Former sex worker records Tokyo's red-light history

It's a shame everything was forced underground where I'm sure it is even more open to abuse and discrimination.

There is not a whole lot of substance in this article.

Make it legal, it keeps all thugs out of the business.

Criminals thrive in the darkness.

Hope this attention doesn’t ruin Yoshiwara.

Make it legal, it keeps all thugs out of the business.

That's why Japan still has soapland.

LOL...next weeks report....Old district in east Tokyo flooded with Older foreign men!

Hahaha!

Yoshiwara prospered in this location until the end of Japan's Edo period in 1868, but it went into decline as the country modernized and when sex work was outlawed in 1958.

Wow, someone really reached trying to connect some dots here! There is a 90 year difference, a world war, and most importantly a guy named Douglas and a few others, from the "west", who imposed their prude, Judeo-Christian ideals of "sex" on a country.

It just forced it underground. "Sex-work" defined as having "vaginal sex" is illegal in Japan, along with "prostitution" but just about everything else, including getting a lathered soap-down is 100% legal and taxed!

Oh and plenty of women still work in this "non" sex industry, for a plethora of reasons.

...piquing the interest of some Japanese people curious about lesser-known historic areas of their capital.

I'd have to disagree with this being one of the "lesser-known historic areas" of Tokyo. Every Japanese grew up hearing about the Yoshiwara District.

The 1958 law against prostitution was the death-knell for open prostitution but Japan has adapted to it. It was actually pressure from the prudish US who felt that if Japan ever wanted to have the Olympics and be seen as a "top-tier" country, then it had to go.

Sex is something that used to be so much more in the open here when I was a kid back in the 60s. Topless TV shows would be on TV after 9:00, the end, middle or beginning of magazines would have a nudie section, most ads had sexy girls, TV shows often had bikini girls wrestling, being dunked in water, dancing etc.

My family used to always wonder as to why the US was so prudish when it came to sex in media when we finally moved there in the 70s. The attitude toward sex was so much more open and healthier here in Japan. Almost every city in Japan used to have a brothel district. Many still do but they're a bit more covert. Unfortunatly, many are getting smaller and disappearing.

A significant challenge with legal prostitution would be making sure to provide a safe way to regularly interview prostitutes to make sure they’re not being held at duress.

In her times women are there to make a living.

Now most are there to pay back host club debts, while hosts are making well over 2B yen annually with double digit % increases in host earnings every year.

The top host club groups have became so financially powerful with trillions of yen in annual revenue that they are above the law

Make it legal, it keeps all thugs out of the business.

Criminals thrive in the darkness.

As somebody who lives in a country where it's fully legal there's some advantages and disadvantages but it doesn't completely remove the criminal element completely. The entire industry is supposedly regulated but in reality anything goes and brothels legal and illegal still proliferate. Foreign sex workers are also attracted to the local industry and often working in contravention of their visa or using loopholes. Alot of Japanese women have come in the last few years using a working holiday or on student or even tourist visas. Police sometimes make a show of "cracking down" but in reality once they're gone everything goes back to normal because the cops and politicians all go to those funhouses. So it's not black and white

I agree with the above comment that the article lacks information and more importantly, any interesting photographs that might encourage us to buy the book. With tourism thriving to Japan, it would be nice to see a revival in publishing about Japan. I have a lot of coffee table books (by Tuttle, Kodansha etc) about Japan and Japanese culture, but most of them are out of print and date from twenty-thirty years ago when there were hardly any tourists.

If the sex industry were brought back under state control, as in Germany, not only would taxes be collected, but it would also eliminate one of the losses in income for the yakuza.

If gambling were also brought under state control in the same way, consumption tax could also be abolished, so I think that would be better economically as well.

There is not a whole lot of substance in this article.

Agreed. This is a classic study of what remains after the application of political correctness and self-censorship.

Make it legal, it keeps all thugs out of the business.

GOOD !!..

Should make a movie about her story !

Much of the sex industry operates in the open as "health services" and legally, however intercourse is illegal but just about everything else is legal and orgasm is considered part of staying healthy. Foreigners work in this industry as well as Japanese, but Japan is still what would be termed as racist in that Japanese men may be able to "acquire" the illegal service that foreign tourists cant, unless they find themselves being serviced by a foreign worker. It can differ from one establishment to another.

Much of the sex industry operates in the open as "health services" 

Not quite "in the open". It's far from mainstream, and it is still only covered in the "yellow" pages of pornish magazines and advertising.

Yesterday, I was hanging out near a station close to Osaka and watched a transaction take place.

It’s a lot more open than one would imagine…

Regarding the comment that the US is prudish, I agree. I have found that much of Europe is also more open about sex. Remember, the American colonies were largely settled by very prudish religious extremists. They weren't welcome in Europe, so they sought a "better" place in the New World.

Ms. Beniko is brave to tell her story openly.

I will always remember having a conversation with a Japanese sex worker who had come to the States. She was very open and unashamed, a real eye opener.

Late at night in Paris I saw female sex workers, how does one say, plying their trade? They smiled a lot, were clean, and did not seem miserable at all; not what I had come to expect.

JT has a long line of substance-less articles like this. The authors should spend really a bit longer researching and coming up with facts, instead of quotes and own opinions. But then, we get what we pay for...