A few years ago, various shops began to appear in places like Akihabara offering services like hugs, ear-cleaning, "snuggling," massages, and "reflexology." However, like how massage parlors may provide more than just a massage, some of the "cuddle cafe" (soine-ten) establishments merely used these services as fronts for forms of prostitution. A police crackdown ensued and we actually thought there were very few, if any, left.
It seems that such places are still around and up to their old tricks, operating under the guise of rifure-ten (reflexology shops).
A rifure-ten chain, Rapunzel ...
We fondly remember the days when it was relatively easy to visit happening bars. Sadly, those times when such establishments were widely known and could be frequented in central areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya now feel distant, largely due to a police crackdown that closed many down or scared others off.
Further proof that the police won't tolerate businesses that allow members of the public to have sex with each other appeared this month.
Media reported on May 9 that police had busted a Shibuya happening bar called Sleeping Beauty.
An incredible eleven separate police districts as well ...
There is a public park located a short walk from the main part of Nichome, Shinjuku's gay neighborhood. It underwent remodeling and reopened with fences and a gate. Unlike almost all other small parks in the city, it was now closed at night. The proximity of the gay district, whose denizens had presumably used the park to gather, drink, and possibly get intimate, was no coincidence.
Now we read about another case related to this.
The owner of a sento public bathhouse was understandably peeved that patrons were using his establishment to have sex. While Japanese porn might give you other ...
The famed Tobita Shinchi red light district in Osaka will close down during the upcoming Group of 20 summit in late June, according to media reports
Tobita Shinchi is a rare example of an old-style red light district (yukaku) in Japan, similar to how Yoshiwara used to be in Tokyo, featuring rows of licensed establishments in which young ladies sit in open doorways waiting for patrons.
This time it's not the authorities actually doing the closing; it's kind of a case of self-censorship. Apparently the Tobita Shinchi association itself has agreed to "restrain" its activities during the ...
We stumbled upon this great Twitter feed detailing a report by Shinbunka, the publishing industry trade journal in Japan, about the decline of the much-loved porn magazine vending machine. It also cites from an interview with the photographer Tetsuya Kurosawa, who has documented the vending machines (visiting some 500 locations along the way!).
It's true, we haven't seen one for many a moon. Here's why.
At the peak of the adult vending machine boom, there were some 50,000 machines nationwide in the 1970s. That lofty number has been reduced to a mere fraction now.
What are left are often ...
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say.
Late last year there was some controversy about a Japanese schoolgirl YouTuber who offered "free oppai" breast gropes to men in Shibuya.
Well, another Japanese schoolgirl went and did the same thing.
A 16-year-old schoolgirl wearing a bunny girl costume and carrying a sketchbook that said "Free Oppai" invited passersby in Hachiko in Shibuya to touch her breasts.
This time, though, it's more serious, and police are cracking down in order to set an example. The anonymous schoolgirl's case was sent to the prosecutors on March ...
If you're anything like us, you like nude selfies. Not necessarily your own or even your partner's, but perusing those of others posted generously online.
We've covered some great examples of these over the years and they never cease to get us in the right mood.
But if you happen to like the ones posted by high schoolers or even younger, you may not be able to enjoy them that much longer if the powers that be have their way.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is proposing to change the Healthy Youth Development Ordinance, which covers the use of media and minors to make it harder to ask ...
"Teenage girls luring men into dens of sleaze warned by police."
It sounds like a headline on a parody news website. The men are lured into dens of sleaze by teenage girls. Oh, so the men are the victims?
But it's not. It's an article in the Asahi Shimbun and just the latest entry in a media frenzy about the JK business ("high-school girl business") as the police continue their crackdown on what is often a thin cover for underage prostitution.
Twenty teenage girls suspected of working in the sleazy "JK business" were given a slap on the wrist by police in a series of street ...
After the media controversy comes the government crackdown.
The biggest story in the adult industry last year was when the widespread coercion in the porn industry was finally exposed after several famous performers came forward, in addition to multiple arrests and prosecutions.
It led to an official apology from the industry, though can we really hope that things will really improve when the industry is so large and its needs so rampant? (After all, such coercion is also endemic for gravure idols, music idols and the general entertainment world.)
Kyodo now reports that the ...
Bad news if you are into "JK business", the new style of enjo kosai (compensated dating) where you go on "dates" with schoolgirls that end in a sexual encounter. The days of casually walking into a JK business venue and getting an appointment with a teenager are possibly numbered.
These services are often euphemistically called "osanpo" (walks), though they may also be in the form of "massages" or "soine" (snuggling up together in bed), or as conversations in a "cafe" or even sessions where the customer takes photos of the girl schoolgirl in swimwear. ("JK" stands for "joshi-kosei", or ...
