A photo of a man who made 50 Thai women work and a high school girl work in a “backroom sex shop”… Illegal sex store owner “made 58 million dollars”.

I came here for sightseeing.

The foreign women who worked at the brothel apparently came to Japan under this false pretense.

The two suspects, Katsunari Oba, 38, and his wife, Hambul Wawika, 30, both Thai nationals, were arrested on October 4 on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (encouraging illegal employment). The suspects had been working for “Thai PRINCESS PRINCESS,” a delivery service for Thai women between the ages of 23 and 38, who came to Japan posing as tourists.

The suspects had been employing Thai women who were unable to return to their home country due to the new coronavirus. When immigration restrictions were eased in October 2010, they hired a large number of Thai women by asking former employees and others. In the past year or so, the company is said to have hired at least 50 women and made approximately 58 million yen.

The scouted Thai women went directly from the airport to the delicatessen. They slept in the office of the store. They stayed in Japan for about two weeks and were paid between 200,000 yen and 600,000 yen. When they returned to Japan and introduced other women, they are said to have received an additional 20,000 yen per woman as a bonus.

Recently, there has been a string of troubles caused by illegal business at brothels. Here are some of the major cases.

Sexual services at a “restaurant

In November 2010, a “restaurant” in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, was busted. Based on several inside information, the police raided the restaurant and found that two female employees in their 20s were offering sexual services to a male customer in his 30s. The two employees in question, the manager, and eight others were caught red-handed.

The store was essentially a pink salon, but it had only obtained a license for business No. 1 under the Entertainment Establishments Control Law, which falls under the category of social eating and drinking establishments (e.g., cabarets). The female employees ranged in age from 18 to 25, and there were about 70 of them. The catch copy was “We only have kawaii girls. The store dressed its female employees in gym clothes for field day in the fall and Santa Claus and reindeer costumes in the winter.

The box seats where the sexual services were performed were partitioned off so that they were in full view of the surrounding area. The restaurant had a high capacity of about 200 customers a day, and female employees were free to be nominated, with sales of 150 million yen in six months.

In April of this year, a man in his 40s who ran a brothel was arrested on suspicion of violating the Child Welfare Law. The store he operated advertised itself as a “dispatch-type reflexology” (a service that uses massage, shiatsu, and other techniques to improve physical and mental condition).

The man had a teenage high school girl work for him, and as a ‘back-up option,’ he had her engage in indecent acts with customers. The location was a rental room in Tokyo. The girls were said to have earned several tens of thousands of yen a time for their services in the secret room. Sometimes they dressed up as Santa Claus and sometimes they were blindfolded. She needed the money to attend the live performances of men’s underground idols.

Illegal brothels try to attract customers by various means. The police are stepping up their investigations.