Crackdown on Tokyo fraud ring closes ‘encounter’ Internet sites

Law enforcement authorities from Tokyo and Miyagi Prefecture have shut down a major fraud ring involving online-dating sites designed to generate massive profits out of membership fees, reports Shukan Asahi Geino (Mar. 11).

On January 16, Noriyuki Hoshi, the leader of the operation, and ten others were taken into custody by police for defrauding members of deai-kei (encounter) matchmaking sites by hiring male actors to take on online personas of ladies seeking dates.

A reporter responsible for covering social media explains to the weekly that the victims were registered with such social networking sites as Mixi and Mobagetown. Between July 2005 and the day of the crackdown, the nationwide scam had swindled 1.4 million individuals out of a total of 2 billion yen. Read more

JAL gals unloading uniforms as bankruptcy begins

As if the historic bankruptcy of Japan Airlines were not enough, smut peddler Shukan Asahi Geino (Mar. 4) firmly sticks tongue in cheek in deeming the increase in abundance of flight attendant uniforms hitting the market to be a further indignity.

For fans fostering a uniform fetish, stewardess attire is hard to obtain, with JAL’s being up near the top of the pecking order. Japan’s flag carrier strictly regulates the distribution of each gal’s gear, requiring return upon termination of employment, and affixes registration numbers inside. It’s serious business: a special section within JAL monitors Internet auction sites for illicit sales and five years ago a contract worker was arrested for attempting to broker a sale for a uni sported by airline lounge employees. Read more

Carnivorous consumer of young hunks does her shopping in Shinjuku

A popular neologism in 2009 was nikushoku-kei joshi (carnivorous women). Some such females, of the arafoo (around age 40) persuasion, can sometimes be found trolling for male company in Shinjuku 2-chome, Tokyo’s largest gay enclave.

Divorcee Mie Takeuchi, age 41, is in the habit of heading for 2-chome on evenings before a holiday.

“I like to hang out in gay bars and enjoy the music. And best of all, men don’t come on to me,” the slender, attractive Mie tells Shukan Asahi Geino (Dec. 31-Jan. 7).

It seems that Mie, in the fashion of a true carnivore, is the type who likes to make the first move on a guy. Read more

Navigating Japan’s nyotaimori netherworld

TOKYO (TR) – For at least as long as nyotaimori — the practice of serving sushi on the body of a naked female’s torso — has been making inroads overseas, the media has been raising the same question: Where does the practice fit within the context of Japanese culture?

For an answer, one can turn to the 168-cm-long body of Miho Wakabayashi. Until last year, the 30-year-old’s bare stomach and limbs were adorned with fish and fresh fruit slices once a month at the Sleeping Beauty “happening bar” in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. (Such a drinking establishment is one in which customers engage in uninhibited intimate activities with one another.)

“It was a show promoted as a special event,” says Wakabayashi, who is also a part-time stripper, sometimes performing at the legendary Rokku-za theater in Asakusa, and an actress in adult films. “It was used as a kind of ice-breaker intended to draw laughs.” Read more

On the ‘Tokyo Vice’ beat with Jake Adelstein

TOKYO (TR) – The extortion, racketeering, prostitution and gambling rings associated with Japan’s yakuza criminal organizations have been written up in books and glorified in films too numerous to count. Yet a substantial first-hand peek inside this insidious underworld by a foreign journalist — not straitjacketed by Japan’s rigid press system — has not existed.

Enter reporter Jake Adelstein, a 40-year-old Jewish-American and the author of the recently released memoir “Tokyo Vice,” an account of his 12-year stint of working the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper.

Following the successful completion of the paper’s entry exam in 1993, Adelstein began covering Japan’s seamier side. Written in a fast-paced, acerbic and sometimes humorous style, “Tokyo Vice” recounts his investigations into serial rape, child pornography, murder and his greatest scoop: providing details on how four gangsters were able to travel to the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 to receive liver transplants. “Either erase the story, or we’ll erase you,” was the subsequent threat from the particulars involved. “And maybe your family.” Substantial repercussions linger to this day. Read more

Sex workers bite the bullet with stinky, kinky customers

It goes without saying that the life of a fuzoku-jo (female sex worker) is no bowl of cherries. On top of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, a lot of clients they service are disgusting, scary or just plain weird.

