TOKYO (TR) – Four men, including sex shop brokers and bar hosts, have been arrested for allegedly introducing female customers to adult entertainment establishments across the country in order to repay debts and collect kickbacks.
The arrests are part of a stepped-up crackdown on unscrupulous host club operators in the Kabukicho red-light district that regularly force female customers into prostitution to cover high bar tabs, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 5).
Three of the suspects include Seiya Kojima, a 31-year-old sex shop broker, 34-year-old scout Yoshiiku Watanabe, and host Yukishiro Obokata, 28, all of whom admit to violating the Employment Security Act and the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes.
Obokata works at host bar Since You…α in Kabukicho. In order for one woman to work to pay off a debt, he sent her to Watanabe, who had her create a profile that included photographs and her body type. In turn, he sent the information to Kojima, who distributed it to six adult entertainment establishments, including in Okinawa and Fukuoka prefectures.
Kojima then assigned the female customer to a soapland in Oita Prefecture that offered the highest “guaranteed deposit” per day, which was 60,000 yen. The woman earned approximately 2.2 million yen for working at the establishment for 37 days.
As well, the suspects received approximately 400,000 yen in referral fees from the establishment between March and May of last year, police said.
Parlors around the country
Kojima has contracts with around 30 sex parlors around the country, and is believed to regularly have them bid against each other. The amount he illegally received is believed to total around 13 million yen over the past four years.
This is the first time that a host has been arrested for receiving kickbacks from an adult entertainment establishment, police said.
The case against the trio is the second. Police had already accused them of collecting a fee after forcing another female customer, who was 19 at the time, into prostitution at the soapland “Super Max Stage II” in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture between March and May of last year.
Arrested for the first time was Yusaku So, a 44-year-old sex shop broker. He has been accused of violating the Employment Security Act for introducing a woman to a soapland in Saitama Prefecture.
