On January 31, the Juvenile Development Division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrest of two men on suspicion of violating the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance on the Healthy Development of Youth. The suspects, Tanabe Ryoya (25) and Honda Koichiro (22), who were active as men&#8217;s underground idols (commonly known as men&#8217;s underground), were arrested on suspicion of committing indecent acts with underage women.
 The Honda suspect worked at a men&#8217;s concept cafe (a.k.a. Menkon) in Kabukicho while working as a men-underground idol and indecently assaulted a girl in her third year of high school in the VIP room of his store.
<figure id="attachment_295526" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-295526" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="78b79a31"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/0009_original.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-295526" class="wp-caption-text"> The suspect, Honda, was arrested. He was operating under the name &#8220;Iori.&#8221;</figcaption></figure>
 At the Menkon, a system existed whereby customers could debut as idols if they made a large amount of sales, and customers spent large sums of money to make their favorite cast members into idols. According to media reports, one point was awarded for each 1,000 yen purchase of a checkerboard, and if one accumulated 1,000 points, he or she could go on an &#8220;out-of-store date,&#8221; such as a movie or a drive.
 Problems frequently occur in Mencon, where underage girls are forced to pay large sums of money to gain favors from underage girls. In some cases, as in this case, the girls were asked to perform sexual acts.
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 Makoto (pseudonym, 24), who works at a menkon in Kabukicho, said, &#8220;There are many cases where girls are asked to perform sexual acts, as in the current case.
 There are many establishments that make girls spend money for sex, and there are girls who want to be treated specially, so they spend money with an open ceiling. If it goes too far, it can lead to incidents like this one. There are many places that have high-end bottles that cost about 100,000 yen each.&#8221;
 Many reports compare Menkon to host clubs, but the biggest difference between the two is that Menkon has underage employees and customers. Many of Menkon&#8217;s customers are high school and junior high school students, and the malicious establishments and cast members know this and order overpriced drinks and other drinks for them.
 Furthermore, the aforementioned Mako says, &#8220;It&#8217;s very vicious,&#8221; referring to the &#8220;sales rack&#8221; system. Sell-through is what is called &#8220;payment on the spot. Since payment is required by a predetermined date, there is a constant stream of customers who work to earn money after making the payment.
 It&#8217;s scary because minors with no collateral can easily get into debt. Of course, there are only so many ways for minors to earn money. I&#8217;ve heard that even though they know that, they are forced to sell their bodies for a large sum of money. If the customer can&#8217;t pay the bill, the cast member has to pay the store, so the pressure is very severe,&#8221; (Makoto).
 Another characteristic of menkon is that you can work as if you are a part-timer, and many stores leave it up to the individual to deal with customers. Asaya (pseudonym, 25), who works at Menkon twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays, works as a regular office worker on weekdays.
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 When I go to work, I wear a wig and makeup. It&#8217;s almost like cosplay. I&#8217;m happy that there are girls who think I&#8217;m cool and support me. I work loosely, so I am paid by the hour, but there are others who work hard on a full commission basis. At Mencon, about half of the money spent by customers goes to the cast members. I guess that&#8217;s why the extreme business doesn&#8217;t decrease.&#8221;
 Of course, there are healthy Menkon establishments that do not hire cast members under 18 years old and that have established a solid concept. However, it is also true that there are some establishments that repeatedly engage in extreme business practices.
 As the practice of &#8220;spending money on what you like&#8221; has become more common in recent years, there have been an increasing number of cases in which the practice has gone too far and resulted in incidents. Will there be more regulation of extreme activities?
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 Sasaki Chihuahua 
Born in Tokyo in 2000. After attending an integrated school in Tokyo from elementary school to high school, he went on to Keio University. 15 years old, he has been living in Kabukicho and has a wide range of personal connections. At university, he is studying the sociology of the downtown area, including Kabukicho. His book, &#8221; <a href="https://amzn.to/3jHnsoJ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pien&#8221; to shakai&#8221; (&#8220;The Disease of &#8216;Pien&#8217;: Consumption and Approval of the SNS Generation&#8221;)</a>, is now on sale.
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From theFebruary 24, 2023 issue of FRIDAY

 Shinji Hasuo

 A cast member was arrested on suspicion of committing an indecent act with an underage girl at a men's concept cafe in Kabukicho. Recently, there have been many cases of underage girls being forced to pay large sums of money to gain favor with underage girls. In some cases, the demand for sexual intercourse has also emerged.

Malignant “Menkon” girls are being forced to sell their bodies for large sums of money if they cannot pay the bill.

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