Access scouting group crackdown continues with arrests in Sapporo

On October 10, 2025, Sapporo police arrested three men living in the city’s Chuo Ward on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act.

According to a report by Sapporo TV, the arrested men were a 55-year-old man running a sex entertainment establishment, a 41-year-old man, and a 50-year-old man, both of whom worked at soapland-style brothels.

The men are suspected of conspiring to provide a venue for prostitution at a bathhouse’s private rooms in the ward, knowing that the prostitutes were engaging in sex work with customers. The charges relate to activities up to September.

Initially part of a major investigation into possible Employment Security Act violations by the scouting (brokering) group Access (as previously reported here), a joint investigation led by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police discovered that Access (which had a network of hundreds of brothels) was procuring women for soaplands in Sapporo, and launched an investigation following a tip.

According to police, the men were involved with two soaplands, with the 41-year-old man a 50-year-old serving as representatives of each establishment, and the 55-year-old man the de facto manager of both establishments.

Police conducted simultaneous raids of both establishments on September 24 and seized evidence. Following further investigation, the three men were arrested on October 10.

Police have not revealed whether the three have admitted to the crimes. The two establishments apparently generated sales of at least ¥280 million between January and September 24.

One thing that always confuses us is that the Japanese news is full of such stories every week: people arrested for running prostitution rings and brothels. Though this particular case stems from the much larger investigation into the sex brokers Access, we’ve seen multiple similar news stories about arrests related to prostitution in Gunma, Kumamoto, Toyama, and Osaka over the past few days alone.

And yet the industry as a whole seems to continue, if not thrive.

Call us naive, but the only reasons we can think of for why certain establishments and operations are targeted is to make an example of them, or because they didn’t pay the right bribe either to the police or yakuza, which would protect them from a raid.

After all, there’s a long-running soapland in the middle of Shibuya directly opposite a police substation. While non-penetrative sex acts do not violate the law against prostitution, how do the police really know what goes on behind closed doors? And yet that soapland right under their noses is tolerated.