First Otaku Battalion

“One evening, I was made to do it with at least five customers,” the girl, named Aiko (a pseudonym) sobs to Shukan Jitsuwa (8/2). “I’d never had that many partners before. Some fingered me deep inside and I started bleeding. The doctor said the opening to my uterus had become inflamed. It took 10 days for the bleeding to stop…”

Until last March, Aiko had been a student at a middle school in Tokyo’s Toshima-ku. She subsequently went to work in a brothel named “Otona Club” in the Kinshicho entertainment district. The police staged a raid, and the 15-year-old found herself facing charges of prostitution.

Until its ignominious shutdown by the authorities, Otona Club was situated on the third floor of a building close to JR Kinshicho station in Tokyo’s Sumida-ku, above a drug store and an internet cafe. The room consisted of a counter with stools, a small cloakroom, a central area with a large table and two cubicles toward the back, concealed by curtains. Each cubicle contained a cot and wheeled portable wash basin with a mirror.

The secret of Otona Club’s success was not that it abetted prostitution by under-age girls — which has been going on for who knows how long — but that it set its rates low to ensure a quick turnover, high-volume business.

“Customers would be escorted in and see the girls seated around the table,” Aiko relates. “A shop employee would point to us one by one, and say, ‘That one’s in middle school, so she goes for 30,000 yen, but the one beside her’s in high school, so she’s 25,000 yen.’ They’d take their pick and go into the cubicle — there was no bath or shower — and spend 15, maybe 20 minutes with the girl.”

When the two cubicles were both occupied, impatient customers were permitted to take the girls out to nearby love hotels.

Out of the charges per each session, the shop took a 7,000-yen cut.

Still, the sheer volume of turnover ensured the girls made pretty good money. Another working teen named Hideko tells the magazine she earned nearly 1 million yen during the month of April.

Some customers brought cameras to photograph the girls’ genitals and others would request they dress up in school uniforms and other costumes. In extreme cases, the “play” got rough.

“From March of this year, two girls who at that time were still in middle school were particularly popular,” Hideko relates. “But some of their johns overdid it, and more than once we saw them come back from the hotel in tears. Some of the customers probed them with their fingers and became outraged if the girls didn’t seem to become aroused or have an orgasm.

“I had similar experiences, where men expected me to act out their fantasies like some kind of porno film actress.”

“As far as we know, at least 13 girls were working there, all between the ages of 15 and 18,” a reporter on the city desk tells the magazine. “Some were still in school and others were unemployed.”

Most of the girls, according to Shukan Jitsuwa, found the jobs via their cell phones, but a few of were recruited by friends and acquaintances.

“Some girls said they wanted money to buy brand-name fashion goods, so I set them up at jobs,” an 18-year-old named Chieko tells the magazine.

“These girls are daughters of ordinary salarymen, and attend Tokyo public high schools,” she continues. When their parents found out, they became infuriated, carrying on and screaming things like, ‘I’m gonna kill you and then I’ll die too.’ The girls were also kicked out of school. I don’t think that was fair.”

Otona Club’s manager Shingo Kato, age 29, was arrested by the MPD’s juvenile division on multiple charges. He had allegedly told the girls, “Work here and you’ll make good money. You’ll be able to buy lots of new stuff right away.”

Also arrested were street recruiter Tomoaki Shima, age 22, his assistant, an 18-year-old girl whose name was withheld as she was a minor, and three others.

Between October 2006 and May 2007, police allege the teen tart trade by Kato and his tawdry team took in 10 million yen.

“I used to see groups of two or three teenage girls coming and going, and hear giggles coming from the door,” a resident of the building tells Shukan Jitsuwa. “I thought they were just chums, you know, having all-night pajama parties or something.” (By Masuo Kamiyama, People’s Pick contributor)

Japan’s adult toy market is expanding more furiously than many of the organs it caters for, according to Shukan Post (8/10).

The Adult Treasure Expo held in Chiba last weekend provided a strong glimpse of how adult-oriented businesses are now as much about boom as they are about boom-boom.

“Tighter regulations mean there are fewer adult stores than there once were, but the number of catalog companies selling adult products grew dramatically from 462 in 1999 to 3,127 by 2005,” Takashi Kadokura, representative of the economic department at the Brics Research Institute, tells Shukan Post. “Adult merchandise has clearly become more mainstream, with even major discount outlets like the Don Quixote chain selling sex toys in their stores.”

