Thumbing through any of the dozen Tokyo sex-service recruit magazines reveals ads for shops, indexed by region, seeking young ladies to serve in various fuzoku (sex-related) clubs and bars.
In recent years, one rather extensive section had been for Nishikawaguchi, located just across the Arakawa River from Tokyo's Kita Ward in Saitama Prefecture.
However, now it is but a footnote. A rash of police busts has shut down a large swath of the 200 salons, pubs, and numerous other palaces of pleasure that employed 2,000 workers as recently as 2006. In their place, the city last year began a campaign to promote so-called "B-class" restaurants, which serve cheap noodle and fried-meat-and-dumpling dishes.