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Agence France-Presse

Young Japanese women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists.
Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district.
There is no official data but anecdotal evidence suggests that increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media.
One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real tourist attraction” and that around half her customers are foreigners.
“Since they can’t communicate in Japanese, they write ‘how much is it?’ on their phones” using an automatic translator, Ria, who did not use her real name, said.

The men going to Okubo Park are mostly from South Korea and China but also from North America and Europe.
Awareness abroad has grown partly because of videos on social media platforms such as TikTok or the Chinese Bilibili.
The videos are often shot without consent, sometimes live, and some of the clips have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.
Ria and others say they are self-employed, with no involvement from pimps. They take their clients to nearby “love hotels”.
Foreigners preferred
The average price is between 15,000 and 30,000 yen (US$105 to US$210) but the women are under pressure to charge less and less, the 26-year-old said.
That was because “the cost of living and the decline in purchasing power” are making many Japanese men demand a lower price, she added.
“Foreigners tend not to negotiate the price and will usually give us more.”
Nineteen-year-old Azu, who is sitting next to her at the Rescue Hub, a shelter set up by a non-profit group, agrees.
“In the best-case scenario, I can charge a client 20,000 yen per hour with a condom, sometimes a little more,” she said.
Money worries are among the issues pushing more women to become sex workers, according to Rescue Hub head Arata Sakamoto.
It was not very common for Japanese women to be sex workers on the street a decade ago, Sakamoto said.


However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, “young women have started selling sex at low prices”.
“I think this is one of the reasons why the number of foreign clients has increased,” he said.
Around 10 women were relaxing in Rescue Hub’s cosy flat on a recent evening, grabbing something to eat and charging their phones.
They were safe there, but Sakamoto said the women faced “risks to their physical and mental health, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases … unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and unwanted births”.
“Some women are victims of abuse, or their actions might be filmed without their consent,” he said.
“They may also not be paid for their services or their money may be stolen.”
Socially conservative Japan welcomed a record 36.8 million tourists last year, thanks in part to the weak yen.

Tokyo police did not respond to requests for information about the increase in foreign clients visiting sex workers.
However, they did say that there had been more police patrols since December.
This has had the effect of dispersing sex workers throughout the area.
“It’s become safer to choose foreign customers rather than Japanese ones, because at least we can be sure they’re not plain-clothes police officers,” Ria said as she sipped tea.
Only “penetrative” sexual services are prohibited in Japan and it is the sex workers who face fines, or even prison sentences, rather than the clients.
Sakamoto said “establishing legal consequences for customers” would help deter demand, including from non-Japanese.
“The authorities should also have awareness campaigns, in several languages, in airports, hotels and tourist areas,” he said.


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Money pressures are forcing women to offer cheaper services, further adding to Kabukicho’s attraction, shelter says


Money pressures are forcing women to offer cheaper services, further adding to Kabukicho’s attraction, shelter says.
