TOKYO (TR) – In the neon-lit streets of Shinjuku Ward’s Kabukicho district, the shifting economic realities of Japan’s decline are on full display.
In one example, foreign tourists in large numbers are increasingly on the prowl for young women for prostitution, a trend that is being buffeted by the weak yen, reports Shukan Shincho (Sep. 17).
On a recent weekend, amidst a swarm of streetwalkers — internationally known as tachinbo — a young woman in an off-the-shoulder dress and platform sneakers waits for a customer. Local men attempt to negotiate but are swiftly turned away. Finally, a Southeast Asian tourist approaches, utilizing broken English and a smartphone translator.
“I’ll pay 30,000 yen. By PayPay,” the man offers. The deal is struck. Excitedly heading toward a nearby love hotel, he tells a reporter, “I’m taking her with me right now!”
Author Akira Tachibana notes a stark role reversal in the Asian sex trade. “In the past, Japanese men went to Southeast Asia for sex tourism, but now the dynamic has flipped,” he explains. “While 20,000 to 30,000 yen is expensive for a Japanese man, it’s a bargain for foreigners spending dollars. For the girls, foreigners provide peace of mind because they know they aren’t undercover police.”
Tachibana blames the late Shinzo Abe’s economic policies for accelerating the yen’s depreciation, resulting in a “Cheap Japan” where the nation’s youth are effectively up for sale to tourists.
Rise of the tokuryu syndicates
While young women increasingly turn to the streets, young men are being swallowed up by tokuryu syndicates, which are crime rings whose members use smartphone apps to carry out yami-baito (dark part-time jobs). These recruits are responsible for a recent wave of brutal home invasions targeting the elderly and relentless phone scams that net an estimated 1 billion yen a day.
Veteran journalist Atsushi Mizoguchi points to strict anti-gang ordinances that have decimated the traditional yakuza. “As the yakuza declined and were choked by police, tokuryu rings emerged as a new way for delinquents to make money,” Mizoguchi says.
Unlike the yakuza, these modern syndicates have no strict hierarchy or formal initiation rituals, making them attractive to youths. Masterminds recruit disposable pawns via social media to carry out the physical crimes, insulating themselves from arrest while reaping massive profits.
The ‘Attention Economy’ and moral decay
The motivation behind this reckless criminality is rooted in modern internet culture, experts argue. Critic Tsunebira Furuya observes that economic hardship has eroded morals and a basic sense of shame, creating a generation that acts on impulse and fails to calculate risk.
Web news editor Junichiro Nakagawa is more blunt. “The internet has created a society where even idiots can make money as long as they get attention,” he says. Bombarded by the illusion that going viral can instantly change their lives, young people view crimes like yami-baito and prostitution as appealing shortcuts to quick cash rather than working a steady, honest job.
A grim 2040 prediction
Looking ahead, the socio-economic forecast is bleak. Tachibana predicts a systemic collapse by 2040, when Japan’s “employment ice-age” generation reaches pension age. Having missed out on regular employment in their youth, their pension contributions will fall drastically short.
“If they demand welfare, the system could collapse,” Tachibana warns, adding that today’s 50-year-olds will likely be forced to work into their 70s and 80s to survive. With a severe labor shortage and an impending wave of dementia patients, the nation’s infrastructure, including hospitals and care facilities, is at risk of buckling.
“The Japanese tend to cover their ears when they hear unpleasant things,” Tachibana concludes. “The attitude of refusing to face reality, even when a definitive crisis is looming, hasn’t changed since before the war.”
