What is about female politicians in Japan at the moment? Just days after learning about Japan Innovation Party lawmaker's role in a past porn production, we now find out that Yuri Saito (斎藤ゆり), a one-time candidate for Politician Girls 48 Party, is alleged to have been a sex worker and nude model. Well, we shouldn't be too surprised. She was a candidate for SJJ48 (as the party dubbed itself, parodying AKB48), alongside a bevy of other women with unusual backgrounds. Hasumin Yoshikawa, for instance, was a former Self-Defense Forces nurse and sex worker, and then embarked on a porn ...

     Read More     

A few weeks ago, we reported on the rise in highly visible prostitution in the Okubo area of Shinjuku, located next to the notorious entertainment and red-light district of Kabukicho. Recent attempts to gentrify Kabukicho notwithstanding, you are still only a short walk away from a blow-job parlor and a huge bevy of love hotels, which stretch all the way to Okubo. The latter has now become a well-known and flagrant place for picking up street walkers, who are otherwise relatively rare sights in the city. Most sex workers operate from "delivery health" businesses as call girls dispatched to ...

     Read More     

Twitter. YouTube. TikTok. Instagram. And now Threads. It's a crowded social media landscape and people want to stand out. It has become one of the aphorisms of our times that people will do almost anything for clout. And that includes crazy antics in Japan. Known as p8stie or Mariè online, and claiming to be an independent journalist and dentist, a French woman has claimed she was attacked in the Tobita Shinchi red-light district of Osaka. In Tobita, you get a sense of the bygone Japanese pleasure quarters, with its street full of old establishments with entranceways, in which sit sex ...

     Read More     

In March, we first reported about Hasumin Yoshikawa, the former Self-Defense Force nurse who left the service due to sexual harassment, started a career as a porn star, and also ran for a seat in a local assembly in Tokyo. She ultimately proved unsuccessful in her campaign, despite gaining fame online and giving speeches in her fatigues. However, her adult video debut still came out in early May. Like all of the gimmicky candidates for the Politician Girls 48 Party, she now has to make a living somehow, and unless you're make a new porn production every month or so, it won't pay the ...

     Read More     

Tokyo is currently facing a serious shortage of public school teachers, with the blame being put on the long hours and low pay. Could another reason for the shortfall be that young teachers keep getting arrested?! According to an article by Friday, money trouble is pushing some educators into a spiral of addiction and leading them to make risky life choices that land them in trouble with the police. In February, a male junior high school teacher in his twenties was arrested in Nagoya after making the mistake of asking a female plainclothes police officer if she wanted to go to a host club. ...

     Read More     

For the most part in Japan, prostitution is not visible. Sure, if you can understand the euphemism and codes in the signage, you can see fuzoku brothels everywhere, normally in the form of places where you can go for "introductions" to sex workers. But though call girls are visible entering and leaving love hotels, or you might seem female escorts waiting for a car or sitting in a vehicle outside a love hotel, it's relatively rare to see streetwalkers in Tokyo -- as in, actual prostitutes hanging around outside and trying to pick up clients (known as tachinbo in Japanese). There are ...

     Read More     

Here at Tokyo Kinky, we pride ourselves on how we strive to keep up with the latest research and fieldwork. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. And so when we see an academic article titled "Exploring sexual contact networks by analyzing a nationwide commercial-sex review website," it's a no-brainer whether or not we read. Even if it's written by ecologists. Though framed in academese, the article is essentially looking at reviews for soaplands on a website that covers 66% of establishments in Japan (784 soaplands) and has more than 2 million members and information on 38,964 sex ...

     Read More     

In March, we wrote about the former Self-Defense Force nurse and sex worker running for election for a local assembly in Tokyo this month. Hasumin Yoshikawa has promised to debut in porn after the poll, whether she wins a seat or not. Well, her party, the anti-NHK fringe right-wing populist Politician Girls 48 Party (aka Political Party Girls 48), has become mired in in-fighting among its leadership and accusations about misappropriate use of party funds, but Yoshikawa continues to campaign in Setagaya. In fact, we even received one of her pamphlets through our letterbox at the Tokyo ...

     Read More     

One of the lesser-known effects of the coronavirus pandemic (or at least, the recent economic situation caused by multiple factors) is that it has led to an influx of Japanese sex workers in Kabukicho going abroad to earn better money. According to recent articles in the magazine Friday (March 31 and April 7 issues), the United States used to be a popular destination among Japanese prostitutes, but increased checks at immigration control -- including apparently checking smartphone pics to see if they contain lingerie-clad selfies -- have prompted sex workers to seek out alternative ...

     Read More     

Last week, we wrote about the Politician Girls 48 Party (aka Political Party Girls 48), the latest incarnation of an anti-NHK fringe right-wing populist party. The candidates are all female and feature many former idols, models, and minor celebrities. Now, as the party fields candidates in various upcoming local elections, more details have emerged about its prospective lawmakers. In April, Hasumin Yoshikawa is standing for a seat in the Setagaya City Assembly election. Setagaya, incidentally, is where the Tokyo Kinky offices are located. It's a large, mostly residential part of Tokyo known ...

     Read More