Police crack down on prostitution spike in Osaka

While much of the current police and media obsession with young female streetwalkers has focused on the Okubo-Kabukicho area of Tokyo, Osaka is also experiencing an apparent increase in visible prostitution.

And just as police are cracking down on both the sex workers and scouts in Kabukicho, the authorities in Osaka are targeting concafes (“concept cafes” — a kind of “lite” version of a host club) and pimps who prey on young delinquents and runaways near the Dotombori canal, and even redesigning a street to deter streetwalkers.

This has not solved the problem, it seems, because police are continuing to arrest women in Osaka.

According to press reports last week, police launched a crackdown in the Taiyujicho area of the city on the night of July 29 to combat a spike in tachinbo (loitering for customers).

As regular readers will recall, Taiyujicho/Toganocho is the area in the Umeda district in the north of the city that underwent the “yellow road” makeover in late 2024 in an attempt to discourage women from plying their trade. This seemed to have an immediate effect, though possibly also because the redesign attracted a lot of media cameras, but prostitutes have recently returned to the area, which is full of small streets and love hotels.

Five women aged between 19 and 23 were arrested on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act. The women are suspected of engaging in prostitution on the streets of Taiyujicho by approaching men and saying, “Let’s have some fun. For 15,000.”

The women have admitted to the charges. They were paid between ¥15,000 and ¥20,000 per session by their customers.

They also attempted to explain why they were engaging in sex work. The reasons are intriguingly broad: sure, host clubs appeared, but also paying for tickets and travel expenses to attend music idol concerts, and even to pay for expensive orthodontic treatments.

This is the first time that police have launched a simultaneous crackdown since the Yellow Road was completed and authorities remain determined to stamp out the neighborhood’s reputation as a hot spot for prostitution.

Teruharu Kawaguchi, Deputy Chief of the Osaka Prefectural Police’s Sonezaki Police Station, commented, “We want to aim to prevent streetwalking from becoming a permanent fixture.” The police station says it will continue to patrol the area to prevent sex workers from becoming a permanent fixture.