It's almost time to declare taxes in Japan, so we were particularly amused by this story in the news. Tokyo Taxation Bureau has announced the punishment of a 27-year-old female employee at one of its branches for breaching its rules on civil servants having side jobs.
The nature of the side job probably didn't help.
The unnamed woman was actually working at a soapland as a sex worker. For her troubles, she has been handed down a nine-month suspension, the bureau announced at the end of January.
She was working at soaplands from October 2020 to January 2022 at weekday nights and on days ...
The tabloid magazine Weekly Bunshun has published an interview with someone they give the alias Yuna Ishihara, who is apparently a 24-year-old student at Tokyo College of Music.
But she also appears in adult video and works at a soapland in Yoshiwara, Tokyo's long-established red-light district in the east of the city.
But due to the pandemic, her income of ¥900,000 (around $9,000) a month has massively decreased, leading her to take up papakatsu.
As reported before, this is a euphemism for compensated dating with older men (sugar daddies). The principle is hardly new but the term has ...
It's probably Tokyo's most famous and futuristic pieces of architecture: the Nakagin Capsule Tower.
Despite its repute, it's an endangered species: demolition of the Metabolist landmark has been scheduled for a long time.
People have continued to reside in the pod-like pied-à-terre living units or use them as office spaces. Or for other uses, it seems.
We had never heard of this before but it seems that certain capsule rooms in Nakagin were used by prostitutes to service customers.
In Tokyo, a brothel-style fuzoku service typically has its own little place with basic facilities. ...
Around the end of December, people started tweeted about a "worrying" new development in Akihabara, the Tokyo district known for electronics and otaku culture.
The restaurant Kitchen Jiro has been replaced by a "free guidance place" (muryo annaijo) -- essentially a sex industry information center, where you can get introductions on nearby soaplands, massage parlors, and other types of brothels. Such modestly sized places are common in areas like Kabukicho or Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Namba in Osaka, or just about any downtown area in a major Japanese city.
Does this, as people seem convinced, ...
The technical intern training program in Japan has rightfully attracted international condemnation for legalizing what often amounts to near-slavery conditions for foreign workers, especially Vietnamese. Employers -- including small manufacturers -- are allowed to pay these workers extremely low wages and it is all sanctioned by the government.
The workers are trapped, unable to change jobs and frequently in debt to middle-men for the fees to get their places on the scheme and come to Japan.
Over the years, many sad stories of abuse and even suicide have emerged from the "internships" ...
The Japanese government has stepped in with cash handouts for both citizens and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to offset the worst effects of the economic fallout. Offering a maximum of ¥2 million in a one-off lump sum to help pay rent, the money has been a lifeline for small companies like shops and restaurants.
But what about the sex industry? So far, operators of such services have been excluded from the relief program.
One woman has taken matters into her own hands, filing a lawsuit against the Japanese national government as well as two firms overseeing the ...
At a point when the sex industry in Japan is under economic and social pressure -- demonized by politicians and the media for spreading the coronavirus, deserted by customers -- comes a timely reminder of the "healing" and affective nature of sex work, and its curious status in society.
Recently reviewed in the Japan Times, Gabriele Koch's book Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered Economy (2020, Stanford University Press) argues that Japanese sex workers regard their work as necessary to the social and economic well-being of society.
The book is the result of nearly two years of ...
As previously discussed on this blog before, hostesses and hosts have received much of the blame for the spread of the coronavirus in Japan, especially in Tokyo.
The nightlife scene, particularly the seedier side in areas like Kabukicho, has found itself demonized by the authorities and media as the most obvious source of infection clusters.
While we don't doubt that intimate encounters with prostitutes or long sessions in small hostess club booths does increase the risk of infection, we are very suspicious of the narrative that the media is pushing.
Indeed, this week Tokyo announced 55 ...
With much of Japan on semi-lockdown (or at least, slowdown) due to measures to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, freelancers and the self-employed are particularly feeling the crunch.
This naturally includes prostitutes of various types (soaplands, call girls, etc.). Though some delivery health services are trying to cash in on the crisis with coronavirus-themed marketing, we expect most fuzoku establishments are closed or running reduced hours right now. Naturally, accurate numbers of these are hard to come by, though we did read an interview with a sex worker at an Ikebukuro ...
We wrote recently about some of the ways that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the adult industry in Japan.
We didn't talk about prostitution much except for the closure of Tobita Shinchi, a famous red-light district in Osaka, and outbreaks associated with Kabukicho in Tokyo.
It's a sure thing that people aren't going out to red-light districts or brothels, but what about other types of fuzoku services such as delivery health?
Well, it seems that call girls are still available and may even be busier than usual as lots more people hang around at home with little to do except think ...
