Prostitution is big business in Japan, as any wander down the back alleys of Kabukicho or around Okubo Park should quickly attest.
The former is filled with blowjob parlors and "dispatch" shops, while the latter has become a notorious hotbed of streetwalkers (actually, street standers -- since they are all just lingering and waiting for clients to come along).
We would like to think it's the sex workers themselves who are making all the yen but there are almost always middlemen (perhaps with the exception of the women at Okubo Park, which is why they are more vulnerable).
As reported ...
Firefighters in Japan have a reputation for being pretty macho and sexually active.
This reputation is arguably not unearned, as past scandals have shown. Remember the hunky firefighters who stripped off for charity?
Or the Osaka firefighters who got suspended for appearing in porn?
Or the male and female firefighters in Nagoya who were caught having sex at work?
Now apparently comes the news that two male firefighters in Ichomiya, Aichi Prefecture, have been caught working a side job.
What's the rumpus? Well, the scandal -- and why it got reported in the news -- is that their side ...
After the government and media demonized mizu-shobai (host and hostess clubs, and similar businesses) as Covid superspreaders, the industry reacted by working with officials to spread information about how to avoid affection.
Others, though, fought back. A member of the sex industry sued the government for its refusal to provide handouts to adult businesses, despite giving such funds to private citizens and small businesses in "respectable" industries. As we wrote when legal proceedings began at Tokyo District Court in autumn 2020, the woman who filed the suit argued this was in violation of ...
It's probably Tokyo's most famous and futuristic pieces of architecture: the Nakagin Capsule Tower.
Despite its repute, it's an endangered species: demolition of the Metabolist landmark has been scheduled for a long time.
People have continued to reside in the pod-like pied-à-terre living units or use them as office spaces. Or for other uses, it seems.
We had never heard of this before but it seems that certain capsule rooms in Nakagin were used by prostitutes to service customers.
In Tokyo, a brothel-style fuzoku service typically has its own little place with basic facilities. ...
The technical intern training program in Japan has rightfully attracted international condemnation for legalizing what often amounts to near-slavery conditions for foreign workers, especially Vietnamese. Employers -- including small manufacturers -- are allowed to pay these workers extremely low wages and it is all sanctioned by the government.
The workers are trapped, unable to change jobs and frequently in debt to middle-men for the fees to get their places on the scheme and come to Japan.
Over the years, many sad stories of abuse and even suicide have emerged from the "internships" ...
The Japanese government has stepped in with cash handouts for both citizens and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to offset the worst effects of the economic fallout. Offering a maximum of ¥2 million in a one-off lump sum to help pay rent, the money has been a lifeline for small companies like shops and restaurants.
But what about the sex industry? So far, operators of such services have been excluded from the relief program.
One woman has taken matters into her own hands, filing a lawsuit against the Japanese national government as well as two firms overseeing the ...
At a point when the sex industry in Japan is under economic and social pressure -- demonized by politicians and the media for spreading the coronavirus, deserted by customers -- comes a timely reminder of the "healing" and affective nature of sex work, and its curious status in society.
Recently reviewed in the Japan Times, Gabriele Koch's book Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered Economy (2020, Stanford University Press) argues that Japanese sex workers regard their work as necessary to the social and economic well-being of society.
The book is the result of nearly two years of ...
With much of Japan on semi-lockdown (or at least, slowdown) due to measures to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, freelancers and the self-employed are particularly feeling the crunch.
This naturally includes prostitutes of various types (soaplands, call girls, etc.). Though some delivery health services are trying to cash in on the crisis with coronavirus-themed marketing, we expect most fuzoku establishments are closed or running reduced hours right now. Naturally, accurate numbers of these are hard to come by, though we did read an interview with a sex worker at an Ikebukuro ...
We wrote recently about some of the ways that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the adult industry in Japan.
We didn't talk about prostitution much except for the closure of Tobita Shinchi, a famous red-light district in Osaka, and outbreaks associated with Kabukicho in Tokyo.
It's a sure thing that people aren't going out to red-light districts or brothels, but what about other types of fuzoku services such as delivery health?
Well, it seems that call girls are still available and may even be busier than usual as lots more people hang around at home with little to do except think ...
In case you have ever wondered where your taxes went, take a peep into the lurid world of politicians' "travel expenses."
In the case of Ken Namikawa, the young mayor of Tenri City in Nara Prefecture, he made two trips to Tokyo in February and June. The provincial politico was determined to make the most out of his time in the capital, it seems, since he procured the services of delivery health call girls at his hotel room for intimate nude "massages".
He has since apologized at a press conference on August 31st after Shunkan Shincho made allegations about the 38-year-old's ...
