A Year-End Coordinated Crackdown
At the direction of the National Police Agency, the Kanto Regional Police Bureau conducted a special, coordinated crackdown on sex-industry-related businesses across Tokyo and six prefectures over five days, December 21-25, 2020. During the period, a total of 16 illegal operations were confirmed, and 21 operators, employees, and others were arrested or referred to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act (fuei-ho) and the Anti-Prostitution Act (baishun boshi-ho), among other offenses.
Breakdown of the Busts
The breakdown of the 16 violations was as follows. - Operating without notification or license: 7 cases - Late-night operating-hours violations: 4 cases - Use of minors: 2 cases - Managed/organized prostitution: 2 cases - Other ordinance violations: 1 case
Of the seven unlicensed-operation cases, five were so-called "back-option" establishments — outwardly posing as relaxation or massage shops while in fact providing sexual services — underscoring the difficulty of enforcement.
Special Circumstances of the Pandemic
While sales across the industry as a whole fell amid the pandemic in 2020, authorities assess that there was an increase in cases of malicious unlicensed operators turning to illegal services in a bid to survive.
In particular, social-media-driven unlicensed establishments touting selling points such as "fully private rooms" and "strict confidentiality" have increased and become harder to bust. Because such establishments have no websites and attract customers solely through DMs (direct messages), they are difficult to detect with conventional online patrols.
A Review of 2020 Sex-Industry Crime
2020 was a year in which the entire sex industry experienced major upheaval amid the unprecedented situation of COVID-19. While legal operators struggled with business-suspension requests and the costs of infection-control measures, some malicious operators seized on the chaos of the pandemic as an opportunity to expand illegal operations.
Going forward, monitoring of industry trends in line with the trajectory of the pandemic, along with firm action against malicious operators, is expected to continue.
This article was compiled from publicly available information.