Sendai’s sex-service clubs struggle to survive after earthquake

Weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino is likely not the first publication one might peruse for updates on the ongoing developments following the Great Tohoku Earthquake — that is, unless there is an interest in how the region’s sex-related establishments are faring.

In its Mar. 31 issue, the tabloid somewhat surprisingly reports that Miyagi Prefecture’s biggest adult entertainment area in Sendai is functioning on a limited basis.

The lifelines of Sendai, which has suffered greatly following the Mar. 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, are starting to come back to life. Shops have begun to operate as their services are gradually being restored. Read more

Illegal Azabu playpen for filthy rich gets busted

At around 22:50 on the evening of Feb. 4, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27) investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Dept. raided “United Lounge Tokyo,” a high-class cabaret club allegedly operating illegally in Tokyo’s ritzy Azabu district.

Once their eyes adjusted to the surroundings, the cops blinked and ogled in astonishment.

“It was like we were standing in a deluxe hotel,” one is quoted as saying.

Occupying all 80 tsubo (about 265 square meters) — an entire floor in a four-story building in one of Tokyo’s swankest residential areas — United featured private rooms equipped with karakoke, expensive sofas and an enormous wine cellar stocked with Chatau Margaux, Romanee-Conti and other premium labels priced as high as 1.5 million yen per bottle. Read more

Former top model now top Tokyo hostess

TOKYO (TR) – A once popular model and actress is now employed as a hostess at a posh club in Ginza, reports Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 10). Read more

President of hostess club empire busted in Yokohama

TOKYO (TR) – The president of major kyabakura club empire Prince Corporation has been arrested for licensing violations, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Jan. 16). Read more

Japan’s sexy izakayas battle deflation

The arrival of a Hooters outlet to Tokyo earlier this year caused many tabloids to associate the move with kurofune, or black ships, a term often used for a non-Japanese person or entity who holds a threatening marketing position, but Shukan Taishu reports that Japan is no slouch when it comes to dining in a sleazy atmosphere.

With the economy still in a tailspin, the weekly tabloid explains that it is important to understand that customers are still tight with their spending.

“Restaurant businesses in Japan typically provide a wide variety of choices,” says a reporter from the economic section of a national newspaper. “But offering good-tasting dishes alone is not enough to attract customers. With deflation ongoing, price competition is very tense, and services need to be designed such that they go beyond what has been in the past.”

The “girl’s izakaya,” which is an establishment characterized by waitresses with exposed midriffs, is now garnering attention. Read more

Summertime, and the hookin’ is easy, Johns are jumpin’ and the gals are high

A young girl plying the trade known as enjo kosai, or compensated dating, is hardly new. Yet, observes Shukan Jitsuwa (Aug. 19), the glut of school gals on summer break and the harsh economy are combining to make present conditions in Tokyo anything but a seller’s market.

The tabloid cites the entertainment areas of Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Shibuya as common hot spots. Many young females migrate from the countryside and must offer sharp discounts, or gekiyasu enko, as slashed bonuses for salaried workers have become the norm.

Seated on a street corner is a 19-year-old from Niigata Prefecture. “I came to Tokyo to earn money for one week,” says the brown-haired girl. “I have only have a few hundred yen. Tonight I can’t find anyone. If someone will pay 5,000 yen and the hotel fee that’s acceptable…”

In Shibuya, the writer finds a deeply tanned female in a miniskirt. She does not offer sex, only hand-jobs, and handles five customers a day. Referred to as tekoki enko, the service costs 3,000 yen a pull. Read more

Illegal casinos in Tokyo under scrutiny after sumo betting scandal

With the illegal gambling activities of sumo wrestlers having been duly exposed in recent weeks, Weekly Playboy (July 26) reports that underground casinos are now coming under fire.

“After the story concerning sumo wrestlers and baseball betting broke, three illegal gambling operations in Kabukicho were raided,” explains one illegal casino operator. “They included an a gaming room, an Internet operation and poker game shop. I am very worried about a raid on my place.”

Read more

Tokyo furikome fraudsters go from princes to paupers

In a love hotel district of Tokyo, a minivan picks up a young woman. “What the hell were you doing?” she barks to the driver. “You are behind schedule.”

Kotaro Nishijima, which is not his real name, smiles in acknowledging his female passenger, who is young enough to be his daughter.

He currently earns 300,000 yen each month transporting gals in the deri heru trade (out-call sex) to their clients — a far cry from his days as head of a group of 80 that carried out frauds via phone communication (furikome sagi), which typically involves deceiving victims into wiring large sums of money to the group’s bank account. Read more

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

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