Tokyo police have busted a scout ring that took advantage of women trapped in host club debt, funneling them into sex work.
Tokyo Metro Police arrested 33-year-old Endo Kazuma, leader of the group Access, for compelling a 24-year-old woman to work at a sex brothel in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. Police also arrested 30-year-old Inage Daiki, the owner of a brothel in Saitama Prefecture’s Kawaguchi City, for violations of the country’s prostitution laws.
Police say the Access ring primarily recruited women online, employing a countrywide network of 300 scouts. The group targeted women who had gotten into severe debt due to their addiction to host clubs.
The group routed women to some 350 stores across Japan, operating on a kickback, or “scout-back” system. If a given employee made over 1 million yen (USD $6,341), Access got 150,000 yen ($951), with the scout earning 70,000 yen ($443).
Authorities say that, using this scheme, Access made 7 billion yen ($44M) over the course of five years.
Non-penetrative sex businesses – such as soaplands, “delivery health,” and others – are legal in Japan. However, barkering – targeting or forcing customers into a given bar or sex establishment – and scouting – actively recruiting specific people to work in such businesses – are illegal. Scouting specifically is a violation of Japan’s Employment Security Act.
If the sex business in question is unlicensed under Japan’s Entertainment Law or engages in unlicensed activity, such as penetrative sex, it’s also an illegal act of prostitution.
Host clubs – bars with male hosts who entertain largely female clientele – are under increasing government scrutiny as tales of female customers forced into prostitution to pay off their debts keep making headlines. A new proposed revision to the country’s Entertainment Law would ban “romance operations” and impose huge fines on clubs that operate illegally.
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