His air mat moniker arose because of the policy of his Renai Group of companies
to provide cheap sensual services to customers lounging on blow-up air mats, a
privilege usually reserved for those paying for pricey preening at soapland
brothels.
"Cops raided joints in (the Tokyo entertainment districts of) Ikebukuro and
Shibuya. In a period from June to November last year, they raided seven Renai
Group establishments. They made 41 arrests in all, including employees and
bosses of the joints. It's rare for so many people from the one group to be
busted like that. And then, the cops eventually arrested Hashimoto (on Aug.
10)," a reporter for a national daily tells Weekly Playboy. "Over the past five
years, the group had made about 4.65 billion yen from its 10 Tokyo
establishments alone, so I'd guess there's probably a tax evasion case not too
far down the track."
In a land where the nail that sticks out is hammered down, Hashimoto appears to
have got himself in trouble by being a bit too brazen at a time when police are
trying to clean up the sex business in Tokyo. Renai Group is apparently
notorious for renting out entire love hotels and turning them into dens
providing non-intercourse sex services. Love hotels are really only supposed to
be places for legitimate couples to go and make love and professionals are
meant to be banned from using them.
"Ever since the cleanup of sex businesses hit Shibuya in the latter part of
2004, all the major companies have left the area in favor of regional cities
like Yokohama and Chiba, leaving Tokyo to become the domain of deriheru escort
services that don't have storefronts," a writer on the adult entertainment
industry tells Weekly Playboy. "But Renai Group alone kept its cathouses going,
as well as rented out entire floors of cheap hotels to use as places to provide
sex services. It just had so much money. The cops, though, thought this
practice infringed on the law regarding adult entertainment businesses and
swooped on Renai Group, eventually driving it out of Shibuya altogether.
Shibuya was clearly a victory for the cops."
Despite losing Shibuya, Renai Group was undaunted, setting up sex shops in
Ikebukuro, Sapporo and Yokohama.
"In Ikebukuro, the group's money worked for it again, and it would borrow
entire floors of love hotels and use them to offer sex services. But the group
was so large, news of its operations soon spread through the entire industry.
People started whispering about the weird things going on in the love hotels it
was using. Renai Group started the air mat services in Ikebukuro, which is now
home to a lot of love hotels that provide the mats to guests. But lots of girls
working for Renai Group used to bring their own mats to work with them and the
sight of them carrying the mats around had a fairly strong impact on the
business," a sex industry insider says.
With cops cracking down, most operators are keeping their noses clean and are
waiting until they can resurface again. But, apparently, that wasn't
Hashimoto's style and his group of companies continued operating, replacing
establishment owners after each police raid, but maintaining the same practices
that got them in trouble in the first place. It would prove to be Hashimoto's
downfall as the frustrated fuzz finally decided they'd had enough.
"Renai Group used to give payouts of several hundred thousands of yen in the
event you were arrested while working for them. It was also supposed to be a
kind of hush money to make sure cops never found out who was actually running
the show, but the cops wanted to find out, which is why they arrested so many
people," another insider says. "In the end, somebody's probably blurted out
about Hashimoto and led the cops to him."
It would seem that the police have won their long-running war against the Renai
Group, though adult entertainment industry figures are not so sure.
"They may have arrested Hashimoto, but the Renai Group itself hasn't been
destroyed," a sex business writer tells Weekly Playboy. "Don't forget, it's
still running operations in Yokohama and Sapporo, and it's still offering
escort services using air mats in Ikebukuro."
Copyright 1999-2006, Mainchi Daily. Used with permission. All rights
reserved. Ryann Connell is a Staff Writer and Senior Desk Editor for the
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