And it’s high-tech new toys that are helping propel the adult merchandise industry to unprecedented highs — such as the Virtual Hole Takumi, featured at the Adult Treasure Expo. The toy is shaped like a bowling pin and is attached to a PC by a USB cable. The man then inserts his member into the bowling pin and starts running the supplied blue movie, featuring a naked young woman writhing and groaning, on the computer. It’s here that Virtual Hole Takumi starts to amaze.

“Thanks to a newly developed signal control system, the toy adjusts its movements depending on the actions of the woman on the screen,” a spokesman for developer Daihaku tells Shukan Post. “It’s possible to recreate slightly different actions, such as when a woman uses her mouth or a couple are enjoined, so the pleasure given to the user is an accurate simulation of the real thing.”

For those who prefer a bit of distance in their love lives, there’s the Televibe, a vibrator activated by a call from a mobile phone.

“Using a mobile phone and inputting a certain signal allows the user to manipulate the speed and intensity of a vibrator, as well as switch it on or off,” a spokesman for Kairaku Kobo Regina, creator of the Televibe, says. “It doesn’t matter where the wearer is, as long as the call gets through you can even manipulate the vibrator while carrying on a conversation over the phone.”

Another popular product at the show was the Prostate Pro, targeting middle-aged and elderly men who are finding that they can’t quite rise to the occasion like they used to.

“It’s a ring, containing a permanent magnet that’s had a slight gauss adjustment, and worn over the penis and gonads for 10 hours a week,” a spokesman for manufacturer Infinity says. “The magnet improves circulation and stimulates activity in the prostate, which is important in maintaining regular function in the male organ. The Prostate Pro makes men act like men.”

Economist Kadokura sees products like the Prostate Pro helping spark the growth in the adult toy market.

“Women and the elderly have been the driving force in the market’s recent expansion,” the beancounter tells Shukan Post. “Goods that explore sexuality are gaining social acceptance and giving the market the momentum to come up with a whole new range of products.” (By Ryann Connell)

Hey guys, meeting at Harbourfront MRT Station at 6pm this coming Sunday. Please bring sufficient money for payment.  Not going to be cheap I think.
Those contributing to his birthday present please bring along $10 too (might be more, depending on how many contribute). Thanks.

Can take this as a farewell party, if you want to.

Japan, acknowledges Shukan Bunshun (6/14), has a well-earned reputation as a “Rorikon Taikoku” (a country with a world-class Lolita complex). Although new and tougher laws cracking down on kiddy porn have been put into force, legal aspects of this business proliferate. These include publications such as deluxe coffee table books containing photo collections of young females in a variety of suggestive poses, and DVDs showing them in motion — clad in dresses or bathing suits, of course, but still satisfyingly suggestive to aficionados of “U-15,” i.e., under 15 years old, as pubescent females are referred to by some.

The annual market for such products, which are completely legal and sold openly, is estimated in the neighborhood of 17 billion yen.

On May 27, a group of 25 males converged at an unspecified Osaka location to participate in a “Satsueikai” (photo shooting session), in which the models were all females of primary school age.

Most of the men, the magazine reports, were in their 30s, with the rest in their 20s and 40s.

The arriving participants registered and each paid 8,000 yen. The session began from 10:30 a.m. at a large and mostly deserted public park, upon which the grinning cameramen assembled around the girls with whom they were most infatuated. They then began taking turns snapping away in a determined manner, without speaking to each other or to the girls.

For those wishing to arrange for a one-on-one shooting at a later time, appointments could be arranged to meet the girls, at which time, a fee of 50,000 yen plus incidental expenses would be charged. Expenses would include transportation and meals, including costs for the girl’s accompanying parent.

The girls themselves showed remarkable composure, standing as images of unruffled innocence while as many as 10 strange men armed with cameras surrounded them and began snapping away.

Just as the morning session was ending, the group was approached by three policemen, one of whom said, “We received a complaint that you guys are photographing girls in the nude.”

As the president of production firm that organized the event explained the procedure to the cops, an elderly man rolled up in an electric wheelchair, and informed them, “I’m the one who called the police.”

“These guys are flaky!” ranted the man. “Okay, the girls might not be nude, but there’s something suspicious about the way they’re ogling and photographing them.”

