Boys for Sale: New documentary about gay prostitution in Japan

Back in 2015 we reported about M.S.M. — Men Who Have Sex With Men, an upcoming documentary by Ian Thomas Ash and Adrian Storey/Uchujin.

Despite the announcement, nothing seemed to happen with it and the official website went dead. We assumed the project had somehow fizzled out.

So we were very pleased to see that it is still alive, though in a slightly different form.

Ian Thomas Ash and Adrian Storey/Uchujin are still involved, but as producers and DOP. The title has changed, too, and presumably the content. It’s now called Boys for Sale.

Boys are selling sex in Japan. Who is buying?

Journey with urisen — mostly straight boys who sell sex to men — as they reveal their experiences, how they were recruited, and their working and living conditions. Set in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku 2-chome, the area’s connection to the sex trade began in the 17th century and continues to this day.

Here is the trailer.

The film makes the provocative point that the “majority” of young men at escort clubs (urisen) in Nichome — Tokyo’s main gay nightlife district — are actually straight.

Here is what the director, Itako, has to say about the film.

I followed my subject, a transsexual woman, into a dark bar hidden away on the 2nd floor of a building in Nichome. “For only having a few seats, there are an awful lot of bartenders here,” I thought, glancing at the 10 or so young guys behind the bar. Opening what I thought was a drink menu, inside were photos of the young guys, together with fact sheets detailing their ages (18-24), hobbies, body measurements and sexuality (mostly straight). Next to this was a list of sexual acts each was willing to do with men and a price list.

I needed to know more — how they could claim to be straight but engage in sex work with men — but the only way to speak with the boys was to purchase them and bring them upstairs to a sex room…

Using animation and illustrations alongside regular documentary footage, the film interviews escorts and goes behind the scenes of the ambiguous world of “gay” prostitution. Famous and powerful clients. No condoms. May-December partnerships. It’s got the works!

Boys for Sale is set for its world premier at the film festival Nippon Connection this month in Frankfurt.