Japanese Sex Culture

Prostitution is banned by the Anti-Prostitution Law and other regulations, but still there are unofficial shops called ‘soapland’, ‘fashion health’ and Hotetoru (sex-delivery) that provide bathing service in a private room that provide prostitution services as well.

According to Takashi Kadokura (2002), the chief economist of the DaiIchi Life Research Institute, the scale of prostitution business in Japan was estimated at around 1.2 trillion yen (0.2% of the gross domestic product) in 1999.

In Japan today, because of the strong economy and a well-established social welfare system, there are almost no people living below the poverty line. However, there are prostitutes who willingly entered the business just to get more money that many of the part-time prostitutes also a housewife or office ladies.

Among 235 foreign prostitutes arrested in Japan in 2003: Chinese foreign nationals accounted for 33.2%, Thais (23.8%), Koreans (14.5%), Colombians (12.3%), and Taiwanese (11.1%).

Japan  is  regarded  as  a  destination  country  for  trafficked  women,  mostly used for sexual exploitation.

The typical case is as follows: Brokers reel in victims with promises of work in Japan as dancers, maids, or hostesses with good pay, but after their arrival, they are forced to do prostitution or strip dancing to pay off a “loan” of several million yen (several thousand U.S. dollars) charged for their travel expenses.

In  the  Trafficking  in  Persons  Report  2003  by  the  U.S.  Department of State, Japan is categorized in Tier 2, which consists of countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but that are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

The report pointed out the problems with the anti-trafficking measures used in Japan:

Each country or region must consider its own economic and cultural background when adopting methods to control this type of crime.