Men arrested over alleged prostitution for inbound tourists in Tokyo

allegedly forcing women into prostitution, 

Uh, no. Other media report they recruited the women whle they were already selling themselves at Okubo Park at night.

The latest case uncovered in the heart of Shinjuku

"uncovered"? LOL. If the cops were astute, they wouldn't have to "uncover" anything in "the heart of Shinjuku." It's pretty much in the open in that part of town. You see it every night at Okubo Park, nearly all of it catering to Japanese men. Why did the cops target this niche aspect of it instead of a full fledged crackdown -- if prostitution is so bad?

Unfortunately more tourists bring more crime. Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan. Hopefully Tokyo doesn’t become like Bangkok which is more popular for sex tourism.

Point of order: are the local establishments serving inbound tourists without descrimination?

Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan.

100% agree

lol. So basically those signs that say “only Japanese” are for the law. The other 1000 places are okay just don’t target foreigners. With all the scams in kabuki conic on the legal one.

What's the big deal here!?

Make it LEGAL, collect the taxes, and save yourselves all the headaches.

Prostitution is well and alive everywhere and to deny it or make it illegal is ignorance and hypocrite.

""Unfortunately more tourists bring more crime. Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan. Hopefully Tokyo doesn’t become like Bangkok which is more popular for sex tourism.""

Japan is no diff. than the rest, this is what happens when people keep their heads in the sand, LOL

Uh, no. Other media report they recruited the women while they were already selling themselves at Okubo Park at night.

"uncovered"? LOL. If the cops were astute, they wouldn't have to "uncover" anything in "the heart of Shinjuku." It's pretty much in the open in that part of town. You see it every night at Okubo Park, nearly all of it catering to Japanese men. Why did the cops target this niche aspect of it instead of a full fledged crackdown -- if prostitution is so bad?

Exactly! Prostitution is rampant in Kabukicho! Everybody knows it. Japan Today has even published articles on it.

—

“Backstreet stories: Small Kabukicho park has become a haven for hookers”

https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/backstreet-stories-small-kabukicho-park-has-become-a-haven-for-hookers

including Chinese, Indian and Argentine bills

If this correlate with customer to that place , then that gives us a perspective which country are really doing 買春ツアー in Japan.

Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan. 100% agree

If you want to get into semantics, yeah, maybe so. But prostitution is far from "rare" in Japan.

Nearly every major city, and not so "major" one's as well, have the proverbial red light districts, and let's not even begin to talk about "fashion-health" or "fashion-deli" services.

No need to walk the streets when your customer base let's their fingers do the walking on their smart phones!

Vast majority of money in Japanese prostitution goes to hosts. But they are so influential in media and entertainment that any negative press is quickly suppressed.

Even here, few people are allowed to speak any ill about hosts, who now likely make up the majority of Japanese who make over 500M a year in annual income and much of the new rich

JGovt try to get money from tourist by squeezing tourist pocket through levy tax for their lodging, airport tax, even try to build casino. However one thing being slipped is 買春ツアー

That's the oldest profession in history of mankind how can they missed this.

After all Japan has sopad land in every big cities.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-japans-secretive-soapland-brothels-operate/

Dark side of Japan the government don't want you to realize, so many abandoned women, who has to fend for themselves, when foreigners fresh off the boat gets all welfare money.

That part of Tokyo has been there forever, this is not news.

Have they figured out the rackets of women coming here from South East Asia on tourist visas to work in massage parlours yet? Oh yeah, that would require real effort for the local boys in blue.

There are areas of Kobe where whole streets are full of large shops catering to selling sex.

Some of those businesses accept foreigners too.

The J-cops do their rounds of the area knowing full well what happens in those buildings too.

Nothing to see here, folks. Nothing to see.

(waves for everyone to keep walking)

Move along! Move along!

Its double standards again. It involves foreigners, which is the great taboo. Its the worst kept secret in the world that prostitution is everywhere in Japan, and no amount of euphemisms can disguise it. This has made the news because it doesn't fit the narrative. They want the image of Japan to be Nintendo, tea ceremonies, cuisine, castles and gundam. They don't want foreign people thinking of Japan as a haven for sex tourism.

Vast majority of money in Japanese prostitution goes to hosts. But they are so influential in media and entertainment that any negative press is quickly suppressed.

Even here, few people are allowed to speak any ill about hosts, who now likely make up the majority of Japanese who make over 500M a year in annual income and much of the new rich

Where in the world does this come from? It would be really nice to see some facts to actually support this theory.

WoodyLee

Japan is just as bad as Thailand you just don’t see it. Try looking around Kawasaki or so many places along Nabu line. When it gets dark women come out to earn.

Where in the world does this come from? It would be really nice to see some facts to actually support this theory.

