Tokyo uni gals finding the Chuo Line’s ‘pink salons’ to their liking

Just prior to April is an active time for students to begin searches for apartments as the start of the school year looms just around the corner.

According to the student section of real estate site Suumo, Tokyo’s Kichijoji, Ogikubo and Nakano areas — all of which have stations accessible on the JR Chuo Line — are the most desirable locations in the Kanto area.

One reason is the fact that the districts are located just outside the center of the capital, but certainly another factor, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 29), is the increased interest in “pink salon” joints on the line, which runs east-west through Tokyo.

(For the novice, a pink salon supplies non-coital sexual services.)

“The chance to take a girl off the premises is high,” says a writer covering the fuzoku trade, which is commercial sex. “The types of girls working in these places are joshi daisei (female university students) who have come to Tokyo from the countryside, and they are hurting for spare cash.”

Such an assessment has some basis. The results of a survey of 1,469 university students living alone for the first time conducted by relocation service Hikkoshi Samurai revealed the average monthly allowance provided by parents to be a mere 63,333 yen.

But why choose a pink salon?

A student working in Koenji, which also has a train station on the Chuo Line, says one reason is safety.

“If you look at ‘delivery health,’ the money is fine, but the means of earning money is a bit scary,” says a 20-year-old student, referring to the trade in which a prostitute meets a customer at a love hotel or other location. “By contrast, wages are paid on an hourly basis at a pink salon, and with personnel from the shop present, I am provided a sense of security.”

Comfortability is also important when it comes to a customer’s chance of going the extra yard, as in the practice of enjo kosai, or compensated dating.

“An implicit invitation from a customer is when he passes me his business card,” says the girl. “I’ll then stealthily write down my email address.”

According to the student, the current market price for honban, or full sex, is between 10,000 and 20,000 yen.

“Gals working along the Chuo Line are all amateurs,” says the aforementioned fuzoku writer. “With there being a certain degree of loneliness in living single, they’ll soften up to a friendly, older man.”

Shukan Jitsuwa is certain that the sounds of weeping you hear are coming from parents across the nation. (K.N.)

Source: “Chuo-sen ensen no joshidaisei pinsaro-jo ha yurui!?,” Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 29, page 201)