By • March 13, 2010
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.
By • February 10, 2010
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.
By • December 29, 2009
On a recent visit to Tokyo’s infamous Kabukicho entertainment district, Spa! (Dec. 22) discovered that the luminescent Ichiban-gai arch, which hangs above one entrance near Shinjuku Station, was unlit. Is this how far Kabukicho has sunk?
By • December 28, 2009
Osaka ‘maid cafe’ joints add excessive taxes and fees to tabs
By • December 17, 2009
The high-profile drug arrests of singer-actress Noriko Sakai, 38, and her 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).
By • October 22, 2009
Police targeting excessively provocative services
By • October 16, 2009
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 suitable meeting locations, as was later claimed by the politicians.
By • October 5, 2009
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.
By • August 5, 2009
Seventy-eight-year-old Yoshie Suzuki was killed and her 21-year-old granddaughter, Miho Ejiri, an worker at Yamamoto Mimi Kaki Ten in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, rendered unconscious following an attack by 41-year-old company employee Koji Hayashi at the family’s private residence.
By • July 29, 2009
Sex shops are offering increasingly extreme services
Distraught father-in-law wins incestuous consolation prize
Proliferation of fake ID cards assist minors seeking work in sex trade
Re-porn: AV industry relying on rising popularity of ‘mature’ actresses
Out-call sex services in Tokyo compete for piece of papa-sans’ pensions
Osaka ‘girl’s bar’ employed 12-year-old girl
