TOKYO (TR) – A woman has filed a 3.3 million yen lawsuit against a former call girl after discovering her husband had been secretly meeting her at love hotels once a month for four years. The case raises a tricky legal debate over whether paid sex constitutes an illegal affair.
According to Fuji News Network, the plaintiff, “Maki Takahashi” (a pseudonym), who has been married to her husband “Kenji” since 2001, uncovered his double life in May 2024.
The bizarre love triangle features three individuals all born around the late 1970s and currently in their mid-40s. The dispute centers on Kenji’s ongoing rendezvous with “Misaki Oi,” a former employee of a “delivery health” escort service in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Kenji began seeing Misaki as a customer around 2019. However, even after the escort agency permanently closed its doors in February 2020, the illicit relationship didn’t stop. For the next four years, Kenji and Misaki continued to arrange private hookups at love hotels in a neighboring prefecture about once a month.
At each meeting, Kenji handed Misaki 30,000 yen as “compensation.”
But the financial favors extended well beyond a mere escort fee. Kenji showered the former sex worker with cash gifts, including 20,000 yen for her birthday, and footed the bill for entertainment and travel expenses for Misaki and her daughter. He even helped Misaki purchase a car by falsely registering her as an employee of his own company.
A Broken Promise
Maki initially learned of the betrayal in May 2024. The following month, she sent a legal notice through her lawyer demanding compensation from Misaki.
Just three days later, a remorseful Kenji apologized, promising to end the affair and repair their marriage. Believing him, Maki sent Misaki a follow-up document agreeing to withdraw the compensation claim on the strict condition that she sever all ties with her husband.
Despite the promises, the marriage continued to deteriorate, resulting in the couple’s separation in September 2024.
Paid Sex or Romantic Affair?
Driven by emotional distress over her ruined marriage, Maki officially sued Misaki for 3.3 million yen—comprising 3 million yen in consolation money and 300,000 yen in legal fees.
In court, Maki’s legal team argued that the relationship had clearly crossed the line from a simple “employee and customer” transaction into an illegal act of “infidelity” (futei koi). Because the meetings continued for four years after the escort business closed and involved significant personal and financial favors, Maki claims Misaki was effectively acting as Kenji’s mistress as an active participant in destroying her marriage.
The core of the legal debate centers on whether the 30,000-yen payments categorize the encounters as personal, romantic infidelity or simply a private, transactional extension of her former sex work. The defense has reportedly argued that the defendant was merely providing “sexual services without the mediation of a business.”
