WAKAYAMA (TR) – Amid stricter crackdowns on adult entertainment scouting groups, collusion between them and the police has become a social issue.
In November, a police inspector from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Organized Crime Division was arrested for leaking investigative information to Natural, Japan’s largest commercial sex (fuzoku) scouting group.
That was not the only such case of a conflict of interest within Japan’s finest. In fact, a case in Wakayama Prefecture resulted in one of the most notable scandals of 2025.
In that case, a superintendent — who has since stepped down from his post — landed himself in hot water after repeatedly accepting free visits to a soapland bathhouse over a seven-year period, as site News Post Seven (Dec. 27) reports.
Emperor
The bathhouse in question was Emperor, located in Wakayama City. The former superintendent is Yasuhiro Horiuchi.
The former owner tells News Post Seven, “[The former superintendent] used his authority to use our soapland for free for about eight years. He threatened us time and time again. He said, ‘You know you could be arrested at any time, right?'”
For the uninitiated, a soapland is a sauna bath that provides full sex, which may — or, in most cases, may not — be a violation of the Anti-Prostitution Law.
In May, police arrested the owner for violating the aforementioned law. The allegations included providing a venue for female employees and male customers to engage in prostitution and knowing that they would do so.
The following month, Horiuchi, who had previously served as the chief of Wakayama-Kita Police Station, was reprimanded by Yasuyuki Nomoto, the chief of the Wakayama Prefectural Police, for having “private relationships with a regulated business.”
He later resigned voluntarily.
“Are you busy at the soapland?”
The matter emerged with a report in weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun (Sept. 25). On September 22, police chief Nomoto said, “It is truly regrettable that a senior official engaged in inappropriate relations with a regulated business.”
The owner tells News Post Seven that the relationship started seven years ago. “I took over Emperor from my predecessor and became the president of the management company in 2016,” he says. “My predecessor introduced me to someone in the police force who could give me advice. In early 2017, we met the former superintendent at a bar in downtown Wakayama.”
In attendance was the new soapland owner, his predecessor, the former superintendent and a former prefectural police officer who was retired. After eating and drinking, they went to a nearby club.
“When I sat next to [Horiuchi], he started talking about how he was always indebted to my predecessor,” the owner says.
According to the owner, Horiuchi came across as a humble person. He then got to the point.
“So, are you busy at the soapland? What kind of place is it?” the former superintendent asked. “I’d like to hang out with you sometime. I’ll tell you right away that I like short girls with big eyes. Bad breath is a big no-no.”
That’s how it started.
When he visited for the first time, the owner showed him the price list in the waiting room. “How long would it be?” the owner asked. He replied, “Sixty minutes is too short, maybe 80 [is fine],” he said. “I’ll leave it to you.” He then went inside without even taking out his wallet.
Thinking it would be rude to wait, the owner returned to his office. When he came back, the former superintendent had already left. He asked a staff member about what happened when he left. “I’m a friend of the CEO,” he said. The staff member didn’t feel like the atmosphere was right to ask him for payment.
After that, he continued to use the bathhouse nearly 100 times for free, according to the owner.
“Shut us down”
For the first two or three years, Horiuchi would call the owner to go out to dinner together before he used the soapland. “I remember him using the spa for free over 50 times during that period,” the owner says.
After that, starting around 2019, Horiuchi would select a lady and come to Emperor without going to dinner. This became a regular occurrence.
“[Horiuchi] never paid for anything,” the owner says. “He was usually very humble, but whenever he got drunk at a meal, he would emphasize, ‘This means we’re turning a blind eye to your establishment.’ I couldn’t refuse. I was terrified that if I didn’t entertain him, the authorities would shut us down.”
In September 2022, Horiuchi wrote to the owner via Line, “This is sudden, but are there any suitable [ladies] available to start tonight at 7:00 p.m.? Oh, if there aren’t any, I’ll give up.”
The following year, he wrote, “Today, I had went out [eating and drinking emoji] with an alumnus I really hate. So I’m really stressed. So…are there any slender women under 155 centimeters tall with busts under 85 centimeters?”
The owner goes on to tell News Post Seven that sometimes he came to the soapland without notifying him. He’d use “his face as a pass.” In each case, the owner paid the girls with his own money, he says.
“Not at all”
As stated previously, Horiuchi resigned without facing allegations of violating the Public Servants Act, which may be applicable if it were deemed he had received entertainment on the house.
Indeed, the last statement by the owner about him paying the ladies would seem to qualify as such a violation.
In response to an interview with broadcaster Kansai TV (Sep. 29), a representative of the Wakayama Prefectural Police stated, “The former superintendent said that it wasn’t free, and that he paid for it.”
The reporting team then interviewed the former superintendent directly. The reporter asked, “Were there free sexual favors [provided by the soapland]?” Horiuchi did not respond.
The reporter probed further, “Was there any threatening use of police power?” Again, Horiuchi did not muster a response.
For confirmation, the owner told the network about Horiuchi paying, “No, not at all. It’s not right to ruin someone’s life!”
“Tantamount to embezzlement of public funds”
Satoshi Fujii, a professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School, says there are a lot of unanswered questions.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. If this case is true, it would be an enormous injustice,” Fujii says. “In a democratic country, the people grant the police tremendous powers, such as the ability to arrest and investigate. The reason these powers are granted is to maintain national and social order.”
Fujii says that it is absolutely unacceptable for someone to use these powers for their own enjoyment.
“If this is true, it is tantamount to embezzlement of public funds,” Fujii says. “If someone used the powers granted to them by all citizens for their own benefit, it would be absolutely unacceptable.”
On top of that, there is a claim that this did in fact happen.
“Either the person giving the testimony is lying, or the police are lying,” Fujii says.
