Maria Ozawa’s deri heru debut, popularity of ‘land mine’ gals top sex biz trends

For a rundown of the top-ten stories thus far in 2010 in the fuzoku trade — that is, businesses offering sexual services — weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino (July 8) turned to Yoshikazu Murazaki, the editor-in-chief of monthly entertainment guide Manzoku.

“Shaking the industry the most has been the deri heru (out-call sex shop) debuts of big-name AV actresses Mai Nadasaka and Kei Megumi at club Muteki in Shibuya and Maria Ozawa at Club Tora no Ana,” explains the editor.

The magazine adds that AV stars had appeared at such establishments in the past but the recent trend has been with bigger names offering their services. “Over the next three months, we expect that even more girls will make their debut,” says the manager of club Muteki. Read more

File-sharing program exposes problematic sex-club patrons to public disgrace

When customers at sex shops get a little too frisky or imaginative, causing injury and/or humiliation to the female staff, management is left with little choice but to yank in the welcome mat.

It’s bad enough to be turned away from play for pay, but to make matters worse, reports Weekly Playboy (June 28), it seems that through a flaw in Winnie, a notorious file-sharing program, the customer blacklist for a famous sex shop in Nagoya was leaked onto the Internet.

Along with the customer names were details of what they had done to wear out their welcomes. “He repeatedly blew air into the girl’s vagina and then pushed down on her stomach,” read one. “He bites girls’ genitals,” read another. Read more

Paper’s pride probed for ad featuring supplement-soliciting AV actress

Determining that an ad in a recent edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was a tad over the top — given the appearance of a popular adult video (AV) actress — weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun (Apr. 22) defends its typically titillating turf by calling the conservative daily into account for its actions.

Placed on page 25 of the April 2 edition was an advertisement for an “energy-enhancement” supplement. “It builds men’s confidence,” reads the copy. Positioned next to the large headline is a very sexy lady. She is 39-year-old Reiko Shimura, who is given the titles of “exclusive advisor” for Horiki, the name of the medicinal product, and “V-Cinema actress,” which refers to direct-to-video film productions. 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

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

No kitties admitted to the cat house

Ancient Shinto beliefs proscribe women from entering the straw dohyo sumo ring. But what about entering a whorehouse?

But wait; why would a respectable woman want to go to a whorehouse in the first place?

Because she’s a feisty female fuzoku writer, Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 22) reports, in the latest installment of a series titled “Fuzokukai no Yami” (the dark side of the sex business).

The sex industry is always open to new ideas and suggestions. For instance, once the manager of a shop asked a reporter, “Have you got any ideas we could try out?” Read more

What’s in a name? Soaplands still going strong 25 years on

This coming December 19 will mark a quarter century since political correctness forced the operators of the erotic bathhouses that used to be known toruko-buro (Turkish baths) to drop that term in favor of “soapland.”

Writing in Shukan Shincho (July 2), Yoshinari Fukafue points out that while facilities referred to as Turkish baths first appeared at the Tokyo Onsen in Ginza in 1951, it was only from 1958, when the anti-prostitution law went into force, that such establishments began adding sex to the menu. Read more

Cops’ crackdown threatens to prick soapland bubble

About 20 years ago, coffee shops began springing up in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara district. Some 40 such establishments, known as joho kissa (information coffee shops) are in operation at present. Included in the 500-yen price of a beverage, the shops provide a plethora of information on the sex services supplied by the neighborhood’s soaplands.

In other words, these are primarily pimping parlors that openly operate in the guise of coffee shops.

On June 6, reports Nikkan Gendai, police raided one such shop, called the Kakuebi Haiso Center, and arrested its 53-year-old proprietor on the grounds that he was providing services outside the scope permitted by the Tokyo metropolitan ordinance that oversees such businesses. 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

New Yoshiwara soapland targets lusty middles

As the average Tokyo salaryman’s kozukai (pocket money) continues to shrink, businesses must constantly come up with creative new promotional ideas to entice him to spend.

Considering the post-World War II demographic bulge, this would almost certainly mean more businesses springing up which appeal to men in their 50s and over. (Who have their own bulges with which to contend, both above and below the belt.)

Sure enough, Shukan Taishu (Aug. 18) reports, a “soapland” in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara red-light district recently opened to cater specifically to the postwar baby-boom generation.

As the shop name suggests, the customers at Club 50s have passed the half century mark. So as not be accused of going overboard on its age restrictions, however, the club also accepts up-and-coming “junior associate” customers in their 40s. But it resolutely draws the line at that point. Read more