Real field reports and columns on Japan's adult-entertainment world
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On the 15th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested three leaders of an illegal scouting group that had kept operating while faking a 'disbandment' to evade enforcement. As the first major bust of 2025, it signaled a strict enforcement stance for the year ahead.
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The National Police Agency released its review of trends in sex-industry-related crime for 2024. The growth in scale and geographic reach of organized, network-type crime was striking, calling for an organization-dismantling response that goes beyond the enforcement of individual cases.
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The Tokyo District Court handed down a guilty verdict to a defendant who operated a large prostitution-brokering website. He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to forfeit 230 million yen, in a ruling drawing attention as a sign of the judiciary's tough stance on digital sex crimes.
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The generation and spread of sexual images using AI deepfake technology is surging, and existing law is reaching the limits of what it can address. The government is accelerating consideration of a new legal framework, and early legislation is being called for from the standpoint of victim protection.
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On the 11th, the National Police Agency announced an operation to dismantle a large illegal sex-industry network with hubs across 11 prefectures. Forty-two people, including leaders and operatives, were arrested, and the organization's total revenue is believed to exceed at least 2 billion yen. The case is drawing attention as one of the largest sex-industry crime busts in recent years.
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A ring leader charged with violating the Anti-Prostitution Act and other offenses for subjecting multiple women, including minors, to managed prostitution was given a severe prison sentence of 10 years by the Tokyo District Court. The presiding judge declared that he 'destroyed the victims' lives to their foundations,' making it one of the heaviest sentences in a similar case in recent years.
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On the 17th, the government submitted to the Diet a bill to amend the Act on Control and Improvement of Amusement Businesses (the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act). Centered on regulating online customer acquisition in response to digitalization and strengthening penalties for serious violations, the government aims to enact it during the autumn Diet session.
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On the 12th, police authorities carried out simultaneous searches of a Chinese-affiliated and a Vietnamese-affiliated prostitution group in Tokyo and Aichi, arresting a total of 13 people. Both groups used foreign women without valid residence status to provide sexual services, and possible links to international human-trafficking networks are being investigated.
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A predatory scheme in which female customers are made to run up large unpaid tabs at host clubs and then funneled into commercial sex work has become a social problem, prompting police and local governments to coordinate on countermeasures. Many of the victims are women in their twenties, and cases of women being driven into commercial sex work after being psychologically cornered have occurred one after another.
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On the 17th, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications held the first meeting of a joint study group aimed at legislation to regulate the buying, selling, and brokering of sexual services via social media. Measures are being considered from two angles: obligations imposed on platforms and regulation of users.