Japan’s scout groups funnel women in desperate conditions into illegal sex work. For years, their business was primarily domestic. But recently, as multiple sources note, large “scout” groups – groups that recruit women into prostitution – have found they can make even better money by sending workers overseas.
The situation can be dangerous for the women caught up with scout groups. It’s also negatively impacting solo female Japanese travelers.
An auction system for women
For the past several years, Japanese police have worked assiduously to crack down on the three major scout groups: Access, Natural, and Online. All three have actively recruited women for both domestic and overseas sex work. Access alone reportedly has (illegal) contracts with 1,800 shops in 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures.
It’s one thing for women to choose of their own accord to enter prostitution as a profession. I’m all for decriminalization. It’s another thing, however, when a group of men decide to exploit vulnerable women for their own financial gain – often by subjecting the very women from whom they profit to degrading, inhumane, and unsafe conditions.
Access is a good example. According to Tokyo Shimbun, the group has used an “auction” system whereby it ranked women into eight tiers based on their physical characteristics. They would then send profiles to shops. Access would receive a 15% commission – a “scout-back” fee – for every day a woman worked.
Women recruited by the three groups don’t just work domestically. The groups sent them around the world – mainly to Manila, Taiwan, Macau, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and sometimes North America. Women have reported being semi-confined in budget hotels, drugged, and coerced into unprotected sex. Many typically saw over 10 clients a day.
The business is profitable for scout groups. A woman working in an Asian country can make ¥3-4 million/month (~$19,000-$25,300 USD). For Western countries, that rises to ¥5-8 million/month (~$31,600-$50,600 USD).
Most of that profit, of course, ends up in the hands of the group’s ringleaders. Authorities say that Access alone generated approximately ¥7 billion (~$44.3 million USD) in profits over five years.
How scout groups have made it harder to bust them
Scout groups seek out women who are in vulnerable financial positions and often desperate for quick money. Many still used the old tried-and-true method of recruiting women in the streets of Kabukicho.
However, more are increasingly recruiting victims the same way that other criminal groups do: online. Scouts draw women in by posting messages offering high-dollar work overseas.
They also have a new path for recruiting women: host clubs, where women spend obscene amounts of money buying expensive champagne for young male lotharios. Some hosts will refer their customers to scout groups after the customer racks up a large-enough debt.
Planning a trip to Japan? Get an authentic, interpreted experience from Unseen Japan Tours and see a side of the country others miss!
These new avenues make it harder for police to crack down on the illegal behavior. Scout groups have also used other sophisticated methods to avoid the cops. For example, Natural distributed descriptions of past police raids to its members as case studies. These tactics helped impede police investigations for years.
The new book Predation: The Dark Side of Natural, The Criminal Group That Turns Desire Into Money (捕食 欲望をカネに変えるトクリュウ型犯罪集団「ナチュラル」の闇) by Shimizu Masahiro further documents the group’s sophisticated operation. The group operated 2,000 scouts nationwide using a proprietary app with end-to-end encryption. Members who betrayed or ratted out the group faced severe retaliatory violence.
According to Shimizu, Natural reaped healthy profits from its overseas operations. On the plus side, the group explicitly avoided sending its women to Middle Eastern countries; clients there reportedly demand extreme sex acts, such as hardcore BDSM and drug use, that the group found “unmanageable.”
Instead, Natural sends women to the US and Australia, claiming the work there was more “ordinary, like in Japan.” It promised women they could make ¥1 million+ (~$6,330 USD) in 1-2 weeks for their efforts.
Additionally, despite the awful beatings it reportedly doled out to rats, Natural also took steps to ensure it took care of its workers. For example, the group reportedly used messaging app chats to help counsel women who reported feeling homesick or who were under psychological distress.
The impact on regular Japanese female travelers
The increase in overseas prostitution from Japan has led to unexpected collateral damage for Japanese female solo travelers.
I’ve written extensively about this problem before. As overseas prostitution from Japan increases, women with no connection to the sex industry – office workers, students – have been turned away from the US and Australian borders. One visa consultant told the site Bengoshi.com that she’s seen consultations over entry refusals rise from four to five per year to as many as eight per month.
The crappy thing is, these crackdowns on innocent single Japanese women do next to nothing to deter scouting groups. Shimizu says that Natural learned early on how to evade authorities – e.g., by sending male group members with female workers to pose as a couple. The group also made sure that sex workers and their travel companions deleted all messages from chat apps such as LINE.
As the crackdown continues, scout groups seek new revenue streams
Despite the crackdown and arrests of their leaders, groups like Natural are still around and looking for safer ways to make a buck. For example, Shimizu writes that the remnants of Natural have expanded into a new revenue stream: uncensored online pornography.
In Japan, censorship laws require all sexual contact to be blurred out with mosaics or covered with black bar stripes. That’s led to an explosion of sites overseas offering fully uncensored porn featuring Japanese actresses. Scout groups have realized that uploading porn via a VPN is less risky than overseas prostitution.
These groups’ shifting tactics make one thing clear: sex will always be a big business. Criminalizing it doesn’t stop it; it just puts the people in the most vulnerable positions – the sex workers – at greater risk.
See a side of Tokyo that other tourists can't. Book a tour with Unseen Japan Tours - we'll tailor your trip to your interests and guide you through experiences usually closed off to non-Japanese speakers.
Get More UJ
What to read next
Many love hotels don’t like it when you leave before your stay is up. Indeed, some older ones make sure you can’t.
The company took pains to reassure its Japanese customer base that information about their masturbatory habits was safe.
More Japanese women are going overseas for prostitution. That’s leading to women outside the industry being turned back at the border.
Sources
「ヤギとの性行為で1億円」「富豪から超高額のおカネをもらえる」SNSで海外売春の噂が拡散…違法スカウトグループが女性を海外に斡旋するワケ 文春オンライン
「風俗店に紹介するより、リスクが少ない」素人女性を違法スカウト→無修正動画に出演させて荒稼ぎ…最凶スカウトグループの新たなビジネス 文春オンライン
主婦や大学生も構成員に…風俗スカウト集団「アクセス」 捜査員も驚いた悪質な女性搾取ビジネスの広がり 東京新聞
情報管理、徹底した警察対策 違法スカウト「ナチュラル」、捜査足踏み 時事通信
風俗スカウト「ナチュラル」トップら再逮捕 女性あっせん容疑、紹介料１５％か―警視庁 時事通信
スカウト女性をオークション方式で風俗店に紹介したグループトップを逮捕…悪質さの背景には非道な報酬システムも 弁護士JPニュース
海外出稼ぎ売春で1日50万円以上…アイドル並み容姿の風俗嬢がフィリピン・マニラ、台湾に仕事を求めた理由 弁護士JPニュース
日本人女性 売春疑いで入国拒否増加、普通の会社員・学生も足止め…背景に風俗嬢の海外出稼ぎの悪影響 弁護士JPニュース
海外出稼ぎ売春、あっせん集団暗躍 女性の渡航絶たず 日本経済新聞
大阪府警、最大級風俗スカウトグループ幹部ら4人逮捕 日本経済新聞
【海外出稼ぎ売春】の実態 安ホテルに軟禁…命の危険を感じるプレイも… テレビ東京プラス
2025年人身取引報告書（日本に関する部分） 在日米国大使館
