<figure id="attachment_391889" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391889" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="40a467f5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/349474e2c66127408814af6194c1bc15.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-391889" class="wp-caption-text">A Honda girl wearing a helmet and traveling on a scooter. When the author declined her invitation, her expression clouded and she rode away.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> The &#8220;Honda Girl&#8221; who disappeared from &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
 As I stood in a dimly lit back alley street, a scooter approached and stopped in front of me.
 Sin Chao.&#8221;
 Hello&#8221; in Vietnamese was spoken by the stranger driving the scooter. She was sitting on the seat of the scooter, her mask zipped down to her chin, and she was smiling fondly. She taps the back seat with one hand, as if to say, &#8220;Get in here.
 How old are you?
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 I asked in English, to which he immediately replied in English, &#8220;Thirty years old.
 This is Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. It is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. In July of this year, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) released a report stating that Vietnam&#8217;s GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate for 2012 is expected to be the highest in Southeast Asia. In fact, when the second quarter GDP year-on-year comparisons for major Southeast Asian countries were released the following August, Vietnam had the largest growth rate.
 In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which is growing at such a rapid pace, there is something that has suddenly disappeared in recent years. They are a group of women known as the &#8220;Honda Girls.
 In Vietnam, where motorcycles are big, all motorcycles, whether made by Yamaha or Suzuki, are collectively called &#8220;Hondas. The &#8220;Honda girls&#8221; are women who ride their Hondas to pander to customers and engage in prostitution. For a long time, they were the specialty of Ho Chi Minh City&#8217;s sex industry. However, the number of street prostitutes has been drastically reduced due to the crackdown by the authorities, encouraged by the rapid economic growth in recent years. It was said that &#8220;Honda Girls have completely disappeared from Ho Chi Minh City recently, partly due to the COVID-19 crisis&#8221; (a writer on adult entertainment).
 However, in a certain district of Ho Chi Minh City. However, in a certain district of Ho Chi Minh City, behind a university campus, &#8220;Honda Girls are still active,&#8221; says a Vietnamese man who works as an interpreter. He led me down a back alley, and the Honda Girl I mentioned at the beginning of this article approached me.
 She was wearing a black one-piece dress that emphasized her bust and a white helmet. She has thick eyebrows and large eyes, and wears a good amount of makeup. She introduced herself as &#8220;Lynn.
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 Get in quick.&#8221;
 I couldn&#8217;t hear her over the noise, but she probably said it in Vietnamese. I asked her how much it would cost and how long it would take, and she replied 500,000 dong for 30 minutes. That is about 3,000 Japanese yen.
 When you get on the motorcycle, they take you to a hostel where you can have sexual intercourse.
 Lynn never ceases to smile. However, I politely declined the invitation, wanting to see other Honda girls. Then her expression suddenly clouded over and, as if with a &#8220;tsk&#8221; on her tongue, she rode off into the darkness with a roar of her engine.
 It was about three minutes later that another motorcycle approached us again. The driver was a mature woman who appeared to be well over 60 years old. A young woman with her hair up was sitting on the back seat. The older woman spoke to me in Vietnamese, but I could tell by her gestures that she was telling me to get in the very back.
 I asked the younger woman about her age and price, but she gave me a scowling look and did not answer anything. Perhaps she did not understand English. The young woman, with a fake smile on her face, said, &#8220;Just get in the car,&#8221; and tapped on the seat behind her.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Bribing to &quot;evade detection"></div>
<h2>Some evade detection through &#8220;corruption.&#8221;</h2>
 The Honda girls who do business in this area are usually in groups of five or six. They ride their Hondas back and forth along this street from around 7:00 p.m., looking for customers. Their main target is foreign tourists. In the past, many of them were poor women who were in daily trouble, but in recent years, some students have started this business to save money to study abroad,&#8221; said the interpreter mentioned above.
 Although the number of hondagirls seems to be decreasing year by year, they have not become extinct.
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 Prostitution is of course illegal in Vietnam. Especially in the urban areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the police have been stepping up regular crackdowns. As the country grows into an international economic city, it is not a good look to have prostitutes roaming the streets. The government wants to wipe them out, but the detection has not kept pace. In many cases, police officers are bribed to let them go free.
 In fact, several large-scale prostitution rings were busted in Ho Chi Minh City between the end of last year and this year.
 One such restaurant, which caters to foreign tourists, was the first to be exposed. That restaurant, which catered to foreign tourists, picked up customers in luxury cars and offered sexual services in a high-class apartment. The price was around 20,000 Japanese yen.
 On the other hand, hotels affiliated with Hondagirl, which offer inexpensive services, charge about 290 yen per hour. The hotel with which the Hondagirls are affiliated, on the other hand, offers inexpensive services for about 290 yen per hour. The room smells musty, has no windows, and has only a bed in it.
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 On this night, four hondagirls approached me. All the girls were desperate for customers. The interpreter mentioned above said, &#8220;They say the economy is getting better, but I don&#8217;t know why.
 They say the economy is getting better, but there are still many people in Vietnam who lament the lack of jobs.
 The Honda Girls were left behind by the wave of economic growth. They will probably still be desperately looking for customers tomorrow to make a living.
<figure id="attachment_391890" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391890" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="23e84b1c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/8db3eded350591650e21bdfd0eb967f5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-391890" class="wp-caption-text"> The sight of two pairs of hondagirls looking for customers with a &#8220;good old hag&#8221; is a scene that can only be seen in Vietnam.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_391891" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391891" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bd1e5503"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/66511d677fa140556f1778b42a5291f7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-391891" class="wp-caption-text"> Two pairs of hondagirls are selling to a group of men. They are also characterized by their boldly open-breasted and backless attire.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_391892" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-391892" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8ad5e86d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/5a8af9c13c5f9a3d2998f81d01d42821.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-391892" class="wp-caption-text"> A hotel used by the Honda Girls to bring men in. The price is unbelievably low, about 290 yen per hour.</figcaption></figure>
 From the September 27-October 4, 2024 issue of &#8220;FRIDAY

 Yoshikazu Kako (Journalist)

 The "Honda Girls" are women who work as prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city. Riding on motorcycles, they seduce foreign tourists. Left behind by the wave of Vietnam's economic growth, these women desperately seek customers to make a living.

 A full-length report on the shadow of Vietnam's rapid economic growth

Seducing tourists for about 3,000 yen for 30 minutes, astride a motorcycle&#8230; What is &#8220;Honda Girl,&#8221; Vietnam&#8217;s &#8220;underground specialty&#8221;?

Seducing tourists for about 3,000 yen for 30 minutes, astride a motorcycle… What is “Honda Girl,” Vietnam’s “underground specialty”?

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