Crummy Shibuya girl scouter nabbed with hand in cookie jar

At long last, the Tokyo government finally got around to passing an ordinance prohibiting men to approach women on the street and solicit them to take jobs in the sex industry. And recently, reports Nikkan Gendai (Apr. 21), Yusuke Yoshino, a 30-year-old operator of a massage joint in Shibuya, and three of his cohorts were arrested for violating the ordinance.

“Last November, Yoshino and his crew talked a 19-year-old woman into working at the massage joint,” says a police source. “Using the same technique, they had hired over 200 women that way.”

The source added that in addition to the ordinance, which was ostensibly passed because such activity was treated as a public nuisance, Yoshino’s massage joint was also charged under a law that prevents bottakuri (overcharging customers).

The scouts had come up with a new system that they thought would circumvent the ordinance.

“What they do is invite the girl into a coffee shop,” explains “pink” journalist Yukio Murakami. “Then when they get the girls to sit down over coffee, they’ll ask, ‘Hey, would you like to work in a massage joint?’

“In other words what they claim to be doing is nampa (pick-up), and this avoids being noticed by the cops on the street. They might approach as many as 200 girls in the course of a single day, of whom maybe one or two will take the job. And the sex shop will pick up the tab for the coffee.”

How generous of them.

According to Nikkan Gendai, another technique for soliciting girls is through the use of phony blogs that ask them to take part in some survey. Once they obtain the girl’s email address, they’ll spam her with invitations to turn tricks.

But is this slippery solicitation really worth all the effort?

Definitely. As Murakami explains, the scouts receive a finder’s fee equivalent to between 10 and 20 percent of the girl’s take, for as long as she stays in the shop.

“Some scouts have been known to rake in 4 million yen a month,” he says. “And recently some girls who have got out of the life have started working as scouts.”

Since Yoshino got thrown in the slammer, his Shibuya sex shop has been forced to recruit new staff via its home page. And that, according to a source, has resulted in a drastic drop in the quality of its workers. So to procure pretty petunias for your place of ill repute, Nikkan Gendai proclaims, street scouts are a necessary evil. (K.S.)

Source: “Ihou sukautoman no arasegi,” Nikkan Gendai (Apr. 21, page 5)

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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