The crackdown on happening bars and clubs in Tokyo sadly continues. Even, as in this case, if they have been around for years.
Such venues are places for swinging and tend to be members-only, though this is usually bypassed by making people members when they pay a fee at the entrance.
The legal issue comes with public indecency, since people are engaged in sexual activities in a place accessible to the public like a bar or club. A way to circumvent the law against indecent exposure is to have private playrooms.
The happening bar was 9259 in Shinjuku, which made a nominal claim at being a ...
One of the biggest news stories last week, at least in our adult-flavored orbit, was the arrest of several people on allegations of organizing orgies in Tokyo.
Five men and women are accused of holding swinger parties where members of the public would pay to have sex with each other. The charges related to breaches of the prostitution law: organizers are accused of prostituting the female attendees by recruiting them for the parties.
It is reported that they made ¥650 million (the equivalent at current exchange rates of $4.6 million) in 10 years by holding over a dozen such events in a ...
We fondly remember the days when it was relatively easy to visit happening bars. Sadly, those times when such establishments were widely known and could be frequented in central areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya now feel distant, largely due to a police crackdown that closed many down or scared others off.
Further proof that the police won't tolerate businesses that allow members of the public to have sex with each other appeared this month.
Media reported on May 9 that police had busted a Shibuya happening bar called Sleeping Beauty.
An incredible eleven separate police districts as well ...
When does an orgy become a crime? If it's group sex among consenting adults, there should be no issue, right?
That's today's legal conundrum.
One man in Japan found himself arrested for hosting an orgy (in Japanese, ranko party). So what was his crime? Strangely enough, it was fraud.
He had booked a hotel room in Fukuoka for two people, but then ended up with eleven guests (eight men, three women) in the room in January.
He should have paid for eleven guests to stay, but only paid for two, hence his arrest. The man recruited participants in the orgy online.
There was the possibility ...
Talk about party poopers.
The cops in Osaka have arrested a 62-year-old man for violations of prostitution laws after they found seven men and women naked in his home.
On the night of October 3, as widely reported in the Japanese media, police raided his home, where the man has been running an orgy party service for years.
The five men (aged between their thirties and fifties) and two women (in their thirties) were arrested for indecent exposure, though later released. No charges were reported against them.
The organizer, Yoshihiro Murakami, admits to the allegations against him. Men paid ...
We stumbled upon this interview with a customer to a happening bar.
Happening bars are the quasi-secret society of Japanese swinger clubs. The establishments force customers to become "members" and carry an entrance fee, which is often quite hefty for men. There is typically a bar and showers. Sometimes they are called a couple kissa, or couple coffee shop, and may cater primarily to couples rather than single men or women.
They can take the form of a bar with various private rooms or may be more like a hotel, where guests switch from room to room as the preference takes them.
Police ...
Ever wanted to attend a swinger club in Japan? Tokyo has a vibrant underground scene of happening bars.
As regular readers probably know from experience, "happening bars" (or couple kissa) are clubs where you can go and switch partners with other couples, or if you are single just pick random strangers to have sex with. (Theoretically there is a distinction: a happening bar is for couples of singletons, while a couple kissa caters to couples and perhaps single women.)
Sometimes they are foreigner-friendly, too, but it's rare. It always helps to speak at least some ...
Wow, this is big. We have been worried about police crackdowns for a while, especially with the upcoming Olympics likely to become an excuse for exerting state power.
Could this be the tip of the iceberg?
Police have raided one of Tokyo's top BDSM clubs, KUNKUN. The Ueno club is pretty big (we've been there) and also fairly new (it opened in mid-2012). It is the base of one of Japan's best-known shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage art masters, Hajime Kinoko (Hideto Hiramatsu).
Of course, there is a thin line between being bondage club where a show may take place and being a "happening" ...
A new film is about to be released that promises, so its marketers say, to have only 18 minutes of clothed scenes in its 123-minute running time.
Ai no Uzu (Love's Whirlpool) is written and directed by Daisuke Miura, adapted from his award-winning 2006 play that won him the top drama prize in Japan and has since been performed in Europe.
It depicts a Kabukicho sex club where singletons and couples gather to share their bodies. Miura is no stranger to visiting such establishments himself, so the rumors have it, so no doubt the portrayal is realistic.
The play and film are less ...
