TOKYO (TR) – A non-profit group (NPO) working within the Kabukicho red-light district paints a dire image for younger prostitutes: Some are as younger as 12 and prostituting themselves for as little as 5,000 yen.
“There are many girls who are in dangerous situations,” says Aoi Shimizu, the consultant director of Japan Refuge. “Recently, what’s been noticeable are the ‘buyers’ who are foreign tourists. They use violence against the girls standing there.”
The shift towards international vacationers is a calculated response to intensifying crackdowns by Tokyo Metropolitan Police, which arrested over 100 people within the space final 12 months for violations of the Anti-Prostitution Law.
Japan Refuge, which was based 24 years in the past, offers locations for younger females to remain and conducts nighttime patrols within the district — however it’s a state of affairs that’s solely getting worse, reviews News Post Seven (Apr. 6).
Language barrier
Operating primarily round Okubo Park in Kabukicho, these girls and runaway women are more and more soliciting international males in a observe referred to as tachinbo (or standing, which successfully refers to a streetwalker).
By concentrating on foreigners, the streetwalkers reduce the chance of by chance soliciting plainclothes cops. Furthermore, the language barrier makes vacationers simpler to handle, lowering the chance of issues or police involvement.
Okubo Park, which can be identified to vacationers, turned extensively identified a couple of years in the past when YouTubers raided the park and filmed movies. This was once the place to go when individuals talked about streetwalkers in Kabukicho, however issues are altering.
“Actually, the main street where these girls are currently standing is the love hotel district,” says the Japan Refuge director. “The ones in Okubo Park are the so-called ‘veterans,’ who have been there since the problem started becoming more noticeable about three years ago. The new girls are mostly working in the hotel district.”
Crushing money owed
Driven by crushing money owed to host golf equipment, the necessity to survive after fleeing abusive houses, the desperation of those women has pushed road costs right down to all-time low. While typical charges beforehand hovered increased, some at the moment are promoting their our bodies for a mere 5,000 yen.
“The going rate around [Okubo Park] is 15,000 yen,” Shimizu says. “But sometimes it goes down. I think that’s because new girls are driving the prices down. They’re negotiating for 10,000 yen, or even cheaper, 5,000 yen. The girls around here are basically doing it for 15,000 yen, so they get angry when they can’t get paid anymore. Sometimes they even start looking for the culprit, like, ‘Someone’s lowering the price!’”
Shimizu additionally has connections with younger individuals dubbed “Toyoko Kids,” a reputation that refers back to the Toho Cinemas complicated within the coronary heart of Kabukicho. In this space, many younger delinquents and runaways congregate.
In current years, there have been numerous circumstances of youths dying from drug overdoses or getting concerned in so-called “underground jobs.”
“At first glance, it might seem like the number of young people has decreased, but during the day, many plainclothes police officers apprehend them, so they often hide indoors or in internet cafes,” the NPO director says. “If they are adults, some rent houses nearby, such as in Okubo, and minors sometimes stay at their homes.”
Without any cash, these minors typically keep in teams at love motels.
“They only go out during cleaning time, hide from the police, and then come back when it’s time to check in,” says Shimizu. “They often stay for multiple nights. They sometimes book for a week at a time and share rooms.”
Illegal medicine
Young individuals even have easy accessibility to unlawful medicine, together with MDMA, or Ecstasy.
“Even on this workplace, individuals casually say issues like, ‘I did some drugs yesterday,’” says Shimizu. “My role is to provide care after something happens, but above all, I want to prevent it from happening in the first place.”
She goes on to say that there are a lot of quasi-gangsters roaming the streets, which makes matters worse.
“Since the main yakuza have stopped cracking down on the area, a lot of quasi-gangsters are on the loose,” Shimizu says. “It seems like there are more unsavory adults around. The kids who gather here often don’t have cash and have a tendency to leap at any probability of fast money. That’s why they’re simply taken benefit of.”
Shimizu is aware of of about 5 children who’re at present members of a fraud ring in Cambodia.
“I know one girl personally,” she says. “Strictly speaking, she’s not Toyoko, but she was addicted to hosts. A mutual acquaintance of ours came to tell me an said she is still alive. So it seems she hasn’t been caught yet.”
According to Shimizu, these children have a distorted sense of cash.
“They’ll even go overseas to get their hands on some quick cash,” she says. “It seems like they often get involved through word of mouth. They get told about ‘jobs’ through their connections rather than searching online. They easily get caught up in crime.”
Despite the heightened police presence and “purification operations” geared toward cleansing up Kabukicho’s streets, the underlying poverty and exploitation fueling the disaster stay unresolved, leaving town’s most susceptible to be preyed upon.
Given this, Shimizu sounds a robust warning: “The public safety situation is worse than it used to be.”