. “Either erase the story, or we’ll erase you,” was the subsequent threat from the particulars involved. “And maybe your family.” Substantial repercussions linger to this day. Read more

Bargain-basement hymens from Hangchow bleed on demand

The ingredients, read the label on the wrapper, include “non-allergenic natural albumin, a medicated inflation agent, water-soluble base and sodium carboxymethyl.”

Er, miss — are you sure sticking one of these in your vagina seems like a good idea?

Because the above, reports Shukan Post (Nov. 6), is what synthetic hymens imported from China are made from.

Under the name jinko shojomaku, these sham cherries are being imported by individual entrepreneurs and marketed on the Web for around 2,300 yen a pop.

The manufacturer claims that upon insertion, the body temperature causes one to expand across the opening of the whatchamacallit — you know, where babies come out.

As a follow-up to the insertion of a throbbing male organ and the inevitable sound effects, who knows what dialog might actually ensue. Read more

TIFF wraps, ‘Eastern Plays’ from Bulgaria claims top prize

TOKYO (TR) – The 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival closed on Sunday with the award of the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix going to the Bulgarian film “Eastern Plays,” the story of two brothers facing challenges in racial tolerance in Eastern Europe.

“We share a lot of things in our history with our neighboring countries,” said director Kamen Kalev, whose prize comes with $50,000. “There’s still much prejudice going on in our country and I think on their side as well. But we had a good relationship with our crew.”

The film also claimed Best Actor for Christo Cristov.

Jury president Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (director of “Babel”) requested that the jury simply experience each film on its own merits. “I was looking for films that generated emotions and reflections in me and ‘Eastern Plays’ did this,” he said. “This film has a truth that stands out — it has clear intentions and the director achieved that until the end. I’m not looking for reality but truthfulness. The film has a solid and strong exposure of the truth.” Read more

Sex-starved seaman keeps ‘ho on his hook

The September issue of women’s soft porn mag Amour Ura Joho features a gal reminiscing over the time when she fell hook, line and sinker for a deep-sea fisherman.

“I was only able to meet him on rare occasions,” she writes in the column picked up in the latest issue of Shukan Bunshun (Oct. 29). “Sometimes my phone would ring unexpectedly, like at 3 a.m., and he’d say, ‘My ship just returned. I wanna see you right away.’”

Apparently those stories about men away at sea for prolonged times are true, because the guy was hornier than a hammerhead shark in heat.

“He didn’t have a steady job, and the work was damn hard,” she recalls sympathetically. “I guess that’s why his sexual urge was so strong,”

“At some hidden corner of the port he’d cup his hands beneath my bottom and lift me up, and we’d screw standing up with my legs entwined around his hips.” Read more

Kumasaka takes TPG prize

TOKYO (TR) – Japanese writer-director Izuru Kumasaka was on Thursday awarded the Tokyo Project Gathering (TPG) award for his work “Secrets On The Table” — the capper to the four-day market (Oct 19-22) that features new film projects and is affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival.

“Secrets” is a family drama about a girl and her widowed father.

Kumasaka, whose first pic “Asyl: Park and Love Hotel” won the best first feature award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007, received $20,000 worth of post-production services from Technicolor (Thailand).

TPG this year offered a slimmed down lineup of 25 projects versus 34 from a year ago in spite of accepting 50 more submissions. Notable entries included helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Ship Is Yet to Come” and “Six Suspects,” featuring the writing tandem of Vikas Swarup (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and John Hodge (“Trainspotting”). (C.J.)

‘The Cove’ screens at the Tokyo International Film Festival

Louie Psihoyos, director of the controversial dolphin-hunting documentary "The Cove," speaks to the press during the Tokyo International Film Festival

(Photo by Adam McCann, October 21, 2009)

For a story on the TIFF opener, go here. Read more

Hatoyama attends Tokyo International Film Festival opener

(Photo by Adam McCann, October 17, 2009)

For a story on the TIFF opener, go here. For a story on one of Hatoyama’s female colleagues, go here. Read more

Police crackdown on ‘girl’s bars’ no deterrent to erotic offerings

In addition to crackdowns on soaplands and orgy parties that Weekly Playboy routinely features in its pages, the magazine is now finding that ‘girl’s bars,’ which are clubs staffed by ladies serving from behind a counter, are also becoming a target of the police. Yet a low profile is not an option as many are offering excessively provocative services — nearly a requirement in today’s tough economic climate.

Yui, a 19-year-old college student, tells the tabloid about a group of cops that showed up while she was working. “It happened so fast, and the bar was asked to stop operating. Apparently the problem was that the girls were sitting next to the customers. I was shocked because I thought this place was clean. But I quickly moved over to another girl’s bar,” she giggles.

A 10-year veteran writer for the “pink” trade offers: “The girl’s bar is registered as an after hours eating-and-drinking place, much like an izakaya. Because of this, they are not allowed to offer individual hospitality to customers. The only such place for that service is a kyabakura (hostess club), which is registered as an eating-and-drinking establishment that includes socializing.” Read more

No kitties admitted to the cat house

Ancient Shinto beliefs proscribe women from entering the straw dohyo sumo ring. But what about entering a whorehouse?

But wait; why would a respectable woman want to go to a whorehouse in the first place?

Because she’s a feisty female fuzoku writer, Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 22) reports, in the latest installment of a series titled “Fuzokukai no Yami” (the dark side of the sex business).

The sex industry is always open to new ideas and suggestions. For instance, once the manager of a shop asked a reporter, “Have you got any ideas we could try out?” Read more

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