Kogals go down the dirty road from trendsetters to streetwalkers

By Ryann Connell
February 21, 2003

"Recently, in (Tokyo) entertainment districts like Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro, I keep seeing what looks like an ordinary girl, but they're all really dirty. I don't know whether it's because they haven't gone home, or simply haven't had a wash," the managing editor of a community newspaper tells Shukan Taishu. "One of them was sitting on the side of the road with her panties in full view. There was an awful brown stain on them. She just sat there, staring into thin air like a zombie."

Kogal was the name given to the sharp young trendsetters of the late '90s, but now there are apparently growing numbers of kogal homeless in Japan's big cities. Many survive by turning tricks.

"It's not just Tokyo," a woman writer specializing in the adult entertainment industry tells Shukan Taishu. "I've seen the same sorts of girls in Nagoya and Osaka. I suppose these are runaways or schoolgirls who want a bit of pocket money. I have heard of some girls who'll sleep with a guy just for the price of a hotel room."

Kogal streetwalkers first appeared last year, the writer says, and often work in groups, primarily to avoid danger, but also for other reasons.

"Toward the end of last year, this 19-year-old girl approached me and asked if I was interested in a threesome with her and a friend. When she told me it'd cost 40,000 yen for the two of them, I said 'OK.' She called her friend, who arrived in minutes. They took me to a nearby love hotel, saying that they knew this was one that would allow three people in (instead of exclusively couples). Once we were in the hotel, they got right into it. Rather than selling themselves to me, it was more like they were enjoying what they were doing," a ticket shop employee says.

A Shukan Taishu probe in the teen haven of Shibuya soon unveils numerous sets of kogal homeless hookers, who apparently stand out for their cheap clothes, normal make-up and designer label bags.

"We spend most of our time just hanging around here. I sleep during the day. When I wake up, I do my face and come down here and sell myself. When we've finished making money, we all get together at family restaurants and gripe about our lives," Shukan Taishu hears from a 17-year-old girl we'll call Itsumi, who hustles together with another girl of the same age who we'll refer to as Kinue.

"We're looking for somebody even now," Kinue says. "If we see a salaryman in his 30s, we'll send him a signal, like pretend to grip his member or wink at him. If he responds, we negotiate a price. Now, I make sure he wears a rubber and there's no way I'll ever kiss him or do him with my mouth. The going rate at the moment's about 20,000 to 30,000 yen."

Alarmingly, the trend for women to hit the streets to pick up cash is not limited only to the very young. A 35-year-old woman we'll call Yoshiko once had a stable department store job, but saw her life in tatters after a drunken husband guzzled their lives away. Yoshiko was forced into a life on the streets, sleeping on a bench in Tokyo's Ueno Park every night until the autumn last year, when a chance meeting changed her life forever.

"This woman who looked like she was in her mid-50s woke me up and told me I'd be raped if I stayed where I was sleeping. She invited me to share her cardboard box home. The woman looked 50-something, but she was actually just over 40, but made herself look old and dirty so nobody would rape her," Yoshiko tells Shukan Taishu. "When I told her my story, she told me to think I had died and recommended I prostitute myself to get the money to find a place to stay. She picked up some cosmetics for me. I have sold myself to a guy for 10,000 yen. I tried to get a job in a sex shop, but when I went for an interview, the boss told me he'd have to check me out first before he could give me the job. I couldn't stand it and ran out of the place half way through the interview. I figured I'd be better off working for myself. There were plenty of other girls who worked my territory in the streets around Ueno."

Copyright 1999-2004, Mainchi Daily.  All rights reserved.  Ryann Connell is a Staff Writer and Senoir Desk Editor for the Mainchi Daily News. No content may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission.  Please contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.

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