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

Blushing bride precedes wedding vows with 10 AV appearances

In his 16 years as a leading male performer in skin flicks, 41-year-old adult video (AV) performer Yutaka Chiba says he’s known all types of women to cavort before the cameras. There are college students, gals who work for major corporations, public servants, and even the pampered daughters of wealthy financiers.

“Their main motive is money, but some of them just do it because they like sex,” Chiba tells Nikkan Gendai (Mar. 2).

One of Chiba’s most memorable leading ladies was a 22-year-old woman from Kyushu who had been working as an OL in Tokyo. In physical terms she was a lovely specimen indeed, but Chiba mainly remembers her because of her unusual motive for seeking stardom on the silver screen. Read more

Forsaken old yakuza checks out, possibly for good

“Excuse me, but I’d like to spend the night,” said the man, who appeared in his mid-60s, to the receptionist at the love hotel.

That, writes Shoko Harano — who has been chronicling her three-year tenure at a Tokyo love hotel for Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 18) — was not the expression habitually used by customers when checking into such establishments, who would normally use the phrase asa made (until morning) when requesting overnight accommodations.

The man appeared to be completely out of it. Moreover he was alone, and carried his belongings in two bulging shopping bags. Read more

Burning down the house: Tokyo hostess turns to arson

The Mainichi Shimbun (Feb. 10) reported that Kazune Urata, a kyabajo, or nightclub hostess, living in the Sakuradai district of Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, was arrested on Feb. 6 for arson. A surveillance camera captured the 27-year-old hostess using cardboard and a lighter to set parked bicycles alight.

This was probably not the first time for Urata. In the same building at the end of last month, a storage area and postal mailboxes had also been burned in a suspicious fire.

“My pay was really low,” she is quoted. “I thought by doing arson I would be relieved from my stress.”　 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

‘Sakura police’ on pervert patrol in Tokyo

Recent news articles detailing the arrest of two men, aged 30 and 52, for displaying their private parts to middle and high school girls, have indicated the important role the “sakura police” played in nabbing the perps. To satisfy curiosities, evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 30) takes a peek inside this special division, tasked with tackling obscene crimes associated with sexual behavior.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police tells the paper that the sakura police was established within the general affairs division presiding over public safety in April of last year. It is dedicated to acting quickly to the excessive solicitation of women and children and any subsequent forced interactions. There are 56 personnel belonging to the team, with 16 of them being women. Read more

Ouch! Fetishists at love hotels leave behind bloody, malodorous messes

“I was really surprised. When I went in to clean up, the room was a bloody mess,” relates the meeku-san — as chambermaids at love hotels are referred to in the trade.

The reason for the speaker’s astonishment is evident in her ensuing remarks.

“I could tell it wasn’t just some woman having her period,” she says. “The bed sheets were covered with bloodstains that had soaked through all the way to the mattress cover. There were bloody tracks in the bath too.” Read more

‘Super copy’ brand goods help guys to bag girls

Offering a kyaba-jo, or hostess, a “super copy” of a brand name bag is becoming a better way for playboys to play the field, reports Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 25).

A super copy is a counterfeit article so carefully crafted that it is impossible for an amateur to determine the difference from an original.

According to freelance writer Taizo Ebina, such duplicates started started emerging around four years ago and replicate items by such popular brands as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes. “The bags use the same leather as the original and have product numbers imprinted,” says Ebina. “The color of the bag’s skin changes the way an authentic version changes. It takes a well-trained person to detect the authenticity of these fake products. Packages, both boxes and labels, are also dutifully printed at factories. Once, I saw the parts of a fake Rolex and they had been sourced from quality makers in Japan.” Read more

Tokyo’s dirty old men need love too

About five or six years ago, a male pensioner, while seated in a hospital waiting room to see the doctor, was informed by a fellow retired patient about a third-tier, cheapo erotic bathhouse in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara district where the cost of admission ran only 11,000 yen. He promptly began patronizing it, and never fails to pay a visit every other month after his pension payment arrives at his bank.

Now, reports the writer of the series “Heisei soap-gai onna to kane sugoi hanashi” (Fantastic tales of women and money at Heisei-era soaplands) in Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 21), it’s become quite common for elderly men to drop into Yoshiwara for some tender, loving care. Read more

Sordid goings on behind Fukushima Prison’s gates

A staff member of Fukushima Prison has been taken into custody for engaging in obscene acts. Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 17) reports that Tomio Hirai, age 60, was arrested on suspicion of forcing a male convict to perform oral sex on him the previous October 18.

On December 14, Hirai was charged with violation of the special law applied to breach of duty by public officials, which prescribes penalties of up to seven years imprisonment.

Hirai would have reached the age of retirement next March. If the court finds him guilty as charged, it is expected he will undergo dismissal, which would also result in revocation of his pension. Read more

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