Already the host army have mobilized to defend hosts. This is how you know how powerful they are in Japan. In fact, in here anything negative regarding hosts are deleted. Across reddit, hosts have a ton of people defending hosts as the good people in Japan, with multiple youtubers promoting host clubs in Japan as well.

https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/371526

Legalize it, regulate it so it is controlled and safe not everywhere and dodgy as hell, and tax it. The current policy of just turning the blind eye is madness. It invites exploitation.

After all Japan has soap land in every big cities.

None of which are illegal. They fall into a grey area. If vaginal sex is "provided" it is considered to be illegal. However it is nearly impossible to know what is going on in every shower, bathtub, or on a air mattress .

So soap lands can officially only offer anything other than vaginal sex, and they stay legal.

Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan.

The "adult entertainment" industry is HUGE in Japan. There are "soap lands" literally next door to police boxes.

It is everywhere if you know where or what to look for.

Good or bad is not the question. It's life essential, because no one of us would exist without in each case any other two people having had sex together.

Nothing new, all countries have prostitution..

'the world's oldest profession' was around long before puritan western 'standards' began to look down on it. It should all be legal and held in the same regard as massages.

Uh, no. Other media report they recruited the women while they were already selling themselves at Okubo Park at night.

They might have been selling themselves at Okubo Park but at least all the money was going into their own pockets!

Yubari says it but if they are openly offering full penetrative sex, its illegal. Other sex services are okay. That's what the law says and everyone in that business knows it.

Ban all of it, lock the pimp up, lengthy stretches required. Reform the women as the first option and if they choose to continue this sordid practise,lock them up too. Also name and shame any men who approach or use their services, this will end this behaviour which brings nothing but trouble to society and destroys many families and their lives including the children.

WoodyLee - well said.

Men arrested over alleged prostitution for inbound tourists in Tokyo

I suspect he failed to pay off the right people.

@Japantime

Unfortunately more tourists bring more crime. Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan. Hopefully Tokyo doesn’t become like Bangkok which is more popular for sex tourism.

Nope, Japanese brought prostitution in Japan themselves. The men who were arrested are Japanese nationals,so don't blame this to tourists. Plus before this even happened, Japan has already a reputation of supplying the world with Japanese pornography, so this is an unspoken topic but JAV is one of the attractions that foreign male tourists came for. JAVs give them desire to have sex with Japanese women and these pimps are making it happen. So these were all created by Japanese.

It's life essential, because no one of us would exist without in each case any other two people having had sex together.

Not quite everyone now a days.

Another bi-product of the weak yen, Japanese girls are being forced into prostitution, is this what you want for Japan Mr Ishiba? Better a strong currency less tourists and a higher quality of life for residents over Japan being a tourist playground surely?

As common and open as prositution is in Japan I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone started targeting foreign tourists.

grund

As common and open as prositution is in Japan I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone started targeting foreign tourists.

Does not take much effort to "target" people who are looking for something. A friend of mine works for "deli health" service that has gone gaijin-friendly, and says the phones are ringing off the hook.

kohakuebisu

Yubari says it but if they are openly offering full penetrative sex, its illegal. Other sex services are okay. That's what the law says and everyone in that business knows it.

Everyone in Japan knows it, but foreign tourists do not. Which is the reason for the many "Japanese only" signs.

daikaka like I wrote, be really nice for you to prove your theory, your linked article is pure conjecture and talks about nothing about the "majority" of the money going to hosts, and nothing about controlling the media.

https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/371526

The information in the link has nothing to do with what you wrote. its in fact pure garbage.

The vast majority of money in Japanese prostitution goes to hosts. But they are so influential in media and entertainment that any negative press is quickly suppressed.

Even here, few people are allowed to speak any ill about hosts, who now likely make up the majority of Japanese who make over 500M a year in annual income and much of the new rich

JapantimeToday  07:19 am JST

Unfortunately more tourists bring more crime. Prostitution is rare on the streets of Japan. Hopefully Tokyo doesn’t become like Bangkok which is more popular for sex tourism.

You've been walking around Tokyo with your eyes wide shut? Bangkok doesn't pretend to hide it

If the Japanese government is seriously serious about rising prostitution and girls being stuck with heavy debt, they should be targeting the upstream host clubs, with the top hosts making 1900M last year in publicly disclosed earnings.

Instead by targeting the downstream shops will only push the girls into the more dangerous overseas prostitution in SEA etc.

However, outside of a few for show laws that never see enforcements, host clubs and hosts pretty much are a protected class with heavy positive press promoting their use to young girls

 host clubs and hosts pretty much are a protected class with heavy positive press promoting their use to young girls

Again, prove it with data and not conjecture! The mainstream press hardly ever talk about any of the things you are griping about.

Japan is king of open secret prostitution. A big reason why a lot of places don’t accept foreigners is they don’t keep their mouth shut about the shady dealings going on in bars, clubs , or places like these. But also there are a ton of known places, I guess if the police arnt in the know about your place then they will bust it seems to be how it works.

Meanwhile all those Yakuza owned soaplands, delivery agencies, etc, are doing well and kicking.

Those guys probably didn't bribe the right people. Or enough.