A reporter for Friday (Feb. 13) is standing in front of a business in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district coming under the designation “JK,” an abbreviation for joshi kosei, or high school girl.
The use of “under” refers to females below the age of 18, a part of a strategy by this establishment, says the tabloid, to entice customers as law enforcement increasingly applies pressure.
Intrigued by the offer, the reporter then enters a small room of the parlor, which is not identified by name. Before him is a sheet of glass that has been treated so that it can be seen through in only one direction. Seated on a bench on the visible side are a number of girls attired in their school uniforms. They are busy stringing beads into necklaces and making paper origami cranes. This task is dubbed “work” for the girls, and the customers pay to watch this form of labor.
“The girls change every five minutes,” says the manager, who assures that all of the staff members are minors, aged between 15 and 17, “and you can make a personal request.”
The additional charge for this service is 1,000 yen for five minutes of viewing time. Listed on a nameplate is each girl’s name and her school.
The reporter asks for second-year high school brunette named “Mika,” who aligns herself in front of the mirror with Friday’s reporter and makes an “M” shape with her legs as she sits down. The reporter notes that she is delightful looking, and the deep blue underpants peeking beneath her short skirt are most inviting.
Police have been watching the activities of JK businesses carefully in recent years for violations falling under the Labor Standards Act — and the performance of Mika certainly seems to qualify, says Friday.
In January, Tokyo police took the 44-year-old manager of massage parlor Honey Candle into custody for employing a 17-year-old girl attired in a maid outfit to cuddle with a male customer over 50 years of age.
“But in our case, there is no exercising, and the girls are doing ‘work,'” says the manager. (To complete the ruse, the products made by the staff members can be purchased, with a 10-centimeter necklace going for 2,000 yen.)
Starting in January, law enforcement in Tokyo began taking school girls over the age of 18 found working at illegal JK businesses into “protective custody. (Previously, this policy applied only to minors.)
It seems the cat and mouse game is continuing, and Friday suspects that it will be only a matter of time before the jig will be up in Ikebukuro.
Source: “JK bijinesu Ikebukuro ‘panmoro’ kengaku kurabu ni sennyu to!” Friday (Feb. 13, pages 88-89)
