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SCMP’s Asia desk

Japanese police have ramped up crackdowns on sex worker scout groups amid a worrying trend of women going into prostitution to pay off debts incurred at entertainment clubs.
Tokyo police on Wednesday arrested 27-year-old Tatsuya Kitamura, believed to be a senior member of the recruitment group Access, local media reported.
He was detained over violating the Employment Security Act by introducing a woman in her 20s to work at two adult entertainment outlets in Tokyo in July 2024.
The two stores were believed to have recruited about 280 women over a seven-month period, paying 6.5 million yen (US$43,500) to scout groups in referral fees, or “scout backs”.
According to the force, Access sent numerous victims to about 350 sex service establishments and earned 7 billion yen from its operations over the past five years.


It charged 15 per cent of a woman’s earnings as referral fees, and collected cash mailed to a shell office to conceal the flow of money, Jiji Press agency reported.
The force also took into custody Haruto Yamauchi, another executive of the group who was previously arrested over similar cases.
Kitamura was considered a “recruiter” who hired scouts on social media. He had confessed to recruiting about 50 people through platform X, while Yamauchi was a “high-ranking scout” who lured women to work at sex establishments, according to national broadcaster NHK.
The group’s head, Kazuma Endo, was also earlier arrested.
The latest case marks part of an effort by police to shut down the trend.
In January, two members of the country’s biggest sex worker scout group called Natural were arrested on suspicion of violating the Employment Security Act through harmful job introductions, Japanese media reported.
The group commenced operations in 2009 and was believed to be earning 5 billion yen annually.
The 1,500 scouts of the group countrywide would reach out to women who prostituted themselves on the streets, and introduce them to work at sex business outlets in return for referral fees, police said.
Japan has seen a worrying trend of young women turning to prostitution to survive or cover expenses incurred at so-called host clubs, This Week in Asia reported last November.
Okubo Park in the nightlife area of Kabukicho in Tokyo has become a hotbed for such activities.

Host clubs are establishments catering to women, where male hosts offer company and so-called romance while their female clients consume expensive food and drinks. The trade has caused some patrons to rack up heavy debts, with host club operators then forcing them into prostitution to repay the money.
By introducing debt-ridden women to sex outlets, host clubs would also receive referral fees from the workers’ earnings.
In response to the trend, the National Police Agency is weighing a bill to amend the country’s entertainment business law, which would ban forced expensive consumption and sex worker scouting by host clubs, according to NHK.


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The latest arrest of a senior member of the group Access highlights an extensive industry preying on debt-ridden women


The latest arrest of a senior member of the group Access highlights an extensive industry preying on debt-ridden women.


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Japanese sex scouts: arrests mark alarming trend of women recruited into prostitution

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The latest arrest of a senior member of the group Access highlights an extensive industry preying on debt-ridden women

The latest arrest of a senior member of the group Access highlights an extensive industry preying on debt-ridden women