Interview with teen streetwalker in Kabukicho, Shinjuku

Friday has published an interview with a teenager who is a tachinbo streetwalker in Okubo Park to pay for her host club addiction.

“I’ve become addicted to host clubs and now I’m working in Kabukicho,” the teenager confesses, saying she has sex with three men a day for ¥20,000 a pop.

“My day and night cycle is reversed. I sleep until the afternoon and head to Kabukicho in the evening. I stand in front of a hotel until dawn, waiting for a man to approach me.”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested 35 women in their 20s to 40s on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act while waiting for customers around Okubo Park in Kabukicho. Four women in their 20s were also arrested in July of this year. Many of these women are said to be prostituting themselves to earn money to work at host clubs.

“My day and night cycle is reversed. I sleep until the afternoon and then head to Kabukicho in the evening. I stand in front of a love hotel until dawn, waiting for a man to approach me.”

The teenager, unnamed in the interview, is a vocational school student from the Hokuriku region of Japan. She is described as petite and with distinctive, large eyes. Despite her “childlike innocence,” she is an experienced streetwalker.

“What got me hooked on hosts was the TV drama Tomorrow I Will Be Someone’s Girlfriend [based on a manga about hosts and sugar daddy relationships]. After watching the drama, I became interested and thought that I wanted to try that. When I moved to Tokyo, I went to a host club in Kabukicho alone, and instantly fell in love with the handsome guy who waited on me. Since then, I’ve been going to the club where my favorite host is located about once or twice a week. I spend over ¥50,000 per visit.”

For a young student, this is not chump change. She inevitably found it difficult to pay the host fees, so turned to the “easy” option: prostitution. And she wouldn’t have to join a fuzoku (brothel or call girl service); she can just go and stand on the streets on Kabukicho, and potential clients come to her.

Ironically, the scandal and media frenzy about tachinbo has made the situation in Okubo famous, so more women know about this way of earning a quick yen.

Tachinbo is a recognized social problem for several years now, leading to rowdy social media chatter, febrile media coverage, and regular police crackdowns, on the women involved as well as clients (if the prostitutes are underage) and pimps (often hosts or intermediaries).

In September 2023, Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested 35 women on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act while they were waiting for customers around Okubo Park. Four women in their twenties were arrested in July. Many of these women turn to prostitution to earn money to work at host clubs, reports Friday.

The authorities are also concerned about sex tourism, including cases of foreign men being defrauded.

Given the recent police attention, the interviewee is a bit savvy.

“Police enforcement is strict around Okubo Park, so I stand in front of a love hotel. I only see about three men a day. It costs about 20,000 yen per session, including full sex.” This admission is an important distinction, because legal prostitution in Japan do not offer full service — at least, not on paper — as a way of circumventing the law.

“I’m just treating it like I’m making money, so I don’t feel anything. [. . .] Fortunately, I’ve never been in any danger.”

And what about her favorite host?

“I’ve gotten drunk after-hours outside the club and we have had sex with a few times. But I know he doesn’t really love me. Girls I know know he’s also in relationships with them. I hated it when my friend told me about it. I still want to believe it was a lie.”

Nonetheless, she tells Friday that she plans to continue working as a streetwalker as long as it means she can meet her favorite host.

Every story needs a villain and every social problem needs a simple cause. That’s why the media has happily lapped up the police account that the uptick in visible prostitution in places like Okubo Park on the edge of Kabukicho is due to evil host clubs.

While it’s certainly true that host clubs and similar service prey on vulnerable, lonely women, and their payment system is designed to allow clients without the wherewithal to visit and then leave in debt (unlike, say, hostess clubs, which are generally only accessible to the wealthy or men with corporate expense accounts), we still struggle to swallow this theory: the number of streetwalkers in locations like Okubo or parts of Osaka, are just too high, not to mention all the young women doing papakatsu (compensated dating with a sugar daddy). Widely socioeconomic stagnation, in which young people seek out quick fixes and see little hope in a regular job, is surely the real culprit.

The Friday interview also includes a comment from former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist.

“It’s true that prostitution is against the law, and [the interviewee] is also at fault. However, the fundamental problem lies in the sex industry, which targets women. Some unscrupulous hosts stir up jealousy among their customers and have multiple women compete for them. Sometimes they even have affairs with them after-hours, making the female customers feel special.

Women who develop a liking for a host will spend even more money and visit the club more frequently in an attempt to gain his favor. Naturally, the bills mount and their lives become more difficult. In a sense, it’s only natural that women who want to make a lot of money in a short amount of time would easily turn to prostitution. The actions of streetwalkers are never acceptable, but they are also victims in some ways.”