Sex business operator sues Japan over exclusion from coronavirus cash handout programme

Japan’s government offers US$19,000 and rental assistance to small businesses hit by the Covid-19 pandemic – but not the sex industry

Meanwhile, a report found nearly 36,000 Japanese companies have chosen to discontinue their business this year, mainly due to the coronavirus crisis

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People walk past a sign for a brothel in Japan. A sex business operator said her revenue declined 80 per cent after she suspended her business in April in accordance with requests from the local authorities. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00pm, 23 Sep 2020Updated: 8:13pm, 23 Sep 2020

A woman running a sex worker-dispatching business sued the Japanese government on Wednesday, saying its blanket exclusion of the sex industry from a cash handout programme to support small companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic is discrimination banned under the country’s constitution.

In the lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the woman, who operates the business in western Japan’s Kansai area, demanded the payment of the benefits as well as consolation money for having been discriminated against “without reasonable grounds”, her lawyers said.

The defendants also include Recruit Co. and Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC, according to the lawyers. The two firms are in charge of clerical work for the relief programme.

As part of its financial assistance to smaller businesses suffering from plunging revenues due to the pandemic, the government provides a maximum 2 million yen (US$19,000) paid in a lump sum. It also offers benefits to help them pay rent.

However, businesses in the sex industry, such as companies dispatching sex workers and operators of “love hotels”, or accommodation for sexual activities, are not covered by the scheme.