For the most part in Japan, prostitution is not visible.
Sure, if you can understand the euphemism and codes in the signage, you can see fuzoku brothels everywhere, normally in the form of places where you can go for "introductions" to sex workers.
But though call girls are visible entering and leaving love hotels, or you might seem female escorts waiting for a car or sitting in a vehicle outside a love hotel, it's relatively rare to see streetwalkers in Tokyo -- as in, actual prostitutes hanging around outside and trying to pick up clients (known as tachinbo in Japanese).
There are ...
You would think that a company as large and successful as Soft on Demand would have an army of lawyers and legal advisors on retainer, and that they would consult them carefully when launching a major and costly new project. Or perhaps they did and their team simply wasn't doing their job right.
Either way, our proverbial jaw hit the floor when we read this news.
On March 16, it was announced by Tokyo Metropolitan Police that the 40-year-old CEO of SOD -- the biggest porn producer in Japan -- has been arrested for violation of the fuzoku law. You might presume this is related to ...
You may never have heard of Marie Tachibana, but pretty much everyone in Kabukicho seems to have heard of her.
Perhaps the first thing to remark about her is that she is biracial (her father is American). The second is that she comes from a Christian family (that father was a missionary) -- and a big family at that, with seven siblings.
Instead of pursuing the conventional academic path, none of the children went to high school. Marie went to volunteer in India when she was 15, for instance.
If you were following J-Pop closely in the 2000s, you might have already seen Marie Tachibana ...
Kinbaku (shibari) rope bondage sensei Steve Osada, formerly known as the photographer Dr D Vice, is the inheritor of the Osada name and tying style (Osada-ryu) from Eikichi Osada.
The late master is one of the people responsible for making kinbaku known in the mainstream. He staged his first kinbaku performance at a ballet school in Asagaya, Tokyo, in 1965, which ushered the previously hidden world of rope bondage into the open. He subsequently moved his performance act to the strip show venue circuit in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, he did many shows with pink movie legend Hiromi Saotome, ...
Times are tough for host and hostess clubs, since they were demonized during the first wave of coronavirus infections in Japan and, inevitably, even their loyal patrons don't want to risk the close quarters of such clubs during these times.
But if you are brave enough, now is actually the best chance to visit the clubs. They are likely to be empty and you will have the pick of whichever host or hostess you fancy talking with. Plus you can get a discount.
We came across a photo report about a first-time visit to host clubs in Kabukicho in the coronavirus era. The young Japanese woman makes ...
These days, we aren't going out much, but we might be persuaded to make an exception here.
Tokyo Weekender published a photo report on the recently opened SOD Land, which is publicized as a porn theme park.
As previously reported, the complex opened in the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku in central Tokyo back in October, and features five floors devoted to adult video.
Tokyo Weekender's report emphasizes the "safety" aspect of the visit, in how the site has adapted to the risk of the coronavirus through face masks, disinfecting visitors from head to foot, and a special UV filter in the ...
Top Japanese porn producer Soft on Demand has opened its mini theme park complex in Kabukicho, Tokyo, which, despite recent gentrification, remains one of the centers of the adult and sex industry.
As previously reported, SOD Land is five floors devoted to porn. Visitors can get food and drink served by actual adult video stars or sex workers in several different types of establishments.
Here are some pictures from when the site opened to the public on October 10. People were lining to get in, despite the pre-typhoon rainy weather.
The "silent bar" on the top floor is the ...
The Weekly Playboy bar in Kabukicho was a big success back in 2017. We were reminded of it -- and how few chances there are to encounter the adult industry in a bricks-and-mortar setting other than just a shop in the likes of Akihabara -- when we read the exciting news that top Japanese porn production and distribution company Soft on Demand is opening what is essentially a sex theme park in Tokyo.
Ostensibly, the building will host restaurants and bars staffed by genuine porn performers, following the precedent established by Weekly Playboy's bar, where real gravure idols served ...
In a further sign that hosts and hostesses are skillfully trying to reframe the media narrative that has demonized their trade as hotspots for spreading coronavirus infections in Tokyo, the city's metropolitan government has released educational videos on COVID-19 that see two hosts and a hostess ask doctors questions.
After host clubs began cooperating with the Shinjuku government to initiate testing for employees and stem the spread in Kabukicho (and the demonization in the media), and the government started handing out cash payments to clubs that agree to close and to individual hosts and ...
Tokyo is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus infections, with upwards of 200+ infections announced per day. Almost all of these, so far, are younger people able to cope with symptoms and the pressure of the city's health facilities is currently minimal. Let's hope that this situation does not worsen.
As we have continued to write on these pages, much of the blame for clusters has focused -- we think, overly and unfairly so -- on the mizu shobai "water trade" world of nighttime entertainment, particularly host and hostess clubs, which have been almost demonized by the mainstream media ...
