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Foreign hookers in Tokyo take to Tinder

Friday July 28
Friday July 28

Last month, the Japan National Tourism Organization revealed that foreign visitors booked 7.86 million hotel stays across the nation in April. The figure is the most since such statistics started being compiled in 2010.

Perhaps then it is not surprising to read in Friday (July 28) that foreign prostitutes are doing a brisk trade from high-end rooms in the capital with the smartphone dating application Tinder driving business.

For example, there is Anna (a pseudonym), who is a prostitute from Russia. “Now in Tokyo [as a] high class professional escort and model,” she writes in a text message published by the magazine. “I am [a] sweet, nice girl and educated. I provide sexual pleasure and [a] sexy massage.”

According to the magazine, a woman can use a setting on the app that can find a client within a radius of, say, 10 kilometers of her location. A fuzoku writer, meaning a scribe covering the commercial sex trade, says that many women use short-term accommodations in the Roppongi entertainment area and Shinjuku Ward.

“Women from other parts of Asia and South America are here, but for some reason there are swarms of beautiful women from Eastern Europe, including Russia and Romania,” says the source.

The initial contact may be done via Tinder, which will include her picture. However, the getting down to brass tacks (i.e. negotiating a price) will be conducted via Line or another chat app, the aforementioned writer assures.

In the case of Anna, she sent Friday’s reporter via Line a photo of her lounging in black lingerie with her long legs in the front of the frame with Tokyo Tower in the background. After mentioning that full sex and a blow-job runs 40,000 yen, she wrote, “If you are interested you can come to my hotel.”

According to the magazine, the price quated by Anna is within the current market range of between 30,000 and 40,000 yen for the first 50 minutes for women from Eastern Europe operating in Roppongi.

Evading detection

Itsuo Tobimatsu, a former detective with the Hyogo Prefectural Police, tells the magazine that cracking down on such practices will be difficult since brokering transactions via an exchange of private messages is an easy way to evade detection. “However, it is a different matter if incidents resulting in injury take place behind closed doors or the funds are finding their way into the hands of organized crime.”

Tobimatsu suspects that the trend will spur a variety crimes down the line. “It seems that it is necessary for cyber control divisions to intensify operations,” the former detective says.

Source: “Too bijo ga ujauja Tinder de baishun dairyuko,” Friday (July 28, pages 54-55)