A man approaches a woman near Okubo Park in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, presumably to solicit sexual services. - Photo: Eric Fior
TOKYO: Foreign media coverage has sparked an urgency in Japan to look into the problem of young women ensnared in Tokyo’s prostitution and the city’s growing reputation as a sex tourism destination, with observers noting the long-overdue spotlight on such issues is “internationally embarrassing”.
The awareness raised has provoked a powerful response locally, including a degree of introspection on social media in a nation that detests losing face on the international stage.
This Week in Asia in a November 17 report quoted a 19-year-old girl named Rua* who said she could provide sexual service to as many as 10 clients a day, of whom around half were foreigners, and spent her earnings in a nearby host club.
Like dozens of other young women, Rua spends her evenings waiting for customers at the notorious Okubo Park in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district.
The Sankei newspaper ran a story two days later lamenting: “The reality of foreign men engaging in ‘sex tours’ in Kabukicho has been reported in some parts of Japan, but it is now spreading overseas as well.”
Kazunori Yamai, a politician with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told the Sankei: “This is a serious situation that is internationally embarrassing.
“If these rumours spread around the world, it could lead to the misunderstanding that ‘Japanese women can be bought with money’ and the risk of more women becoming victims of sexual assault will increase.
“This is not just an issue that we can say is only the fault of the women who work in Kabukicho,” he added.
“We need to realise that Japanese society, which is ignoring this problem, is seen overseas as condoning street prostitution by young women.”
Yamai said he planned to work with the National Police Agency and government ministries to propose amendments to the Entertainment and Amusement Act to crack down on the “malicious” host clubs that have encouraged young women to run up huge debts and force them into the sex industry over debts owed to them.
He said he intended to address the matter during the resumption of debate in the Diet in January.
Yoshihide Tanaka, secretary general of the Liaison Council Protecting Youths (Seiboren), said coverage of Japan’s problems in overseas media has been hugely influential in forcing local authorities to act.
“The domestic situation in Japan is often driven by foreign suggestions and too often we only start self-help moves after something serious has been pointed out by outsiders,” he told This Week in Asia, pointing to the case of Johnny Kitagawa.
Kitagawa, the founder of the Johnny & Associates talent agency, was only unmasked last year as a serial predator who forced hundreds of young boys to have sex with him in return for a chance at the big time as a pop star.
Kitagawa’s actions were publicly revealed to international audiences in a hard-hitting documentary broadcast by the BBC last year, which shamed Japanese media into belatedly addressing the issue.
It quickly became apparent that Kitagawa’s decades-long abuse had long been an open secret in the entertainment industry and among his allies in politics but that no one had challenged the powerful music mogul out of fear of his influence in the industry.
Kitagawa died at the age of 97 in 2019. The company he founded has changed its name but continues to nurture starlets in the music and entertainment sector.
Hundreds of young men are involved in legal cases against its management seeking compensation.
“Everything here is buried in habit and vested interests,” Tanaka said. “Problems exist, but no one tries to change them. Politicians simply do not understand the root cause of the main problem.
“Male chauvinism remains powerful and women do not speak out at any level of Japanese society, including women who are in parliament, and there are not enough of them to bring about change,” he added.
Tanaka said he has not discerned any changes on the streets of Kabukicho since the spike in media coverage with women still standing along Okubo Park and their customers undeterred by the media spotlight on their activities.
But he added that he was hopeful the international attention could be a catalyst to spur authorities to deal with the problem.
Seiboren hopes that changes will be enacted to the Anti-Prostitution Law, which at present permits the police to arrest women who are providing sexual services but they have no powers to detain or charge the men who are customers.
Tanaka said, however, that the fundamental reason behind the entire prostitution problem in Kabukicho was the host clubs, where men would flatter impressionable women and get them heavily indebted such that they have no choice but to go into the sex industry.
“These malicious host clubs should be shut down,” he said.
“The clubs’ schemes that force these women into sex work should be investigated and those who are behind them should be prosecuted. The scouts and gangsters who support the host clubs should also be pursued.”
“And the local community here in Kabukicho cannot remain indifferent,” he said, pointing out that businesses in the area relied directly or indirectly on the host clubs.
Online fury and soul-searching
The media coverage of street prostitution in Tokyo has also prompted heated discussions on social media, with many complaining that Japan has “fallen to the level of a developing country” after leading the world in many areas decades ago.
“If such reports are being made in media overseas, I think Japan must realise that it has fallen into poverty,” said one message on the Sankei website.
“All the police need to do is crack down on women who easily sell their bodies after becoming addicted to hosts and on those who come to buy them. But I do not understand why the police are turning a blind eye.”
Messages linked to an article on the Asahi website said there was a need for new laws to meet the requirements of modern Japan and that both hosts who pressure women into the sex industry and the women’s clients should be prosecuted and publicly identified.
Others proposed that the sex industry be made safer by copying the laws adopted in some other nations, notably the Netherlands, and legalising and regulating prostitution.
One message said simply: “What a sad country we have become.” - South China Morning Post
[* Name changed to protect interviewee's indentity]
