Tokyo cops crack down on teen prostitution in Akihabara before Olympics

“After Tokyo was selected to host the 2020 Olympics, people began whispering that the commercial sex industry would be the first to receive a red card,” says a writer covering the fuzoku trade.

Throughout Tokyo, reports Shukan Jitsuwa (Apr. 10), a purification drive of the city’s red-light areas is expanding, with the latest blow arriving in Chiyoda Ward’s Akihabara area, where law enforcement is attempting to thwart child prostitution.

Starting on April 1, businesses throughout Chiyoda Ward will be prohibited from promoting the service utilized by men known as “joshi kosei osanpo,” or a walking date with a high school girl.

“High school girls who have finished class take up work at a parlor and patrol the streets of Akihabara, asking male pedestrians, ‘Why don’t we go for a walk?'” says a journalist for an evening sports paper.

The basic price for the stroll is 5,000 yen for 30 minutes. Options can include picture taking (1,000 yen) or holding hands (1,500 yen).

“From the eyes of foreigner, this appears to be a paradise for child prostitution,” says the same reporter for the sports paper. “During the walk, the customer can then negotiate enjo kosai” — meaning compensated dating, which is a euphemism for a trip to love hotel.

In October, officers arrested a male resident of Saitama Prefecture on obscenity charges for paying 18,000 yen for the undergarments of the third-year high-school student during an osanpo excursion in Akihabara on April 22.

“On the other hand, there have also been case of the customer being blackmailed by the shop,” says the same reporter.

That same month, five employees at a parlor in Akihabara were arrested for extorting 300,000 yen from a 49-year-old male customer who paid for a jaunt with a 17-year-old girl.

Violators of the new regulation will not receive a punishment. However, police officers will patrol the Akihabara area will encourage compliance with the measure.

However, it may prove to be fruitless as the businesses could simply move elsewhere.

“With the government targeting Akihabara, those businesses will move from Chiyoda Ward to other places,” says the same reporter. “There has already been expansion into Ueno, Ikebukuro and Akabane.”

Further, in these areas services tend to be more radical in nature.

“In Akihabara, the customers are mainly soshoku danshi,” says another fuzoku writer, who uses the term meaning “herbivorous men,” or males not interested in sex. “So just holding hands is fine, but in other areas those services are not enough.”

In Ikebukuro, there are “off the menu” options, such as the playing of games or the supply of special massages at home or in a love hotel.

“It means that a customer can be with a girl in a closed room,” the writer continues. “Of course, you can imagine easily what happens there.” (A.T.)

Source: “Akiba osanpo kinshi suru JK saabisu” Shukan Jitsuwa (Apr. 10, page 49)