Scouts’ dishonor: Dirty Tokyo dozen nabbed for pimping

Although the practice has been banned by local ordinances, aggressive “scouts” can still be found on the streets of Tokyo and other big cities, energetically recruiting young women to work in bars and sex shops.

To get around the laws, some have moved their activity indoors, only to find that illegal as well. Last week Yasuhiro Fuseishi, a 36-year-old former actor, was arrested for arranging parties at which young women were encouraged to take up the world’s oldest profession. Read more

Tokyo’s Kabukicho teeters on the brink

Once known as Asia’s top entertainment quarter, Shinjuku Ward’s red-light district of Kabukicho has seen a hallowing out at its core. Monthly magazine Takarajima (April) takes a look at the devastation wrought by police crackdowns and the ongoing recession.

At the end of 2008, the multi-use Koma Stadium, notably known as a home to enka theater performances for a half-century and situated at the heart of Kabukicho, shut its doors. Over a year later, a construction plan for the site has not been set in place. Meanwhile, near JR Shinjuku Station, a large 10-screen cinema complex has since opened at the edge of the Kabukicho boundary. This encroachment, which has forced the shuttering of other long-running theaters in the area, combined with the closing of the cinema screens inside the Koma Stadium complex, has left only four screens remaining in all of Kabukicho, which was once regarded as a cinema Mecca. Read more

Females forced to work off debts on hands and knees

In September 2008, a 23-year-old employee of a cabaret club (kyabakura) approached real estate operator Yu Shimojo, 41, for a loan, saying she needed money to care for her sick parents. Shimojo said he would lend her 850,000 yen on the condition that she work it off in a Yoshiwara soapland.

With interest added, reports Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 10), the woman agreed to pay back Shimojo 1,030,000 yen. The shop where she toiled was one of the more reasonable places in Yoshiwara, charging customers a comparatively cheap 20,000 yen for 70 minutes of sudsy recreation. Read more

Salons supplying sleaze shuttered across Japan

On a recent visit to Tokyo’s infamous Kabukicho entertainment district, Spa! (Dec. 22) discovered that the typically luminescent Ichiban-gai arch, which hangs above one entrance near Shinjuku Station, was unlit.

The tabloid wonders: Is this how far Kabukicho has sunk? Once Tokyo’s adult playground, the area has hit upon hard times — a trend buffeted by the ongoing recession and law enforcement activities that is sweeping through Japan’s legendary entertainment quarters. Read more

Odious maid cafes put the squeeze on unwary Osaka otaku

One of the least pleasant words in the Japanese language is bottakuri, which means a ripoff. When the word bottakuri precedes such words as bar, kyabakura, casino club, massage parlor, etc., it indicates places where unwary patrons get taken for a ride.

And now, reports Shukan Jitsuwa (Dec. 31), the maid café can be added to the list of such disreputable establishments in, of all places, Nipponbashi — Osaka’s equivalent of Tokyo’s famous Akihabara Electric Town.

Nipponbashi is no longer the friendly, innocent place it once was — if it ever was.

“Like Tokyo’s Akihabara, this place is a Mecca for otaku (geeks) from Kansai and beyond,” the operator of a maid café tells the weekly from within the electronics wholesale district.

Along a street nicknamed “Ota-dori” (geek street) interspersed with computer shops, girls in maid costumes stand out on the sidewalks soliciting customers. These places had best be avoided. Read more

Sakai and Oshio cases leading to Tokyo ‘white powder sweep’

The high-profile drug arrests of singer-actress Noriko Sakai (“Nori P”), 38, and her 41-year-old husband, Yuichi Takaso, have prompted police to institute a “white powder sweep” through the notorious Tokyo entertainment areas of Roppongi and Shibuya, reports Shukan Taishu (Dec. 21).

Both Sakai and Takaso subsequently received suspended sentences, which have led some to question how seriously the cases were handled. “Considering their impact on society, they were treated very leniently,” says a representative within the legal community. “It would have made more sense for them to have served time.”

The police, apparently, feel likewise and, according to the article, have been utilizing undercover officers since the beginning of this month to institute street searches of pedestrians and crack down on neon-lit clubs and bars in Shibuya and Roppongi where methamphetamine distribution is known to be prevalent. 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

DPJ’s nighttime dalliances deemed dubious

Following last month’s revelations in the Mainichi Shimbun that offices of Democratic Party of Japan members spent large sums in adult entertainment clubs, weekly tabloid Flash (Oct. 20) reports on whether the establishments were indeed suitable meeting locations, as was later claimed by the politicians.

To recap, the Mainichi revealed that 5.82 million yen in taxpayers’ money was used, and designated as being for “political purposes,” between 2003 and 2007 by the offices of five senior members of the newly elected DPJ at various kyabakura and hostess bars, where female staff pour drinks and engage in conversation with male customers. The biggest spender was Satsuki Eda, presently the President of the House of Councillors, who paid 2.37 million yen at 11 bars.

At a Nishi Asakusa kyabakura favored by Eda, Flash finds the arrangement to include F-cup-chested ladies dressed in nurse uniforms or Chinese dresses. “This place has been here a while,” says one of the busty gals. “What’s the sales point? We have a cosplay day once a month. Also popular is our sexy dance shows on the stage by ladies in thongs, held twice a day.” Read more

DPJ’s deeds of decadence still lag LDP legacy

Following an article in the Mainichi Shimbun (Sep. 30) that detailed expense claims for adult entertainment by the offices of Democratic Party of Japan members, evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 2) finds that the DPJ has a lot of catching up to do in becoming Japan’s premier perv party.

The Mainichi revealed that 5.82 million yen in taxpayers’ money was used, and designated as being for “political purposes,” between 2003 and 2007 by the offices of five senior members of the newly elected DPJ at various kyabakura and hostess bars, where female staff pour drinks and engage in conversation with male customers.

The biggest spender was Satsuki Eda, presently the President of the House of Councillors, who paid 2.37 million yen at 11 bars, including a Nishi Asakusa kyabakura. The Minister of of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Tatsuo Kawabata, filed 1.14 million yen in claims for trips to six clubs in Akasaka and a “new-half” cabaret in Shinjuku.

The offices of Masayuki Naoshima, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Takeaki Matsumoto, the Chairman of the Lower House on Rules and Administration, and Yorihisa Matsuno, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, submitted reports totaling 2.31 million yen for similar activities. Read more

Shunned customer stabs Akihabara ‘ear cleaning’ employee

A stabbing incident on Monday has left a female employee at an “ear cleaning” salon in serious condition and her grandmother dead, reports entertainment Web site Zakzak (Aug. 4) and the Asahi Shimbun (Aug. 5).

Seventy-eight-year-old Yoshie Suzuki was killed and her 21-year-old granddaughter, Miho Ejiri, a worker at Yamamoto Mimi Kaki Ten in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, was rendered unconscious following an attack by 41-year-old company employee Koji Hayashi at the family’s private residence in the Nishi Shimbashi area of Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

The suspect was a regular customer at Ejiri’s shop, where ladies attend to the ears of customers as they lie in their lap. He spent roughly 300,000 yen each month. From April, however, he was banned from the premises after pressing for friendship with Ejiri. Police quoted him as saying that she had refused to see him again last month.

Zakzak notes that these types of shops have increased in number recently and can also function similar to kyabakura (hostess club) establishments in which sexual services are dispensed. Read more

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