Ota City, Gunma Prefecture: A Walk in a Deep Town of Chaos: “Brazil City” Reflects “A Little Hope for Japan
Ota City and Oizumi-cho, Gunma Prefecture: A Transformation of a Pleasure Town Once Supported by Subaru and Panasonic One out of Five Foreigners Nowadays, the issue of foreign workers has become an overblown issue.
There was a time when Ota was a prosperous downtown area that was compared to Kabukicho in Shinjuku. On both sides of a 2-km stretch of road from the rotary at the south exit of the station, bars, show pubs, foreigner pubs, and adult entertainment establishments lined the street. However, the atmosphere of the town has drastically changed since the large-scale development in front of the station about 20 years ago and the roundup of illegal adult entertainment establishments.
Even so, the downtown area is still somewhat busy after 9:00 pm. Cars parked on the side of the street appeared, and aggressive touts of cabaret clubs accosted us every few meters we walked. However, compared to the past, the bustle of the nightlife has calmed down. A man who was born here and has worked in the nightlife district for 30 years laments the transformation of Ota.
In the old days, the illegal sex industry called ‘ippatsu-ya,’ where you could play for about 10,000 yen, was in full swing, and the town had everything you needed to drink, hit, and buy. But the redevelopment of the area in front of the station led to a sudden demise of all the sex clubs. After that, the weasel game of opening new stores and then having them busted continued, and now there is only one shop left with Chinese touts. The clientele has also changed considerably. In the past, the main customers were Japanese factory workers and contract workers, but the percentage of these workers has decreased, and now the majority of customers are Japanese in their 50s and 60s living locally. Which economy was better? It was a long time ago.
In the area known as “Ota Minami Ichibangai Shopping Street,” about 20 Filipino pubs still stand side by side. However, according to the owner, there used to be more than 100 pubs in a row. May (pseudonym, in her 20s), who works in a Filipino pub, had a gloomy expression on her face.
The yen has weakened, prices have gone up, and I can’t save enough money to send home to my family. I don’t really see the benefit of working in Japan.
What was striking was the almost complete absence of foreign customers in the downtown area. When asked about the restaurants, most of them said, “No foreigners allowed. We don’t want any trouble.
