Weekly hacks expose the dirty secrets of squeaky-clean soaplands

[Anchorman]

Japan's Anti-Prostitution Law outlaws payment for intercourse, yet soapland brothels openly offer the practice and no-one ever says anything about it, according to Spa! (5/22), which pledges to uncover one of the Japanese media's great taboo topics.

Despite the ban on paid intercourse, soaplands all operate with written permission from the police and can often be found in the vicinity of police boxes.

Yet the media never says a word about the contradiction.

"The reason is because soaplands are regarded, on the surface at least, as public bathhouses and not adult entertainment businesses. That's why soaplands have steam sauna machines made for one, and playmates and hard massage tables instead of beds," an expert on handling government documents tells Spa! "What you pay to get into the soapland is merely an entrance fee for a public bath."

Soapland workers - bubble princesses, as they are sometimes called - are officially there only to help the customer wash. If there is any sex between the customer, it is regarded purely as the result of "free love" and the soapland itself has no involvement. The transaction between customer and bubble princess is one between lovers.

This shaky argument gives plenty of room for the police to move in on the soaplands, but they rarely do.

"There are sometimes arrests made, but the police basically know everything that's going on and choose to shut up about it," the expert says. "I suppose they let it go because soaplands are a way for the common man to relieve his sexual frustrations."

The double standard that applies to soaplands, where people wantonly break the law by paying for intercourse, also applies to the pachinko business, where money is clearly paid out even though gambling is banned. It's not just the cops turning a blind eye to them that soaplands and the pachinko business have in common - they're also both top sources of income for the yakuza. In the soapland world, organized crime has traditionally made money by charging over-inflated prices for lubricants and linen.

"There are whispers that about 10 percent of all money paid for sex at soaplands ends up being funneled into yakuza coffers," journalist Tomohiko Suzuki tells Spa! "Mind you, recently the yakuza have started running many soaplands themselves, rather than taking a cut out of the takings of places run by someone else."

There are also areas packed with soaplands that operate with no hindrance from the yakuza at all. Prime among these places is Osaka's Tobita Shinchi, which is filled with knocking shops that have no connection to the underworld.

"Tobita Shinchi has long been protected by the cops," says Suzuki, who specializes in covering yakuza affairs. "That makes it even more special, considering that there are loads of other soapland joints in Osaka that the yakuza have complete control over."

Despite the police generally turning a blind eye to the activities of the soaplands, there is no set formula for the crimefighters to receive any sorts of financial kickbacks, as some say exists in dealings with the pachinko business. That's not to say police dealings with soaplands are totally clean.

"I get the feeling that there's always some sort of latent battle about kickbacks going on. That's why vice cops always get to use soaplands for free," Suzuki tells Spa! "At least the yakuza pay when they go." (By Ryann Connell)