Tag - prostitution

 
 

PROSTITUTION

Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2024
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
The 25-year-old swindled three men out of ¥159 million, which she spent on a Kabukicho host she fell in love with.
Tokyo police arrested four men for allegedly introducing Japanese women to brothels in New York and Washington.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 5, 2024
4 men arrested in Japan over brokering prostitution abroad
The men sent between 200 and 300 Japanese women to brothels in the United States, Canada and Australia, making roughly ¥200 million over three years.
Police officers conduct a special inspection of Shinjuku Ward's Kabukicho in Tokyo in December.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 4, 2024
Japan's police crack down on host clubs
More than 200 administrative penalties have been issued against such establishments nationwide for various violations, National Police Agency says.
Many young people who feel neglected at home flock to the Toyoko area to find a community where they can fit in.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2024
Toyoko Kids: The lonely street children of Tokyo
Bound together by shared neglect and marginalization, the group have formed a distinct, social media-linked youth subculture on the streets of Shinjuku.
Demonstrators hold signs protesting Jeffrey Epstein as he awaits arraignment in the Southern District of New York on charges of sex trafficking of minors in 2019. While Epstein died by suicide that same year in a Manhattan prison cell before he could stand trial, his crimes have continued to resonate across Wall Street.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jan 4, 2024
Confidential Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed in New York
Many of the people whose names will be unsealed are already known to have associated with the disgraced financier, and some have been named in similar litigation as well.
A group of 19 host club owners in Kabukicho who own most of the host clubs in the area have pledged to ban the pay-later system by April and prohibit entry to those under 20 years old from January.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 26, 2023
How Japan's host clubs trap young women under mountains of debt
False promises of love — and even marriage — lead to huge bills for some as young as 18, who are often then coaxed into sex work to make repayments.
Tokyo police officers head to host clubs in the Kabukicho district in Shinjuku Ward for inspections on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 20, 2023
Women arrested for prostitution in Shinjuku tripled in 2023
The issue of women going into prostitution as a result of loans used to finance host club visits has become a huge problem.
National Police Agency Commissioner-General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki and other officials inspect Tokyo's Kabukicho district on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 29, 2023
Japan moves to strengthen crackdown on malicious host clubs
Some women end up with massive debts and are forced into prostitution to repay the sums.
The Kabukicho area in Tokyo's Shinjuku district
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2023
80 women arrested in Tokyo's Kabukicho over alleged prostitution
Police have been cracking down on prostitution in the nightlife district amid a surge of activity following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2023
‘Tea Friends’: Sex positivity for the older crowd
Bunji Sotoyama’s film about a call girl service for senior citizens is elevated by its frank depictions of elder sex.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2023
Former Tokyo host club worker allegedly forced customer into prostitution
Takuya Akiba, 27, allegedly forced the woman to work at various brothels in Tokyo as well as Fukushima, Ehime, Kumamoto, Oita and Okinawa prefectures.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2021
Ghislaine Maxwell convicted for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teens
The British socialite faces up to 65 years in prison at her yet-to-be-scheduled sentencing proceeding.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 12, 2020
Rising suicide figures reflect many women’s despair in a pandemic
Almost as anguishing as having no future is having an unknown one.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 16, 2020
A charm offensive in the Yoshiwara pleasure district
Life in the pleasure district was fun, if you were capable of mustering up the right amount of charm.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2020
'Shocking discrimination': Japan's sex industry cries foul over exclusion from government aid
A lawsuit has ignited a debate over whether the sector should qualify for subsidies, laying bare a deep-seated distrust of an industry often associated with immorality.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 24, 2020
Japanese sex business operator sues state over virus handout snub
The lawyers said the woman suspended her business between mid-April and late May in accordance with business closure requests from the local authorities.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 9, 2020
Amsterdam to clean up sex-and-drugs tourism in post-virus reboot
As the coronavirus pandemic raged in March and April, the 500-year-old Amsterdam city-center became a ghost town: The scantily clad sex workers in brothel windows in small alleys like Stoofsteeg in the red-light district were gone, as were the hordes of tourists who come there to gawk at them; Coffee shops on historic plazas like Rembrandtplein and Leidseplein didn’t get the visitors who descend upon the city by the thousands for the cannabis they sell.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 2, 2020
COVID-19 outbreak raises uncomfortable questions about Japan's adult entertainment industry
If a certain class of people is excluded from initiatives to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, those people will cause the disease to spread to all classes, regardless of other measures in place.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Apr 16, 2020
Stay-home request over virus hits girls in Japan with no place to go
The spread of the novel coronavirus and a government request that the public refrain from going outside has added to the predicament of many teenage girls in Japan who have left home due to abuse, poverty or other reasons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Apr 3, 2020
Concern as Japan’s sex workers excluded from freelancer virus payouts
Advocates for bar hostesses and sex workers have urged the government to reconsider its exclusion of them from compensation for parents unable to work because of school closures, noting they are among the most vulnerable members of society.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores