A sample of lolicon images

On May 13, officers took Ikuhisa Otsuka, 42, into custody for violating of child pornography and prostitution statutes regarding the sale of adult videos featuring minors by operating an Web-based shopping site from a one-room apartment in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

“The films featured middle- and high-school girls between 10 and 17 years of age having sex,” says an investigator.

Between 2009 and this year, Otsuka amassed a customer list of 7,000 people and sold 180,000 discs for 65 million yen. The suspect started the business in 2007. The discs were priced at 350 yen each.

Officers also seized seven duplication machines, six computers, three mobile phones, and 20,000 original DVDs.

Adult-entertainment writer Yukio Murakami says that since the police keep their eyes carefully peeled for such content, organized crime is reluctant to be a source. “Guys like Otsuka work as amateur traders,” says the writer. “They will hang around game centers looking for young male delinquents and propose the idea of buying covert footage of them having sex with their girlfriends.”

The going rate might be 50,000 yen for a video, with the trader telling the youth how to install the camera in his apartment. “Guys will also pick-up gals and take them to hotels,” continues Murakami. “The session will be shot under the guise that nobody else will see the film. But before she knows it, films of her having intercourse will have hit the market.”

Another source of films is single mothers in need of quick cash who have girls enrolled in kindergarten or elementary school. Murakami says footage of such a girl having her underwear removed while asleep fetches 100,000 yen.

“Besides that, a genre known as ‘the mountain series’ is popular,” the writer assures. “Films showing a fully nude girl frolicking in a mountain setting go for 200,000 yen.” (A.T.)

Source: “Rorikon ura DVD dare ga tsukutte iru no ka?” Nikkan Gendai (May 17, page 8)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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The Economist May 18

Abenomics, which refers to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to raise government spending in an effort to boost prices, is mentioned on the cover of the The Economist (May 18) under the headline “It’s Japan! Abenomics, nationalism and the challenge to China.”

An article titled “Once more with feeling” opens by citing Akira Ikoma, the editor of a guide to men’s entertainment called Ore no Tabi (My Journey), to make a connection between stock valuations and the prices being charged by soapland brothels in the capital.

The Economist says that demand has been “soaring,” with one brothel fetching 60,000 yen for “massage” services. “He says it is all thanks to the surging stockmarket,” the article reports in referring to Ikoma, who is cited routinely in Japan’s tabloid press for insights into trends in the sex industry.

Since Abe began his second term late last year, faithful readers of The Tokyo Reporter know that Ikoma’s views on Abenomics with regards to the firming of prices in Japan’s ejaculation industry have been quite conservative.

Most recently, the editor told weekly tabloid Spa! that cheap sex is still readily available. Prior to that, Tokyo Sports includes commentary from Ikoma in an article that says the impacts of Abenomics are not reaching the sex trade. In a pair of articles published around New Year’s (again in Tokyo Sports and Spa!), the editor was skeptical that prices at bathhouses were due for an upswing in the year ahead.

That was then; this is now. On May 17, Abe told business leaders that it is his job to “awaken Japan” from a period of prolonged deflation and lost confidence. Since he took over as prime minister on Decemeber 26, the Nikkei has jumped by roughly 50 percent.

But could this be another “bubble” waiting to pop? Perhaps ominously, The Economist says that the rise in soapland prices is the first since 1990, when Japan’s asset bubble of the 1980s was fully inflated.

Indeed, The Tokyo Reporter will be monitoring Abe and Ikoma carefully for future developments.

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Toshiya Morita

On May 16, officers from the took Toshiya Morita, 49, the manager of a trading company, and his 44-year-old wife, a Thai national, for falsely stating the conditions of employment on the visa applications of Thai women who worked at a massage parlor in Tokyo’s Kabukicho red-light district — a violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.

Morita and his wife are alleged to have received fees of between 500,000 and 800,000 yen per woman brought to Japan from Thailand. Since March of last year, the suspects a total of 16 million from approximately 20 women.

Eight women were also arrested on charges of working outside the conditions of their visas.

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Shinobu Tsukasa

The family is seeking 150 million yen from top boss Shinobu Tsukasa, who is also known as Kenichi Shinoda, number-two boss Kiyoshi Takayama, and three others for compensation following a fire set inside hostess club Infinity on September 3, 2010.

Three people received serious burns in the attack, with 27-year-old Masasa Sano eventually succumbing to his injuries.

Two members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Mitsutoshi Matamura (36) and Osamusho Ikemoto (48), were later found guilty on murder and arson charges and received sentences of 30 years and life in prison, respectively.

“By only bringing the perpetrators to justice does not prevent the recurrence of further damage by organized crime,” said the lawyer for the bereaved family at a press conference.

The attack was related to a refusal by the club to pay protection money to the Kodo-kai, an affiliate group of the Yamaguchi-gumi whose top boss is Takayama. The year before, the owner of the club’s parent company was assaulted, whereby he received serious injuries.

Revisions made to the Anti-Organized Crime Law in 2008 allow civilians to seek damages from gang members for harmful incidents in civil court. According to police, in the eight cases raised since the amendment, gang members paid out compensation four times.

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Saitama cops seized 20,000 original discs

On May 13, officers took Ikuhisa Otsuka, 42, into custody for violating of child pornography and prostitution statutes regarding the sale of adult videos featuring minors by operating an Web-based shopping site from a one-room apartment in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

According to police, four men living in Saitama and Okayama are alleged to have purchased 48 discs from Otsuka for 23,800 yen between November of last year and March.

Officers also seized seven duplication machines, six computers, three mobile phones, and 20,000 original DVDs.

Otsuka has reportedly admitted to the allegations. “I did it for living and entertainment expenses,” the suspect is quoted by police.

Between 2009 and this year, Otsuka amassed a customer list of 7,000 people and sold 180,000 discs for 65 million yen. The suspect started the business in 2007. The discs were priced at 350 yen each.

The post Saitama cops bust massive child porn DVD operation appeared first on The Tokyo Reporter.

Shukan Post May 24

A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. But language problems and particularly strenuous demands leave the gal frustrated.

“They watch a lot of adult videos,” says the 23-year-old woman, who is not named by the tabloid. “So there is this misunderstanding that all Japanese women ‘spurt’ like geysers. So they’ll vigorously shove their fingers inside. But for me, I physically cannot do that.”

Language difficulties will then make a verbal explanation of this point fruitless.

“So they will then pull out an iPad and replay a particular scene from an AV film,” she continues. “They then badger me to do that.”

It only gets worse.

“For the finish, the guy will want to shoot in my face, but that’s an extra charge,” says the gal, “and they won’t pay.”

In spite of the ongoing dispute regarding the Senkaku Islands, Chinese tourists are arriving in Japan in large numbers. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a record-high 1.43 million Chinese tourists visited Japan in 2012. This figure represents an increase of 37.3 percent over the year before, when the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture unfolded.

Further, last year’s onset of “Abenomics” — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to raise government spending in an effort to raise prices and weaken the yen — is now making Japan even more appealing to travelers from overseas.

In years past, shopping in Tokyo’s Akihabara and Ginza and visiting the temples at Kyoto were the basics for a visitor from China. But Shukan Post says that Chinese males now find Japanese women to be more adorable than ever before.

This sudden interest is also creating challenges for operators of hostess clubs. “They’ll come in here and expect to be able to walk out with a girl,” says the manager of a kyabakura (cabaret club) in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. “We try to explain but they just say, ‘How much?’”

There are also cases of excessive groping and kissing. The confusion lies in the belief that the clubs are run like karaoke parlors in other parts of Asia.

Money is not an object for Chinese tourists as it flows freely from their pockets, which leads to customers requesting nyotaimori (naked sushi) sessions or female escorts back to high-end hotels. It is more than a manager can handle. (K.N.)

Source: “Narikin Chugokujin ga Nihon no fuzokute de shitai hodai!” Shukan Post (May 24, pages 149-151)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Two of the 3 suspects in Yokohama

According to officers, 30-year-old Yi Sam and two other suspects arrived in Japan on 90-day tourist visas between February and April of this year. The suspects are alleged to have supplied sexual services to male customers at a rate of 10,000 yen per session — a violation of Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act regarding qualified work.

The three suspects have reportedly admitted to the allegations.

Police also arrested another Korean male, 52-year-old Park Do-yeon, for violating the same law by assisting the three suspects with the provision of housing.

According to the Real Live Web (May 15), Sam and the other two suspects collected between one and two million yen per month in revenue. In one evening, between five and 15 customers were accommodated.

The suspects arrested for immigration violations recruited customers in the street while wearing wigs and miniskirts and worked within a group of 20 Korean males under the management of Park.

“Korea is very strict (regarding transvestites),” the suspects are quoted by police. “We thought in Japan it would be fine since the country if very amiable. Korea turns a cold shoulder (to us).”

Police said the arrests of the three males for supplying sex services while in Japan on tourist visas is a nationwide first.

The post Korean transvestite bust in Yokohama a Japan first appeared first on The Tokyo Reporter.

Flash May 28

The teacher, who resigned on the same day, was reportedly working at a call-girl service that dispatched her to Osaka love hotels in order to repay two million yen in credit card debt she accrued from buying cosmetics and clothing. Between October of last year and April, the teacher earned 1.6 million yen in wages as a prostitute for the club.

Though the board indicated that the incident was unprecedented, Nikkan Gendai (May 8) says women who engage in illicit employment are present in multiple aspects of everyday life — from the desk clerk at the local ward office to the manager at the children’s nursery, who is to know if she freelances as an adult video (AV) star or deri heru (“delivery health“) call-girl on the side?

“During an interview with a plump, 160-centimeter-tall AV actress, I asked her about her regular job,” says porn film writer Kazuo Kajiyama. “I was stunned to find out that she is a police woman. I also knew about an elementary school teacher who also worked in AV. They both were 24 years old.”

For the teacher in Osaka, the revelations came to light after the board received an anonymous message at the end of March that included the name of the club and the teacher’s name.

Gendai says that in the average case a former lover is the usual suspect for spilling the beans.

Freelance writer Taizo Ebina knows of one 35-year-old teacher moonlighting in the adult-entertainment biz whose identity was revealed via a promotional video posted on the club’s Web site. “Even though her face was obscured by a mosaic, she was identified by her body motions and voice,” says the writer. “The shape of her ears and a mole were also dead giveaways.”

Ebina goes on to say that problems also arise when working girls divulge their main profession to regular customers or good friends under the condition that the information be kept secret. “Still, it gets out,” says the scribe. “Being a public servant is considered a stable job. So for the confidants, it becomes a matter a matter of jealousy.”

According to Flash (May 28), most one-time workers in the sex trade eventually return. The magazine is not so sure that will be the case with the 29-year-old in Osaka. Her teacher’s license has reportedly not been revoked, in which case she very likely will surface at another school. (A.T.)

Source: “Okatai shokugyo onnatachi ‘fuzoku arubaito’ ha naze haberu?” Nikkan Gendai (May 8)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

The post Hot for teacher: Osaka hooker just one example of illicit part-time work appeared first on The Tokyo Reporter.

A posting on a site seeking a groper

On April 30, Masaya Ogawa, a former nurse from Osaka, is alleged to have fondled the buttocks and breast of a 23-year-old woman inside the carriage of the JR Wakayama Line.

According to police, Ogawa believed the woman in question had posted a message on an Internet bulletin board that recruits men interested in molesting females inside commuter trains.

Nikkan Gendai (May 11) says sites seeking voyeurs, gropers (chikan), and participants in erotic action may not in actuality be as they appear.

For train molestation, a woman will post a message on a site catering to such interests that specifies a day, time, train line, car number, and a brief description of her appearance, perhaps a mention of a red jacket and black bag. Then, ideally, a man reading the post will appear and carry out the desired “deed.”

Such activities are not limited to the rails. A writer who covers the sex trade, or fuzoku biz, says that posts requesting an audience for a sex session in a public park or a fondling inside a sauna frequented by gay men are other options. “The point is to find sexual stimulation through total strangers,” says the writer.

However, problems can arise. As was reportedly the case with Ogawa, a matter of identity fraud by another user took place. (His victim claims to have not written a post of any kind on a bulletin board.)

Nikkan Gendai says things could be worse should someone, for example, make a similar blunder in the aforementioned gay sauna, whereupon the mistaken molester is then surrounded by a group of young toughs before he makes his first move.

Prior to the arrest of Ogawa, the manager of the molestation site in question says that this happened previously. “But the majority of the users know that 99 percent of the posts are fakes,” says the manager. “That’s the reality.”

The manager adds, “Even with a specific time and her particulars as far as clothing noted, for Ogawa to take that seriously is just stupid.”

The site claims to be more about keeping one’s desire in check than anything else: “This is a bulletin board that serves as a deterrent to crime.”

Nikkan Gendai wonders about the state of humanity. (K.N.)

Source: “Chikan saito narisumashi higai no kofu,” Nikkan Gendai (May 11, page 8)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

The post Pitfalls await perverts perusing chikan sites appeared first on The Tokyo Reporter.

Friday May 24

Keita Kuwata, a pseudonym, tells the weekly Friday (May 24) that he once made 50 million yen in a single year as a broker for the brothels on the island, which is in the process of reshaping its illicit image.

Kuwata began in the business in 1997. He had met a yakuza member who was in the process of sending prostitutes to the island. “The first girl I provided to a brothel was a runway from Osaka,” he tells the tabloid. “In order to ship a girl, one must first be referred by a female working for organized crime. She will then make an introduction to a madam who manages a brothel.”

At that time, one girl was worth two million yen, a sum that she would have to pay back by working. Even after he paid a tip of 10 percent to the madam, he was still left with a sizable 180,000-yen chunk of change.

It was easy work. “I thought this would be a great shinogi” — a yakuza slang term meaning money-making enterprise — “so I sent three more girls, representing a total of six million yen,” he says. “I continued on, supplying more than 30 women.”

Kuwata, who was arrested in 1998 on charges of violating employment laws, says that back then there were six brothels employing 200 women, of whom most were young Japanese girls. “Unbelievable, right?”

The former broker says that prior to World War II the island served as a port town for fisherman. The prostitution businesses sprang up soon after the war’s conclusion.

“Organized crime sent prostitutes to Watakano to target fishermen who had money — this marked the beginning of its legacy,” says Kuwata.

From Nagoya, access is via Ugata Station, which is on the Kintetsu Shima Line. A 10-minute taxi trip is then required to reach the dock, which ferries visitors across in roughly three minutes via small boats known as pon pon fune.

Friday May 24

During the “bubble” era of the 1980s, many Japanese girls were employed on Watakano, but ever since 2002 more Thai and Filipino women have been plying the trade.

“Back then, rates started at 12,000 yen for quickies, lasting approximately 60 minutes,” says the former broker. “For full service, which extended between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., the price was 40,000 yen. A girl could pull in 50,000 yen a day but half of that would go to the house, and after the broker’s fee and her living expenses were subtracted, she’d be left with 5,000 yen.”

While there are opportunities for girls to run away, local residents, boat captains, merchants, and cab drivers all have their eyes peeled for any suspicious activity. Further, assistants working beneath the madams take the working women on shopping trips to the mainland once a week to ease their minds.

Rumors circulating on the Internet say that customers are secretly photographed. “That’s not true,” says Kuwata. “But it is true that boat captains take photos of customers to prevent them from helping girls to escape.”

This may provide an impression that the concubines are imprisoned. “That’s not the case,” Kuwata says, who recalls one girl who took three months to pay off the fees she owed and left the island. Others, he says, stayed on to work as assistants.

With customers not visiting as frequently as before, Friday says that Watakano is currently downsizing its operations. Only 30 prostitutes are presently employed on the island. The local government is attempting a revitalization push by emphasizing beaches and hot springs resorts. Still, Kuwata believes that prostitution will never disappear.

“In one way, this island is a famous aspect of life in Mie,” he says. “It is legendary.” (K.N.)

Source: “Moto jinshin baibai burookaa ga akasu densetsu no baishunto no shinjitsu,” Shukan Post (May 24, pages 66-67

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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