Press "Enter" to skip to content

Rip-offs still rampant at Japan’s sex clubs

Ring in Osaka
Ring in Osaka

The body of Yasuyuki Futaba, a 50-year-old employee of a real estate firm, was found by a garbage collector in a fifth-floor corridor of a multi-tenant building in the Doyamacho district of Osaka’s Kita Ward on the afternoon of July 3.

A court-ordered autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a blow to the head that resulted in a subdural hematoma, or the accumulation of blood on the surface of the brain. The victim also experienced a number of broken ribs.

Three days later, officers arrested Kikumi Akimoto, 30, the manager of Ring, a “girl’s bar,” an offshoot of a hostess club, located in the same building, on murder charges.

According to police, the suspect said that the two engaged in a dispute over a bill of 10,000 yen. In spite of the enactment of legislation to reduce cases of bottakuri (or rip-off) scams, Nikkan Gendai (July 9) says the case shows that the frauds are still running wild in the adult-entertainment industry.

Firstly, customers should be careful about buying drinks at kyabakura, or hostess clubs, says fuzoku writer Yukio Murakami. “The price for a drink may be 500 yen,” says Murakami, “but the hostesses will order special cocktails priced at 2,500 yen each. There has been an increase in cases in which the drinks ordered by the girls came to between 10,000 and 20,000.”

Special attention needs to be taken at “snack” clubs in Saitama and Chiba prefectures, the writer says. “A girl may say that she’ll have sex for 10,000, but once you get to the hotel a blow-job will require an additional 10,000 yen, as will breast touching,” the writer explains. “She’ll also demand an additional 5,000 yen to insert it deep inside.”

“Delivery health” (deri heru) out-call sex operations can also present complications. Such an establishment’s Web site may offer customers the chance to take a complimentary photograph of a female staff member’s underwear area, a practice termed panchira in the industry. But later he will learn that such a privilege in fact costs 5,000 yen.

That’s not all.

“A deri heru gal may invite a customer to slip one of his toes inside her,” says Murakami. “After he does so, she’ll yelp in pain, pretending to be injured. Later, the duped customer will be asked to pay a doctor’s bill of roughly 100,000 yen.”

Source: “Shira nakya tencho ni kosareru! ‘Bottakuri saishin no teguchi,'” Nikkan Gendai (July 9, page 5)