Brokers of Japanese sex workers sentenced by Korean court

Korean brokers of Japanese prostitutions have been sentenced by a court in Seoul.

According to Korea Wave, the Supreme Court of Korea dismissed the appeal of two Korean brokers on April 25, upholding the original ruling against the men of prison sentences of two years and one year and eight months.

Between November 2023 and May 2024, the pair helped approximately 80 Japanese women enter South Korea and arranged for them to become prostitutes in Seoul and Gyeonggi. Based in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, they advertised on a website under the name “Girls of the Archipelago,” recruiting customers and providing sexual services.

The two men earned approximately 300 million won (around ¥30 million). Among the women were famous Japanese AV actresses. Fees for each sexual service these women provided ranged from 1.3 million to 2.5 million won (¥130,000 to ¥250,000).

It used to be the case that a lot of sex workers in Japan were Korean or Chinese, especially the less fortunate ones actually on the streets in the open in areas like Dogenzaka in Shibuya, or that Japanese businessmen would go on “golfing trips” to Korea and other parts of Asia, where they would enjoy the local women who could be bought with their yen.

These days, with the weak yen and the economic situation in Japan uncertain, things have flipped: Japanese women, including hostesses and porn stars, are traveling overseas to ply a trade in sex work for limited periods of time in places like Hong Kong, China, Dubai, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Sometimes this is done out of desperation to repay host club debts.

The situation is not dissimilar to what happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where lots of young Japanese women from poor families were sent to places like China or California to work as prostitutions.

This has led to scandals where women have been arrested. One raid in Hong Kong in 2023 nabbed adult video star Minato Maiha. In late 2024, another sweep in Hong Kong allegedly caught three porn stars, including Wakana Asamiya and well-known performer Miru, though this was never confirmed (her social media posts at the time seemed to suggest she was in Japan).

In Japan, meanwhile, local brokers have been arrested and these cases have been reported widely in the tabloid media, with some denouncing it as a “national shame.”