The Renewed State of Emergency and the Sex Industry
On January 7, 2021, then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a second state of emergency covering Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. As before, sex-industry establishments were again subject to business-suspension requests, but the problem of their exclusion from compensation remained unresolved.
Immediately after the declaration, five people — employees and workers combined — at a single sex-industry establishment in Tokyo were confirmed infected with COVID-19, revealing that a small cluster had emerged. A public-health-center investigation identified the route of infection as within the establishment, sending a shock through the industry.
The Reality of Infection-Control Measures
Drawing on its experience in 2020, an industry association had drawn up its own infection-control guidelines, recommending enhanced ventilation, the installation of acrylic partitions, and regular testing. But among smaller non-member operators, the guidelines were often not followed.
The establishment where the cluster emerged this time was a non-member, unregistered shop, and its infection-control measures are believed to have been inadequate. Authorities signaled a policy of using this occasion to step up efforts to identify unregistered establishments and to strengthen infection-control guidance.
The Industry's Plight
With the second business-suspension request, the financial distress carried over from the previous year deepened further. Facing what amounts to a forced halt to operations while still excluded from subsidies and cooperation payments, the industry association again called for "the elimination of discriminatory treatment and the realization of compensation."
Meanwhile, a stream of illegal operators ignored the requests and kept operating. A sense of unfairness — that "law-abiding legal shops that dutifully suspended operations end up losing out" — also grew within the industry.
This article was compiled from publicly available information.