Observing nothing illicit, the cops departed and after lunch the venue moved to a photo studio.

On the set, one of the photo subjects wearing a middie blouse school uniform was asked to raise both arms over her head, and the hem of her blouse rose up to expose her bare belly, upon which the photographers could be seen leering with lusty lechery, sighs Shukan Bunshun.

The president of the production company says he has between 20 to 30 girls signed up with his outfit, ranging from 4 years old to high school age.

The mother of a 10-year-old girl modeling at the day’s event was clearly turned off by the experience.

“Many parents see these shooting sessions as a stepping stone to show business and are resigned to having to put up with it. But some of these guys strike me as sleazy. I wouldn’t speak to them.”

The reporter then asked her how she feels about the prospect of her own daughter being treated as the object of some man’s desire.

“Certainly there are going to be people who view the photos that way,” she replies candidly. “But unless you can accept that’s the way things are, you won’t be able to land any modeling jobs.”

“We see all kinds of parents at these things,” the session organizer explains. “Some are infatuated with the idea of nurturing their daughters into a showbiz career. Others just want some nice keepsake in the form of well shot photos. Sometimes at interviews, a parent will even bellow at me, ‘How much are you going to pay us!!?’”

The morals of grownups, Shukan Bunshun concludes grimly, leave a lot to be desired.

Officially, Japan’s economy is on the way back, but that’s according to regular, respectable businesses. To get a true indicator of whether there’s a resurgence of Japan Inc., the most accurate way is to look at Japan Pink, according to Spa! (7/24).

“Business is definitely getting better,” Spa! hears from a call girl performing enjo kosai, the euphemistic term to describe prostitution that literally translates as “compensated dating.” “At least it’s become a lot easier to pick up clients in Tokyo through matchmaking sites, And I think business has really gotten better since April. I’ve got a steady flow of repeat customers and even some customers who offer me pretty good money if I agree to meet them regularly. Some girls are getting paid as much as 100,000 yen just for going to a love hotel once!”

Across the industry, however, feelings are a little mixed. 0f 28 women engaged in enjo kosai, 43 percent felt that the economy was improving, with regular users continuing their patronage and growing numbers of salarymen joining the game.

Also with mixed feelings about Japan’s economy are nightclub hostesses.

“Traditional nightclub districts like Kabukicho, Roppongi and Akasaka have peaked. Some places in Tokyo are doing all right, but a lot of clubs have been shut down and chains are downsizing. There aren’t as many great hostesses as there used to be and I don’t think you could really say business is doing well in the capital,” Takahiro Marui, managing editor of nightclub guidebook Club After, tells Spa!

Marui says it’s a different story when it comes to the suburbs, where the nightclub caper is flourishing. It’s an argument borne out by a hostess working at a suburban club, “There’s definitely been an increase in customers who really throw the cash around,” she says. “Some of them will put 500,000 yen in cash on a table and pay for drinks all around. I heard one customer gave a girl a million yen in cash to go for a drive with him after she’d finished work and he bought her a really expensive Hermes handbag and stuff from a Don Quixote store.”

High class soapland brothels are also seeing an improvement in their fortunes.

“Soaplands are not just about the (sexual) services we offer. One of our sales points is the importance we place on human relations. And it’s the customers who have realized this that are the ones that are still using high class soaplands now. Shooting straight, I’m talking about old guys. We get some old gentlemen come into our soapland just to have a chat and a bath and they go home without doing anything sexual,” a sex worker from Tokyo’s Yoshiwara soapland district says.

An operator of a high-class call girl service also agrees the graying population is making business good.

“All my regulars are retirees. The guys who try once just to see what it’s like are always young and it’s the old guys who keep coming back,” the operator says. “This business is splitting between ultra-high class services and ultra-cheap stuff. The foreign girls are doing all the cheap work. There was a rush of arrests late last year, but things are now back on track. We pull in about 13 million yen a month now. Whether the economy is good or bad, old guys will always make sure the cash keeps flowing in.”

The Yoshiwara soapland brothel worker also has little time for younger clients, regardless of how much they may flash the cash.

“We have rich young clients who come in and throw their money around, offering hefty sums if I agree to go out with them after l finish work,” the brothel worker tells Spa! “What a nerve! I’m not so cheap as to be lured by a wad of cash.” (By Ryann Connell)