Welcome to Tokyo: Asia’s new sex tourism capital?

In a grim mirror of Japan’s economic decline, the sex trade is drawing in foreign men and trapping local women in a cycle of desperation

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Published: 8:00am, 17 Nov 2024

In the golden years of Japan’s economic boom, its men would venture to foreign shores, seeking the thrill of illicit encounters offered by women from poorer nations. But today, the tables have turned, with foreign men now flocking to Tokyo for “sex tourism” as the yen weakens and poverty rises.

Yoshihide Tanaka, secretary general of the Liaison Council Protecting Youths (Seiboren), painted a grim picture of the current landscape.

“Japan has become a poor country,” he told This Week in Asia at the organisation’s offices. Nearby, in a park that’s become synonymous with the city’s sex trade, young women wait for customers before the sun has even set.

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This Week in Asia Lifestyle & Culture

In Japan, call to ban women marrying after 25 stirs backlash

Naoki Hyakuta, founder of the Conservative Party of Japan, also angered many when he proposed uterus removal for women at the age of 30

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Julian Ryall

Published: 2:37pm, 11 Nov 2024

The leader of a Japanese conservative party has apologised for saying the solution to the nation’s population crisis would be to ban women from getting married after the age of 25 and have their uteruses removed at 30.

Naoki Hyakuta, a writer and founder of the Conservative Party of Japan, also said that women should not be permitted to attend university from the age of 18, apparently so they could focus their efforts on producing more babies.

Hyakuta’s comments on his YouTube channel on Friday provoked an immediate and strong response, with the outspoken politician apologising during a speech in Nagoya on Sunday, claiming that the comments were just “a hypothetical idea” and that he did not personally support the ideas.

He added that he had framed the ideas as a “science-fiction storyline” to help reverse Japan’s declining birth rate, adding that his comments had been “extremely harsh” and that he did not advocate such steps against women.

Expressing outrage on the matter, Sumie Kawakami, a lecturer at Yamanashi Gakuin University and author of a book on gender issues, said: “I cannot believe that a Japanese politician has said such a thing.”

She told This Week in Asia: “I can only see these comments as a call to violence against women.”