We wonder how many articles we are going to see like this as we get closer towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Washington Post is the latest media outlet to step into the controversy over osanpo (walking dates) and JK business (high school girl dating) with an article somewhat provocatively headlined "For vulnerable high school girls in Japan, a culture of 'dates' with older men".
It sets the tone early on: "Here, 'high school dating' matches girls in uniforms with men in their 40s and 50s and beyond. And it means money changing hands."
It goes on to explain that the dates may be a ...
A journalist working on a BBC Three documentary about child sexual exploitation was held in police custody.
The 29-year-old Stacey Dooley was held by police in Tokyo for two hours during the making of her documentary, Young Sex For Sale In Japan.
"It [the doc] focuses on the fact they only made it illegal to possess child pornography in 2014," said Dooley. "We set out to try and understand why it took a privileged country, like Japan, so long to come to this conclusion. Also to see if the change in their law had made any real difference on the ground."
Dooley and her team were ...
Bad news if you are into "JK business", the new style of enjo kosai (compensated dating) where you go on "dates" with schoolgirls that end in a sexual encounter. The days of casually walking into a JK business venue and getting an appointment with a teenager are possibly numbered.
These services are often euphemistically called "osanpo" (walks), though they may also be in the form of "massages" or "soine" (snuggling up together in bed), or as conversations in a "cafe" or even sessions where the customer takes photos of the girl schoolgirl in swimwear. ("JK" stands for "joshi-kosei", or ...
A panel of experts advising the National Police Agency in Japan has issued a report on so-called "JK business", which is the name given to the various euphemistic services offering sex with schoolgirls.
Similar to the more general enjo kosai (compensated dated), there has been a lot of media and police attention on the growing JK business industry in recent years. Some of the services include osanpo (walking dates), where you pay to have a walk with a schoolgirl. It may end at a love hotel.
Other services include sleeping side by side in a "soine" cuddle cafes or getting a massage. ...
Vice seems to have a bee in its bonnet over Japan's so-called "JK industry" of schoolgirl prostitution.
After its provocative and criticized article and video last year, now it reports on a police crackdown on "businesses that exploit underage girls".
The article is written by Tokyo Vice (no relation) author Jake Adelstein, who has made a career out of presenting himself as the gaijin expert on all things Yakuza. Recently he has tried to talk a lot about teenager prostitution too and linking it to AKB48, getting a lot of flak for it.
When a UN investigator visiting Japan ...
Hardly is the ink dry on one article about Akihabara schoolgirl osanpo walking dates, than along comes another western report about "human trafficking" in Japan.
Vice News has made Schoolgirls for Sale in Japan, a 17-minute "exposé" about JK schoolgirl prostitution at cafes and other venues in Tokyo.
The presenter travels to Japan to interview schoolgirl prostitutes and investigate "JK culture".
Much of this is innocent enough, from fortune-telling to music idol groups.
But as a near scuffle with a minor gangster on the streets of Akihabara shows, with some of these services ...
Every few weeks an article does the rounds of the world media -- typically a translated news wire piece or something rustled up by a foreign stringer according to overseas editors' demands. The narrative is predictable. Japan is full of sexless youth; Japan is full of sexual fetishes. Japanese anime is child porn; Akihabara is a den of immorality and vice.
Of course, there are elements of truth in all of this but such nuanced, sympathetic approaches are not what gets traffic.
So you see articles like this on Deutsche Welle by Julian Ryall, saying that "Japan's 'maid cafes' [are] a cover ...
The Japan Times has run an interesting story about "JK Industry" sex workers.
It focuses around two teenagers who are schoolgirls working in Akihabara in services ambiguously close to being full-on prostitution but often allowed by the letter of the law.
Seventeen-year-old Momo knows that her customers are keen on doing more with her than the official things she offers.
Momo is among the schoolgirls whom experts warn are prone to gravitate toward the notorious “JK” business — JK being short for “joshi kosei” (high school girls) — rampant in Akihabara and other parts ...
In the latest Olympic "clean-up" operation, now Chiyoda ward -- a large district in central Tokyo -- is following the efforts of police in Akihabara to crack down on "walking dates" passing new local legislation to ban them from April 1st.
In so-called "JK osanpo" men meet with girls they believe are high school students (the "JK" stands for "joshi kousei") and go on a "walk" with them, often culminating at a love hotel. These may be services that are prostitution in disguise or they may be more covertly arranged through individuals over websites. Some people don't just want sex, ...
As widely reported in the media, the police have begun a new campaign cracking down on so-called "walking dates" in Akihabara in Tokyo.
On Monday night, a dragnet of 100 police officers raided the famed electronics shopping and otaku subculture district in search of girls of schoolgirl age standing on the streets.
Apparently ten girls under 18 were taken into "protective custody". Their crime? Wearing a school uniform on the streets of Akihabara.
Recent concerns about walking dates recall the media frenzy on enjo kosai in the 1990's, though this is supposed to be the first major ...
