By Erica Greenberg

I. On Japan, Sex Work, and Prostitution

The sex industry in Japan is a 24-billion-dollar industry despite its sensitive and taboo nature.1 However, its prominence, especially in major cities of the small island nation, proves that the business is alive and thriving. In an effort to suppress this industry, the Japanese government has implemented the Anti-Prostitution Law to crack down on sex workers engaging in prostitution: it prohibits the buying and selling of sexual intercourse for money.2 However, this law is inefficient and vague, with many loopholes that malicious individuals and businesses manipulate and exert, and the implications are far reaching and detrimental.3 This law only targets sex workers and is not strict enough for those responsible in coercing women into this industry.4

II. Comparative Legal Framework

While the majority of the world criminalizes–to one extent or the other–sex work, there are some fundamental differences. According to the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), Japan, like the United States and France, is classified under “Selling, purchase AND organising criminalised.”5However, the U.S. and France both prohibit and punish the client; for Japan, as the NSWP study indicates, “buying sex is prohibited by the 1956 law although no penalty is given so in effect no sanctions apply to clients.”6

The Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 bans trade for sexual intercourse, but does not regulate any other form of sexual acts.7 Significantly, penalties only apply to the seller and none to the client, meaning only the sex worker is liable in the trade. This also means that the law does not regulate businesses strictly enough, and does not hold them liable for their part in coercing women to enter sex work; there are no repercussions in terms of monetary penalties or probation.8

III. The Host Club Problem

One of the most apparent outlets into sex work is the host club culture, in which female customers pay male hosts for their time and company. While host clubs can simply be in business for providing entertainment and companionship, many host clubs employ the use of selling their services and products (i.e. alcohol) on credit.9 In what some call a “romance scam,” male hosts illusion female customers into a relationship of sorts and lead them to rack up debt to their host clubs — and even to the hosts themselves — which in turn, coerce women into sex work and prostitution to pay off their debts.10 The exploitation of female customers by host clubs force many women into sex work: of the 140 individuals detained for prostitution in 2023, 40% stated that their reason for engaging in sex work was to repay their debts to host clubs.11

IV. Impact on Worker Safety

The incrimination of sex workers — and lack thereof for those who promote and create demand for such work — has had devastating impacts on their safety. The Japan Times reports that sex workers are less likely to turn to police officials when physically assaulted by customers, noting various women’s testimonies.12 Japan’s anti-prostitution law is, in practice, counterproductive and harmful, and enables many businesses to exploit and abuse women without being held accountable.13

V. Conclusion

Host clubs and their culture serves as one of the clearest examples of how Japan’s anti-prostitution laws are being exploited. They are clearly too lax and insufficient, to the point that young women are exploited and abused, harming them and their livelihood.14 The restricted definition– limiting punishable behavior of prostitution to sexual intercourse and the criminal party to the seller/sex worker–allows malicious individuals and businesses like host clubs to take advantage of the law.15

Clearly, Japan has to reform the Anti-Prostitution Law to hold clients responsible. Impunity for clients allows for individuals and businesses to engage as both clients and solicitors of prostitution without legal liability.16 If Japan’s anti-prostitution laws punished clients, businesses and individuals would most likely refrain from harmful sex work practices, hopefully decreasing the number of women forced into prostitution.17