‘Men know they won’t face consequences’: rise of street sex work in Tokyo is fuelling calls for change

The boom in international tourism has fuelled a new phenomenon of women soliciting on the streets of Tokyo’s Kabukicho night-time district

Kabukicho is not known as “sleepless town” for nothing. The bustling centre of Tokyo’s night-time economy is a magnet for tourists and locals in search of a bite to eat, a few drinks and a karaoke session. But behind its famous neon entrance lies a darker side: backstreets populated by women offering sex in exchange for money.

Tokyo has an established fuzoku commercial sex industry that revolves around regulated establishments catering to an array of peccadilloes, from “soapland” bathhouses to “pink salons”.