Sex tourists fuel outrage about vice in Japan The debates do not have women’s interests at heart Jun 4th 2026|Tokyo|4 min read MAI, a 34-year-old woman in Tokyo, used to work at a hospital. But when covid-19 overwhelmed the wards, she found her work too stressful. A single mother, she also needed money for her family. Lured by higher pay, she entered the sex trade, first working as a porn actress before becoming a deriheru or “delivery health” worker—slang for call-girls who visit clients at home or in hotels. For a two-hour session, she earns ¥30,000 ($190). Mai is among hundreds of thousands of women working in Japan’s sprawling sex industry. The business, thought to be worth ¥2trn-5trn ($12bn-31bn) a year, is woven into male social life. One study in 2022 found that 48% of Japanese men had paid for sex at some point, compared with 11% in Britain. Hagiwara, a 63-year-old man in Tokyo, recalls being taken to a brothel by senior colleagues after joining a company, as a rite of passage. Emu, a man in his 30s, says “most men around me have been at least once.” Lately, however, lawmakers’ tolerance for the industry has come under much strain. Two recent triggers have encouraged Japanese to re-examine the confusing thicket of laws and conventions that govern how sex work is policed. One was an outrageous crime: last year authorities rescued a 12-year-old Thai girl who had been trafficked to Japan and forced to work at a sex shop in Tokyo. The second concern has been the growing visibility of women who sell sex around Okubo Park, near Tokyo’s red-light district (where the haggling more ordinarily goes on behind neon-lit doors). Relatively few women are involved in this. Nonetheless, solicitation (waiting for or approaching clients in public) is illegal in Japan. The sight of women openly waiting for clients has unsettled the public. Compounding the public debate is the fact that some of their customers are foreign tourists, lured to Japan by the cheapness of the yen. Videos of them approaching women in Okubo Park have spread rapidly online. “It is truly lamentable,” said Kamiya Sohei, leader of the right-wing populist Sanseito party, in a video. Behind the outrage lies a sense of wounded pride: during Japan’s boom years in the 1970s and 1980s, it was Japanese men who went abroad for sex. The authorities have decided to act—at least where the streetwalkers are concerned. Recently women around Okubo Park have been detained or arrested. Yet campaigners say it is unfair that authorities have not also been trying to punish the buyers. “Women are taken away by the police—while the men who buy sex stand beside them smirking,” says Kanajiri Kazuna of PAPS, a women’s-rights group. In November an opposition lawmaker raised this disparity in parliament. In response Takaichi Sanae, the prime minister, ordered the justice ministry to re-examine current practices and consider reforms. The prospect of change has sparked very broad debate about how Japan could improve its policing of sex work. Some Japanese feminists would like their country to implement the Nordic style of regulation adopted by Sweden, France and others, which criminalises buying sex while shielding sellers themselves from prosecution. “Buying sex is a form of violence against women,” says Ms