Latest news with #Kabukicho
CTV News
30-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Intimate no more? Japan clamps down on ‘host clubs'
Tokyo, Japan -- Japan is waging war on 'host clubs' -- where men entertain women willing to pay for romance, but authorities and industry insiders say customers have long been scammed and saddled with debt. Neatly coiffured, well-dressed 'hosts' bedazzle women with sweet talk and the mirage of intimacy at glitzy establishments in big Japanese cities. In return, the women pay inflated prices for champagne and other expensive drinks while they flirt, sometimes splurging tens of thousands of dollars a night. Authorities are clamping down because of allegations that some women are being tricked into towering debts by hosts, and even into sex work to pay them off. Under a new law that took effect in June, taking advantage of women's romantic feelings to manipulate them into ordering overpriced drinks has been banned. This has sent shockwaves through an industry where pseudo-romance, from casual flirtation to after-hours sex, has long driven relationships with clients. Emotional dependence John Reno, a star host in Tokyo's red-light district Kabukicho, said the crackdown was 'unsurprising' after 'scammer-like hosts increased'. Hosts, he told AFP, used to employ intimacy primarily to entertain women. But 'their mindset today is basically 'if you love me, then don't complain,' silencing women and exploiting their emotional dependence', the 29-year-old owner of Club J said. A growing number of victims have reported financial and sexual exploitation linked to these establishments. Official data shows there were around 2,800 host club-related cases reported to police in 2024, up from 2,100 two years before. These have ranged from hosts ordering drinks the clients did not ask for, to prostitution. Some hosts are racking up profits by introducing their cash-strapped clients to brokers known as 'scouts', who then send them into the sex trade, police say. Women, for their part, strive to work hard for their crush. 'These hosts in return promise them their effort will be rewarded with actual relationships or marriage,' Reno said. 'That's outright fraud,' he added, while denying that his Club J employees engage in any such practices. 'No place to be' Difficulties such as poverty and abuse often make hosts the only escape for young women with low self-esteem, campaigners say. While high-flying businesswomen used to be the main clientele, girls 'with no place to be' are increasingly seeking refuge, Arata Sakamoto, head of Kabukicho-based non-profit Rescue Hub, told AFP. To them, 'host clubs have become a place where they feel accepted' and 'reassured they can be who they are, albeit in exchange for money', he said. One recent night saw a 26-year-old woman surrounded by smiling men at a table of flamboyant Kabukicho club Platina. 'Some hosts are bad enough to brainwash you, but I would say women should also know better than to drink far more than they can afford,' the woman, a freelancer in the media industry who declined to be named, told AFP. Another customer comes to Platina to 'spice up my mundane life'. 'I hope this will remain a place that keeps my female hormones overflowing,' the 34-year-old IT worker said. The new law does not ban intimacy, but behaviour such as threatening to end relationships with clients if they refuse to order drinks. Industry insiders like Platina owner Ran Sena call the law 'too vague'. 'For example, if a client tells me, 'I'm about to fall in love with you,' does that mean I'll have to forbid her from coming to see me again?' he said. 'Conqueror' Another disruptive change is also rocking the industry. Police have notified clubs that any billboard advertising that hypes up the sales and popularity of individual hosts is no longer acceptable. The rationale is that these bombastic, neon-lit signs boasting 'No.1' status or 'multimillion' sales can fuel competition among hosts and push them further toward profit-mongering. Self-identifying as Kabukicho's 'conqueror,' 'god' or 'king', and egging on prospective customers to 'drown themselves' in love, for example, is similarly banned. To comply, clubs have hurriedly covered such slogans on Kabukicho billboards, defacing the pouting portraits of hosts with black tape. This signals a 'huge' morale crisis for hosts, Sena says. 'It's been the aspiration of many hosts to be called No.1, earn a title and become famous in this town,' he said. 'Now, they don't even know what they should strive for,' the 43-year-old added. For women, too, the rankings were a way to reassure themselves that the money they spent on their 'oshi (favourite)' hosts was not in vain -- proof they were helping them ascend in the cutthroat hosts industry. 'I think the industry is heading toward decline,' Sena said. By Tomohiro Osaki, AFP
Time Out
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This display of traditional erotic art is one of Tokyo's most stimulating summer exhibitions
Traditional Japanese erotic art – shunga – flourished during the Edo period (1603–1867), along with the rise of ukiyo-e woodblock printing. Some of the greatest artists of the time, including Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, employed ukiyo-e to depict Edo's hedonistic 'floating world' of geisha, kabuki, sumo – and sex. Shunga was in great demand and widely available, despite an official ban, and developed into a highly sophisticated genre in which artists incorporated references to waka poetry and the Chinese classics while tiptoeing around taboos and government censorship. But once Japan opened itself up to the Western world after centuries of isolation, Shunga was deemed 'obscene' and purged from the culture – for nearly 150 years, it turned out. The first major contemporary display of Shunga wasn't held in Tokyo until 2013, but that landmark show cleared the way for similar exhibitions. And now, perhaps the most rousing (sorry) Shunga show to date has opened right here in the capital. On display until September 30, the Kabukicho Shunga Exhibition features around 150 pieces by the likes of Hokusai, Utamaro and Hishikawa Moronobu. Curated from the collection of Mitsuru Uragami, one of Japan's foremost Shunga connoisseurs, the exhibition takes place across two venues: the Shinjuku Kabukicho Noh Stage and a disused 'host club' nearby. The hallowed atmosphere of the Noh stage makes a curious setting for the works, which though undoubtedly erotic also contain a strong element of humour. In fact, Shunga were sometimes referred to as warai-e, or 'laughing pictures'. Making your way through the exhibition, you're bound to notice another unique Shunga element. Both partners are usually fully (well, almost fully) clothed. Unlike in the West, where bare flesh was seen as