Tag - prostitution

 
 

PROSTITUTION

An advertisement in Tokyo's Kabukicho, Japan's largest red-light district. The country is home to a thriving adult entertainment industry and has recently seen a boom in sex tourism fueled by the weak yen and availability of red-light services.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024
From geisha to oshikatsu, toxic tropes fuel sex industry
It isn't only the foreign gaze that produces stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive and promiscuous. Local laws and cultural norms play just as important a role.
OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair gestures during the Axios BFD event in New York on Oct. 12, 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 30, 2024
How OnlyFans turned into a global empire bent on redefining porn
For all its ambition and influence, the inner workings of OnlyFans remain opaque.
Then U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz runs up the East Capitol stairs as the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown approaches on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 30, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Matt Gaetz found to have paid for sex and drugs, and obstructed U.S. Congress
Matt Gaetz was found to have paid $90,000 to 12 women, a substantial portion of which the panel found was likely for either sexual activity or drug use.
The streets of Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district in 2020. Consultations over matters relating to host clubs have been increasing every year at police stations nationwide, according to the National Police Agency.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 19, 2024
National Police Agency panel calls for stricter rules against host clubs
The expert panel recommends targeting malicious practices, rather than specific establishments, to cover more ground.
A vendor sells a box of cigarettes across rolls of barbed wire, separating Thailand and Myanmar, in Mae Sot, Thailand, on Aug. 18, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 17, 2024
Myanmar’s war has forced doctors and nurses into prostitution
The rise in prostitution is another blow to the status of women in Myanmar.
A woman is arrested for soliciting prostitution near Okubo Park in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in October.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 5, 2024
88 arrested for soliciting prostitution near Tokyo park so far this year
The arrests reflect ongoing challenges in curbing illegal activities in Shinjuku's Okubo Park area, which has been dubbed a “prostitution haven” on social media.
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2024
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
Investigators suspect Ryotaro Masuda beat his girlfriend repeatedly and invested money she received from coerced involvement with other men.
The group executive is denying violating the employment security law, while the other four have admitted to it, according to sources.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 19, 2024
Japan police arrest executive of group referring women to sex trade
According to the sources, the group, called "Akusesu," had about 160 members who used aliases among themselves.
Daisuke Tanaka's profile photo on his Instagram account
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 13, 2024
Host arrested on suspicion of coercing client into prostitution
A host club employee in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district was arrested for allegedly attempting to force a female client into prostitution.
Indian and Bangladeshi girls rescued from sexual exploitation stand near the window of a house provided by a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Kolkata on Sept. 11.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 7, 2024
Trafficked: The girls sold for sex in India
A 2023 U.S. report on trafficking said that India is making "significant efforts" but still falls below minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
Investigators from the Osaka Prefectural Police conduct a search last month at the high-end Japanese restaurant Tenhime, operated by Tateki Okuda, in the city of Osaka.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2024
Osaka brothel owner arrested for allegedly forcing 150 into prostitution
The suspect, who had already been arrested for facilitating prostitution, was newly arrested along with four others for offering venues for prostitution.
Suzumi Suzuki’s “Gifted,” translated by Allison Markin Powell, centers on a hostess working in Kabukicho. Rather than focusing on the protagonist’s occupation, the story plunges the reader into her strained relationship with her dying mother.  
CULTURE / Books
Nov 3, 2024
A nuanced glimpse into the cloistered world of Kabukicho
Drawing on her own experience working in adult entertainment, Suzumi Suzuki crafts a fresh, visceral work for her debut novel, "Gifted"
Abercrombie & Fitch chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries addresses stockholders during the company's annual meeting at the company's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, on May 22, 2003.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2024
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries charged with sex trafficking
If convicted, Jeffries faces a possible life sentence and mandatory minimum 15-year prison terms for the sex trafficking charges.
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 6, 2024
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
A weak yen, robust inbound tourism and social media have shone a spotlight on a park in Tokyo where men gather in search of sex.
Yoshifumi Matsumura (second from right), head of the National Public Safety Commission, inspects Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district in June.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 5, 2024
Tokyo host bar worker arrested over kickbacks for brokering prostitution
It is the first time a worker at a host bar has been arrested over receiving kickbacks for brokering prostitution.
One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 22, 2024
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’
Homeless influencers, fantasy boyfriends and bubble-era bars — Kabukicho seems to have it all.
The Metropolitan Police Department said that among 23 men arrested, two were supervisors, three were store managers and the remaining 18, their employees.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 17, 2024
Tokyo police arrest 23 men over brokering of prostitution
The group allegedly ran four outlets in the capital that dispatched sex workers to clients at the location of their choosing.
Women at a water well as a sand storm passes by in Ethiopia
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 6, 2024
Climate disasters in Africa push women to sell sex, risking HIV progress
Hunger is pushing women and girls into sexual exploitation and increasing the risk of HIV, health experts and aid workers have warned.
A woman speaks of her experience of being sent to Macau by an overseas prostitution broker during an interview in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on April 8.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 12, 2024
Three men rearrested over brokering of overseas prostitution
The men sent between 200 and 300 Japanese women to brothels in the United States, Canada and Australia over three years, bringing in roughly ¥200 million.
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2024
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
The 25-year-old swindled three men out of ¥159 million, which she spent on a Kabukicho host she fell in love with.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?