Even connoisseur of hedonism Anthony Bourdain was decidedly star-struck – wide eyed and jaw agape when he visited a few fetish clubs while making his “Tokyo After Dark” episode on his CNN show “Parts Unknown.”

Raids on fetish and sex clubs are not unheard of in Tokyo; they have to keep up the appearance of conservatism after all. Other BDSM clubs, like Silk in Shinjuku, have been shut down before. But which clubs get targeted has more to do with who pays “registration fees” to authorities and which clubs have the protection of the Yakuza, a Japan-based international crime syndicate.