simultaneously tantalising and taboo, the men and women of Edo-era Japan saw each other in the nude regularly at mixed baths and the like. If anything, it was more appealing to see men and women in Shunga clothed, as it helped to identify the characters' walk of life – and to emphasise the parts that were exposed. In the host-club section of the show, floor-level neon lights lead visitors from one intricate and dainty artwork to the next. The understated decor and layout successfully evokes an era where attitudes about sex were freer and erotica was widely accepted as a prominent art form. A corner of the host club has been converted into a gift shop, where you can pick up Shunga-tastic merch like totes, socks, cushions, cookies and collectible cards, all at reasonable prices. All in all, there's a distinct Kabukicho flair to the Shunga Exhibition, as you'd expect from a show organised by the Smappa!Group. Running an array of bars, clubs and other businesses in the neighbourhood, Smappa is the brainchild of Maki Tezuka, a former top host who's taken it upon himself to combine his core business of after-dark entertainment with cultural initiatives. 'Kabukicho still has a shady reputation, and Shunga is treated as porn,' Tezuka says. 'But both with the neighbourhood and the art form, just scratching the surface reveals a different picture: humanity, humour, soul. I hope this exhibition will inspire people to discover both Kabukicho and Shunga with new eyes.' So keep an open mind, leave your prejudices at home, and make your way to Kabukicho by September 30. Provided you're over 18, that is. Tokyo is getting a Pokémon theme park in spring 2026
NHK
26-06-2025
- NHK
Tokyo police arrest 12 over online casino gambling at shop
NHK has learned that Japanese police arrested 12 people when raiding a shop that allegedly allowed customers to gamble on casino websites. Such wagering is illegal in Japan even on gaming sites based abroad. Police began raiding the establishment RIZIN in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Wednesday. They arrested five employees in their 20s through 40s, and seven customers in their 20s through 80s who were at the shop. Investigative sources say the employees are suspected of allowing customers to gamble on baccarat and other games on foreign-based casino websites using personal computers at the shop. They say the employees admitted to the allegation. The sources add that the store had at least 20 PCs and that police discovered data on more than 5,000 possible customers. Police say there are more establishments in Japan that allegedly allow customers to engage in online casino gambling. They have so far arrested people suspected to have gambled through online casinos using their own devices. Police have also clamped down on payment agencies alleged to have provided services to operators of casino websites.
Bloomberg
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
Japan Is Cracking Down on Host Clubs Where Men Flirt for Money
At 10 p.m. on a recent Friday at a bar in Tokyo's Kabukicho red-light district, young men in suits weave between tables, pouring drinks for their first customers of the evening. Under the glimmer of chandeliers, 28-year-old So checks his reflection in the mirror and explains how he became a top earner at Ai Honten, one of hundreds of host clubs in the neighborhood, where women pay to be entertained by male companions. 'No one's going to spend money on someone who looks or smells like a flabby salaryman you'd see on a train, so you need to take care of your body, your clothes, the way you smell, everything,' said So, who cuts a dashing figure in his navy suit and shock of bleached-blond hair. 'And you need to show an interest in 'the princess,'' he added, referring to customers who pay hundreds of dollars for drinks and a few hours of his attention.
Japan Times
20-05-2025
- Japan Times
Youth support group official arrested for cocaine possession
A senior official of a nonprofit organization that helps young women obsessed with host clubs and teen runaways in Tokyo's Kabukicho district has been arrested for cocaine possession. Yoshihide Tanaka, 44, was arrested on Sunday with a woman in her 20s who is believed to have sought help from the group. Tanaka, who serves as secretary-general of Nippon Kakekomidera, was arrested on the streets of Shinjuku Ward when police officers questioned him and the woman. The officers found the drugs when they checked his belongings. Tanaka has reportedly admitted to the charges, saying it was for his own use. When Nippon Kakekomidera's leader, Hidemori Gen, met him on Monday evening together with a lawyer after his arrest, Tanaka also admitted to using cocaine, the group said. It said a urine sample provided by Tanaka tested positive for illegal drugs. The group strongly condemns Tanaka's actions, saying he took advantage of his position and used cocaine with someone he should have been helping. 'I never imagined he, of all people, would possess or use drugs,' Gen said in a statement. 'I was stunned with deep anger and a sense of betrayal.' Yoshihide Tanaka, the secretary-general of Nippon Kakekomidera, in 2023 in Tokyo. Tanaka, 44, was arrested on Sunday on the streets of Shinjuku Ward together with a woman in her 20s who is believed to have sought help from the group. | JIJI Gen also apologized over Tanaka's misconduct, saying he initially thought it was all due to a misunderstanding. 'Even if he had drugs in his possession, I assumed maybe he had confiscated them from someone seeking help and was trying to persuade them out of a sense of justice,' he said. Tanaka apologized to Gen during their meeting, during which he conveyed his intention to leave the group. Since its foundation in 2011, Nippon Kakekomidera has been providing support to women and children experiencing a range of issues such as domestic violence, poverty, and drug problems, according to its website. In recent years, it has also been involved in supporting young people who have run away from home and started living in the Kabukicho district, who are referred to as Toyoko Kids . It has also advocated against malicious host clubs that exploit women by trapping them in debt, then pushing them into prostitution to pay it off. Tanaka used to be a freelance writer who conducted interviews with Nippon Kakekomidera. He ended up joining the organization in 2021. A mother who frequently consulted the group about her daughter's addiction to host clubs and asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, expressed her shock at the news. 'It is just out of the blue and I have no words because I am too shocked,' she said. She said that she will wait for further information about the case, adding that she does not wish for Gen's activities at the group to be affected by Tanaka's arrest.
