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Undeliverable: Korean government censoring Japan-based hooker sites

Shukan Post July 4
Shukan Post July 4
To get an overview of Japan’s multitude of available illicit options there’s no better means than the Internet.

Prospective punters can peruse sites dedicated to Japanese call-girls, new-half pubs, bars featuring Caucasian women and many other genres.

But if you are in South Korea, there can be complications.

“There are Korean women working in Japan at many ‘delivery health‘ services, each of which has a Web site,” journalist Shuhei Fujiwara tells Shukan Post (July 4) in speaking about a sex service in which the girls are dispatched to waiting customers. “But the sites are not accessible from Korea.”

Should a user attempt to access such content a warning message appears from the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), which is South Korea’s Internet censorship body.

The magazine prints a screen shot showing the warning message alongside an image of the uninterrupted site, which features a number of links to profiles of available women.

The commission, which has a policy of promoting “sound Internet culture, and to create a safe online environment,” includes a total of nine scholars, broadcast-related employees and lawyers.

It may be true that fuzoku businesses in Japan are by their nature entirely about debauchery, but Shukan Post finds it appalling that access to sites is determined by the nationality of the women working.

“I had no idea,” says a representative of an escort service in Tokyo.

When reached for comment by Shukan Post, the KCSC said it did not have time to prepare an answer.

Kentaro Nishimura, an editor at a Tokyo-based IT newspaper, supposes that the commission is censoring sites with a key word filter. “In terms of technique, it is easy to do,” says the editor.

Shukan Post likens the policy to something that might emerge in Communist countries like North Korea or China. But, says Nishimura, Korea is known for strict policies with regards to the Internet.

“Reporters Without Borders lists Korea as a country under surveillance,” says the editor, referring to a report from 2012.

The magazine says that Korea is widely known around the world as a country that exports its women for work in the night trade, estimating that there are 100,000 Korean prostitutes in Japan at present.

Fujiwara says that it is a matter of out of sight, out of mind.

“In restricting the viewing of sites featuring Korean prostitutes in Japan, Korea is hiding the fact that it exports its women for prostitution from citizens,” says the editor. “They are making it seem as if it doesn’t exist.”

Source: “Nihon no ‘Kanryu deri heru’ HP ha Kankoku de ha etsuran kinshi ni natte ita,” Shukan Post (July 4, pages 135-136)