The Kabukicho district of Shinjuku is well-known for being Tokyo’s red-light district. Home to innumerable bars, host and hostess clubs, and various other ‘water trade’ ventures, Kabukicho embraces everything that mainstream Japanese society might not.

But due to a recent police crackdown on a well-established business in the district, netizens have raised questions about precisely why the law has suddenly turned its attentions to Kabukicho once more, with some suggesting that it might be related to Tokyo’s Olympic bid.

From Yahoo! Japan:

AV Actresses Expose Their Genitals, Crackdown on Strip Show in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Safety Division have arrested Okano Kentaro (41, South Koenji, Suginami ward) the manager of the strip show ‘Kabukicho T.S. Musical’ (Shinjuku ward) and ten strippers aged between 24 and 39 under suspicion of public indecency due to adult video (AV) actresses exposing their genitals during the show.

According to the Safety Division, the club was judged as being very wrongful, since during the finale of the show all the strippers would show their genitals to the audience, then borrow cameras from the audience and photograph themselves. A long-established business that had opened in 1985, it is estimated that the club turned profits of over 200,000,000 yen per year, focusing on clients who came on tours from China. It is said that there are even some strippers at the club who have appeared in over 100 adult movies.

On the night of January 28, it is alleged that the suspects made 6 of the actresses expose their genitals, while allowing an unspecified number of customers to spectate.

In May and August of last year, an anonymous source came forward to discuss things with the metropolitan police, saying, ‘As far as these things go it’s one of the most extreme clubs in the country, and if the Tokyo Olympics is held here, [this club] will bring shame on the whole of Japan.’

Comments from 2ch.net:

バーミーズ(東京都)：

Why are they cracking down on this stuff! They must be crazy.

チーター(東京都)：

Bring shame on Japan…when in foreign countries having no mosaic in porn films is the default! [Japanese porn films are required by law to pixelate or airbrush out genitalia and pubic hair].

ターキッシュバン(新疆ウイグル自治区)：

So strip clubs are bad, but soaplands are ok? Tokyo is a mysterious place.

白(兵庫県)：

I don’t get what’s wrong with an adult showing another adult their pussy. What’s with this ultra-conservative state? That’s why the marriage rate is in decline.

バーミーズ(東京都)：

But in foreign countries strip clubs are pretty normal anyway.

スナドリネコ(やわらか銀行)：

I don’t really understand why they had to hide their genitals in the first place. What’s the problem if you show someone? Are we indecent beasts who live secretly carrying illegal porn with us just because we have genitals?

アムールヤマネコ(北海道)：

Guess there was nothing in it for the police.

アメリカンショートヘア(神奈川県)：

Rather the fact that we have mosaics in our porn is making us the shame of the world.

ウンピョウ(岩手県)：

This is part of Japanese culture, too. Calling it shameful is the most shameful thing. Have more confidence in your strip clubs, people of Japan!

エキゾチックショートヘア(京都府)：

This is why I’m against the Olympic bid. I’d like the bid committee to be invited here after we’ve done something with those idiots who want to regulate things like this.

サビイロネコ(東京都)：

The bloody Tokyo Olympics is irrelevant w Even if you don’t go to places like this there’s enough weirdness in Tokyo.

リビアヤマネコ(やわらか銀行)：

The fueiho law is operated arbitrarily by police jurisdiction (the point is it’s just according to their whim), so I guess they must have had some sort of other reason to search the premises. This theatre is one of the oldest, even in Tokyo, and I don’t suppose they’ve changed what they do since the old days.

ヒマラヤン(埼玉県)：

They’re not really having sex or anything, so isn’t stuff like this fine?

ジャガー(東京都)：

They should crackdown on the pachinko instead of this.

ピューマ(九州地方)：

It’s standard public indecency, right? Those who complain about it need to go and study a bit of law.

ターキッシュバン(チベット自治区)：

Why in this country do we have the capability to mosaic out genitals even in real life?

アムールヤマネコ(北海道)：