Foreign media coverage has sparked an urgency in Japan to look into the problem of young women ensnared in Tokyo’s prostitution and the city’s growing reputation as a sex tourism destination, with observers noting the long-overdue spotlight on such issues is “internationally embarrassing”.
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The awareness raised has provoked a powerful response locally, including a degree of introspection on social media in a nation that detests losing face on the international stage.
This Week in Asia in a November 17 report quoted a 19-year-old girl named Rua* who said she could provide sexual service to as many as 10 clients a day, of whom around half were foreigners, and spent her earnings in a nearby host club.
Like dozens of other young women, Rua spends her evenings waiting for customers at the notorious Okubo Park in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district.
The Sankei newspaper ran a story two days later lamenting: “The reality of foreign men engaging in ‘sex tours’ in Kabukicho has been reported in some parts of Japan, but it is now spreading overseas as well.”
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Kazunori Yamai, a politician with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told the Sankei: “This is a serious situation that is internationally embarrassing.