Surge in trans sex workers Yokohama alarms residents and police
November 27, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
While the Japanese mainstream media and social media seems obsessed right now with young women reduced to prostituting themselves in Okubo Park, Kabukicho, allegedly over host club debts, people in Yokohama are apparently upset over a "surge" in trans sex workers.
Before the pandemic, the Asahi reports, just two male prostitutes were detained in 2019. But several male prostitutes presenting as women have been arrested since May this year by Kanagawa police.
The suspects are from Thailand, the Philippines, and Peru. Cameras were installed the monitor the activities on the streets and police ...
Man arrested for pimping woman at Okubo Park, Shinjuku
November 17, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
The surge in streetwalkers at Okubo Park near Kabukicho, Shinjuku's red-light district, has prompted a media panic over the last year or so, not least because the women seem very young.
A lot of media reports have indicated that the women are doing sex work to pay off debts or fund their trips to host clubs. The latter have been demonized by the media and politicians of late, and lawmakers are trying to target "malicious clubs" that trap vulnerable women in a spiral of debt.
The streetwalkers are also perhaps not as freelance as you might think, as one case indicates.
A 27-year-old ...
Dark side of papakatsu exposed again with arrest of female fraudster
November 6, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
Papakatsu is the new "sugar daddy" genre of compensated dating. For some, it's an easy way for guys who are middle aged or older with some money to have sex with younger women.
For others, it's a way to fall victim to crime.
In May, a man was almost murdered by woman who looked in reality very different from the cute lady in the pictures she put online.
Now comes a fresh cautionary tale. A 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. According to media reports, the host-addicted Mai Watanabe is accused of swindling three men out of ¥156 million through a romance scam.
She ...
Police crackdown on young sex workers in Kabukicho continues
October 5, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
One of the biggest trends of the year has been the crackdown on prostitution in Okubo and Kabukicho, especially very young women soliciting customers on the streets.
Most prostitution in Japan operates through structured services, such as "delivery health" call girl services that send a sex worker to your hotel room.
With the gentrification of the main parts of Kabukicho into a tourist attraction, it can be easy for some to overlook the seedy nature of the backstreets and forget that it borders an entire block of love hotels that stretch all the way to Okubo. And that streetwalkers are ...
Syphilis cases in Japan exceed 10,000 at fastest rate ever
September 26, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
The syphilis epidemic in Japan is something that has featured on this blog countless times.
Just last year, we wrote about its alarming further growth.
We wish we had something more positive to share with readers, but the news just keeps getting worse.
The total number of cases in 2023 has already exceeded 10,000 -- the fastest time this has ever occurred. Medical experts are advising people to get tested even if they exhibit no symptoms in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
Cases hit 10,103 on September 3, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. That is a ...
Is adultery allowed in Japan (if with a prostitute)?
September 19, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
The YouTuber Takashii, who provided the interesting video we reposted recently about Japanese women and their attraction toward foreign men (or non-attraction, as the case may be), has produced a couple more videos with interviews about the old saw: adultery.
His latest provocative topic is on adultery in Japan, especially cheating on a partner with sex workers.
He asks some women for their opinions and some men.
They give a range of responses, but the general gist is that the women don't seem to mind if their men cheat on them with fuzoku (sex workers/services). In fact, this doesn't ...
Japanese female influencer denied entry to Hawaii, suspected of prostitution
September 14, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
One of the bigger and somewhat stranger media stories of the last few days in Japan has been the case of a influencer from Osaka who was denied entry to Hawaii.
Considering the millions of tourists who enter Hawaii annually -- many of them from Japan -- it might seem like an odd story.
The border officer became suspicious of Karen Okajima because she had written she was an office worker on her ESTA immigration form but seemed to have a lot of clothing in her luggage for someone traveling alone.
The 32-year-old says she was taken to a private room and questioned for a long time. She ...
Japanese porn star Minato Maiha arrested in Hong Kong in vice ring raid
September 12, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
Last year, police in Hong Kong cracked down on foreign sex workers, arresting several women including former Japanese porn star Noa Aizawa.
It's well known that active and former adult video performers do sex work. It can be especially lucrative to engage in such work outside Japan, particularly other parts of Asia, where JAV is immensely popular. If your career is flagging in Japan or you want a change of pace, you can enjoy a good lifestyle with affluent clients abroad.
It seems that situation in Hong Kong is much the same, with media reporting the arrest on September 5 of 11 members of a ...
Fringe political candidate alleged to be a sex worker and nude model
August 7, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...
Police crackdown on prostitutes in Tokyo red-light district Okubo
July 31, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
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 ...