Kanajiri. Other Japanese argue that getting tougher on buyers will drive sex work underground, leaving women more exposed to violence. Some want the industry fully legalised and regulated, as in Germany and the Netherlands. Nakayama Misato of Siente, a sex-work advocacy group, argues that criminalisation can mean that women are treated merely as victims, ignoring their agency. “Doing sex work is not a bad thing—it’s a valid way of making a living.” To be more than skin deep, any changes would have to apply not only to streetwalking but to Japan’s vast indoor sex-industry, the laws for which are riddled with loopholes and selectively enforced. Consider the practice of “soapland”, in which customers ostensibly pay to be bathed; if sex happens to take place in the process, officials generally turn a blind eye. Takao Yasuo of Curtin University says this is typical of Japan’s approach to regulating the sex industry. The priority is to keep vice decorously out of public view. A big rethink seems unlikely. For now, the justice ministry is narrowly focused on street prostitution. Taking care of that is “the lowest-cost, highest-visibility form of enforcement available to the state”, notes Mr Takao. “Many lawmakers, especially conservatives, are sensitive to the idea of women becoming sexually promiscuous,” says Shiomura Ayaka, a lawmaker. Women openly soliciting sex in public have become symbols of social disorder. ■ 性觀光客加劇了對日本色情業的憤怒 這些辯論的核心並非以女性的利益為出發點 2026年6月4日 | 東京 | 4分鐘閱讀時間 小麥（Mai），一名在東京的34歲女性，過去曾在一家醫院工作。但是當新冠肺炎壓垮了病房時，她發現自己的工作壓力太大了。作為一名單親媽媽，她也需要錢來養家。在更高薪水的誘惑下，她進入了性產業，先是擔任成人片（A片）女演員，之後成為一名「deriheru」或「派遣健康（外送茶）」工作者——這是指前往客戶家中或飯店服務的應召女郎的俚語。一個兩小時的服務時段，她可以賺取30,000日圓（190美元）。 小麥是日本龐大且擴張的性產業中，成千上萬名工作女性的其中之一。這項據信每年價值達2兆至5兆日圓（120億至310億美元）的行業，已經融入了男性的社交生活之中。2022年的一項研究發現，48%的日本男性曾在某個時間點花錢買過性服務，相比之下，英國的比例僅為11%。萩原（Hagiwara），一名在東京的63歲男性，回憶起自己在進入公司後，被資深同事帶去妓院，將其視為一種成年禮。艾姆（Emu），一名30多歲的男性說：「我身邊的大多數男人至少都去過一次。」 然而，近來立法者對該產業的容忍度受到了極大的考驗。最近的兩個導火線，促使日本人重新審視管理如何對性工作進行治安維持的、那套令人困惑且錯綜複雜的法律與慣例。其中一個是一起駭人聽聞的罪行：去年當局解救了一名被販賣到日本、並被強迫在東京一家情色店工作的12歲泰國女孩。 第二個擔憂則是，在東京紅燈區附近的「大久保公園」周邊，販賣性服務的女性其能見度越來越高（在那裡，討價還價通常是在霓虹燈閃爍的門後進行）。雖然涉及此事的女性相對較少。儘管如此，拉客（在公共場所等待或主動接近客戶）在日本是違法的。女性公開等待客戶的景象讓公眾感到不安。 使公眾辯論更加劇的複雜因素是，她們的某些客戶是外國觀光客，他們因日圓貶值（便宜）而被吸引到日本。他們在大久保公園接近女性的影片在網路上迅速傳播。右翼民粹主義「參政黨」黨魁神谷宗幣（Kamiya Sohei）在一段影片中表示：「這真是令人悲哀。」在憤怒的背後，隱藏著一種受挫的自尊心：在1970年代和1980年代日本經濟繁榮的歲月裡，是日本男性前往國外進行性觀光。 當局已決定採取行動——至少在涉及街頭流鶯的部分。最近，大久保公園周邊的女性遭到拘留或逮捕。然而，社會運動人士表示，當局沒有同時試圖懲罰買家是不公平的。「女性被警察帶走——而買性的男人則站在一旁傻笑，」女權團體 PAPS 的金尻カズナ（Kanajiri Kazuna）表示。去年11月，一名反對黨議員在國會中提出了這一不平等待遇。作為回應，首相高市早苗（Takaichi Sanae）命令法務省重新審視現行做法並考慮改革。 變革的前景引發了關於日本如何改善性工作治安管理的廣泛辯論。一些日本女性主義者希望她們的國家能實施瑞典、法國等國採用的「北歐模式」規範，該模式將買性行為定為刑事犯罪，同時保護賣性者免受起訴。「買性是對女性的一種暴力形式，」金尻女士說。 其他日本人則認為，對買家採取更嚴厲的態度會將性工作推向地下，使女性更容易暴露於暴力之中。有些人則希望像德國和荷蘭那樣，將該產業完全合法化並進行規範。性工作倡議團體 Siente 的中山美里（Nakayama Misato）認為，刑事犯罪化可能意味著女性僅被視為受害者，而忽略了她們的自主權（主體性）。「從事性工作並不是一件壞事——這是一種正當的謀生方式。」 若要使任何改變不只是流於表面（深層改革），這些改變不僅必須適用於街頭拉客，還必須適用於日本龐大的室內性產業，而該產業的法律充斥著漏洞，且屬於選擇性執法。以「泡泡浴（soapland）」的慣例為例，顧客表面上是付費接受沐浴服務；如果在過程中偶然發生了性行為，官員通常會睜一隻眼閉一隻眼。寇廷大學（Curtin University）的鷹尾安雄（Takao Yasuo）表示，這是日本規範性產業的典型做法。其首要任務是體面地將惡行（色情）保持在公眾視線之外。 一場徹底的大反思似乎不太可能發生。目前，法務省正狹隘地將焦點集中在街頭賣淫上。鷹尾先生指出，處理這件事是「國家目前可行、成本最低且能見度最高的一種執法形式」。國會議員塩村文夏（Shiomura Ayaka）表示：「許多立法者，特別是保守派，對於女性變得性生活混亂（放蕩）的想法非常敏感。」在公共場合公開拉客的女性，已經成為了社會秩序混亂的象徵。 --Hosting provided by SoundOn