Shocking details emerge about Osaka prostitution ring’s “tours”

More details are emerging about the prostitution ring that preyed on young women in Osaka.

As reported widely last month, police arrested Yusuke Kimura (34) and Koki Hideshima (24) for recruiting teenaged girls, violating the Anti-Prostitution Law and Child Welfare Law.

The girls were recruited from the Gurishita area of downtown Osaka (a district known as Minami). Gurishita is the spot near the Dotombori canal under the famous Glico Man billboard. It has become a notorious gathering place for underage delinquents and runaways, and a hotbed of prostitution and crime. Commentators have likened it to the Toyoko kids issue in Kabukicho, Tokyo.

In addition to such IRL recruitment tactics, Kimura is suspected of leading a large group of “scouts” that finds women on dating sites and social media to engage in compensated dating (a form of prostitution). The group also included so-called uchiko, or people who pretend to be women and solicit male customers on dating sites, and drivers, who were in charge of taking the girls to and from love hotels. The group allegedly sent as many as 130 women on “prostitution tours.”

“Kimura interviewed the girls found by the scouts at a coffee shop. He offered them work as prostitutes, promising them they could quickly earn ¥1 million,” said a newspaper social affairs reporter in an article in Friday on July 8.

“He sent the three of them — a prostitute, driver, and uchiko — to regional cities. The reason they traveled all the way from Minami to regional cities was because of the lack of competition. Another advantage was that the girls were then less likely or able to run away.”

During the tours, the uchiko managed the schedules of the women and made them work without a break from 10 in the morning to 10 at night.

“The driver would take the girl to the love hotel, where the customer was waiting, and then wait until the end of the session. After that, he would take the girl to the next customer.”

If that sounds like a lot of hotels to visit in one day, a police investigator told Friday that sometimes the girls did not even get that luxury. “He would make them do it in the car parked in the parking lot.”

In order to maximize the girl’s “shift,” the driver would be posting on dating sites while waiting, trying to recruit as many customers in the day.

“The girls had no time to eat properly, and were only given convenience store bento boxes during the long trips. They could not sleep well and were very exhausted by the end,” the investigator said. “They were forced to have sex without contraception and so sometimes had to be prescribed emergency contraception.”

The customers paid a mere ¥15,000 per session, which is very low by Tokyo standards. The girls would get just ¥5,400 of that fee. All the cash from the customers was collected by the driver to prevent the girls from running away.

This is the same system as the prostitution tour from Minami to Tohoku that we reported on in February. The ring leaders of that operation are currently on trial and Kimura is said to be an associate of them.

The expo currently in Osaka and the increase in visible signs of streetwalkers have prompted authorities in the city to crack down on prostitution.