Yunho, now 20 years old, is scared and hurt. He is deeply scarred by being forced to work as a prostitute in Tokyo’s notorious Kabukicho district, but has yet to repay the club’s ever-increasing interest bill.
Desperate, she contacted the Parent Liaison Council for Youth Protection last month, which offered support and advice and provided her with a lawyer. But Yuno worries that wherever she goes in Tokyo, she might run into someone associated with the group that runs the clubs and sex industry in Kabukicho. She’s already had a close call once.
“It was fun at first,” said Yunho, who declined to give his last name. “When I met my host, he told me he was cute. Before long, I started seeing him regularly, at one point five times a week. Then he told me he was opening a restaurant. He told me about his “dream.” Yakitori Go to the restaurant with me. ”
Yunho now knows that falling in love with the smooth-talking host was a grave error in judgment, but at the time, she was told that her companion would “take care of her,” and that she didn’t care about the money she spent every night. I hardly thought about it. After she spent as much as 50,000 yen (353 USD) per night on her own, she was shocked when she was finally presented with the total amount.
When she informed the club that there was no immediate way to repay such a large sum, the club immediately offered a solution. And they made it clear that their solution was non-negotiable.
“That’s how I ended up doing sex work,” Yuno said. “I stood in an area of Kabukicho known for prostitutes and waited for men to approach me.” I worked almost every day, sometimes earning 60,000 yen a day, but sometimes as much as 30,000 yen. It was about that.”
The gangsters who run the sex industry in Kabukicho also told her to go abroad and work as a prostitute because she could earn more money, but Yunho didn’t have a passport. Perhaps it was a lucky escape for her. This was because wherever she went, she was almost certain to be saddled with even more debt for the “expenses” of her travels and lodging.
Despite working every day, he was unable to repay the host club by the end of November.
“I was walking in Shinjuku when my host spotted me and started chasing me,” she said. “I fled in a taxi. That day, I called the Western Federation, and the first thing they told me was to cut off all contact with the organizers and the club.”
The organization’s director, Hidemori Gen, said Yuno’s experience was not unique, and the organization is calling on authorities to protect young women who fall prey to what he described as a “pack of hyenas”. said.
“Many of these women come from wealthy families and move from rural areas to cities to study or work, but they have little experience with men and are naive,” Geng says. “Most of the victims are between the ages of 18 and 23, simply because they are women who are in demand in the sex industry.”
The host flatters the women, sends them countless text messages and generally “makes them feel like princesses,” Geng added. “They make the girls fall in love quickly, and the host starts telling them they don’t have to worry about paying for drinks on the night, even if it’s 3 million yen worth of champagne.”
“At this stage, external intervention is no longer possible,” Geng said. “Senior staff taught her effective brainwashing skills and took control of the girl’s mind.”
If women are presented with a bill when they are already at the point of tears, they have little choice but to follow directions, she said. The indebted women are handed over to sex industry scouts, but Gen claims that the industry has close ties to Japan’s notorious “yakuza” gangs. The most beautiful women are sent overseas, but older women who are unable to repay their debts are forced to work at the Soapland, a brothel in a rural town.
“This issue has received a lot of attention recently, but we need to fundamentally change the law and reverse public apathy,” Geng said. There were victims within five months of its establishment.
“To me, I don’t think enough is being done,” Geng said. “Why does Japan allow yakuza organizations to exist? Why don’t the police or lawyers do anything even if we complain?”
The “dark side” of Japan’s scandal-plagued entertainment industry
The “dark side” of Japan’s scandal-plagued entertainment industry
On December 5, a group representing 13 host club operators in Kabukicho reached an agreement with the Tokyo metropolitan government to end the practice of women racking up expensive tabs at clubs from April 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
Other measures agreed include not allowing women under the age of 20 into clubs and severing ties with groups active in the sex industry.
Takayuki Makita, chief operating officer (COO) of the largest host club, told reporters: “On behalf of the industry, I would like to apologize for the inappropriate situation. I won’t do it.”
Critics were quick to point out that the club had promised to “self-regulate” itself.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper wrote in an editorial on December 9, “The combination of credit sales and forced prostitution to force customers into large amounts of debt can no longer be called normal and acceptable business operations,” and called for state intervention. Ta.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to “strictly crack down on illegal activities” in this area in response to questions from opposition politicians in the Diet, but his only new initiative is to promote awareness of the relevant laws. , Asahi noted that it provides support to victims through counseling services.
Citing the case of a woman who attempted suicide after racking up nearly 10 million yen in debt to her host, the paper urged “younger generations to be more wary of the dangerous traps hidden behind sweet words.” demanded action.
Despite the industry’s promises, Geng is also not optimistic that real change is on the horizon.
“We are calling for the immediate abolition of the General Assembly, which allows women to file such huge bills, and that something must be done about the legal and social gray areas surrounding the sex industry in Japan. “It has to be,” he said. “There has to be change.
“But the truth is, I’m not optimistic,” he said. “These women are brainwashed as if they are part of a cult. There are 300 host clubs in Kabukicho alone, which means there are 300 cults in the area.
“They don’t care about these women. They’re hyenas.”