Shukan Asahi Geino (Aug. 27) gets some of the gals to open up about their more unpleasant experiences.

Apparently customers with rank body odor rank near the bottom of everyone’s list.

“There are some customers who always bring a gift to the popular gals when they come,” says the manager of a massage shop. “The type that’s most welcome are those who are physically clean. On the other hand, the least popular are the stinky types. A few try to mask their body odor with deodorant. The worst of all are those who seem to have no awareness of their own smell. They’ll lie facing upwards on the massage table with their hands locked behind their heads, and the stink just comes reeking out from their armpits.” Read more

Civil servant’s cybersexing results in six-month suspension

“She would peel down to buff in front of a webcam,” says the source in the personnel department. “But she testified she never flashed her genitals.”

Nevertheless, reports Shukan Asahi Geino (Aug. 13-20), the 32-year-old woman, an employee of Hamamatsu City, was slapped with a six-month suspension from her job for violating the law that prohibits government employees to engage in moonlighting activities.

The woman, whose name is not mentioned in the article, is described as 160 centimeters tall, with long hair, and “very attractive.” She allegedly charged male viewers 4,500 yen per hour for her peek-a-boo chat sessions. And if they didn’t mind joining up with others in group conference sessions, the cyber striptease was even cheaper — only 1,800 yen per hour. Read more

MSDF sailor stages predawn assault on Kobe soapland

“The ships engage in training exercises at sea for a month at a time, with no breaks during the weekend, and he took an extended leave,” says a spokesman for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force headquarters for the Maizuru District, who added, “he had been commended in reports for taking a serious attitude toward his job.”

Despite his sterling military record, at approximately 5:15 a.m. on the morning of June 21, MSDF leading seaman Takashi Kaneguchi, age 26, allegedly broke into a deluxe erotic bathhouse in the Fukuhara district of Kobe City and raped two female employees.

As reported in Shukan Asahi Geino (July 9), Kaneguchi is suspected of having smashed the lock on the door to the establishment and, during a 25-minute rampage, stripped himself to the buff and raped a 33-year-old masseuse, at which time he also left behind bites on her breasts requiring three days of treatment. He then raped a second employee, age 31. Read more

Bargain debasements at eBay-style bordello

“Married women in their 50s are extremely popular with single men in their 30s,” says the manager at “Ikebukuro Used Car Center.”

You won’t be able to kick the tires or toot the horn of its merchandise, however, since there are no vehicles on the lot. Rather, it’s the name of an out-call sex service that specializes in married or divorced jukujo (mature women). The photos and body measurements of over 50 are posted on its site.

The name of the shop poses an interesting analogy. Is looking over a woman like inspecting a good used car? Maybe you prefer the lines of a certain year’s model, with its prominent headlamps or bulging tail fins. Or maybe you just like to sit behind the wheel and smell the upholstery, so to speak. Read more

Golden Week looks good for getting it on

“Let’s not mince words. More than ever, this is the era for visiting soaplands (erotic bathhouses),” advises Shukan Asahi Geino (Apr. 30) in its lead-in. Why? Well first of all, because the female staff at such shops have been disciplined to observe the “customer comes first” rules drilled into salaried workers. And especially for middle-aged men, with all their aggravations great and small, this kind of treatment is really “indispensable.”

The good news is that during the upcoming Golden Week holiday period, which begins on April 25 for some and April 29 for others, a high-class Yoshiwara soapland has arranged for a budget “package” consisting of overnight hotel accommodations plus a 70-minute romp in the suds with a lovely soapstress, for a very affordable 30,000 yen, all-inclusive. Read more

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