Menstrual Cycle Checks and Prostitution: The Exposed Secrets of a High-Class Dating Café

Yosuke Murakami, 48, manager of the Tu-Ba Umeda dating cafe in Osaka City, and two other employees were arrested by the Osaka Prefectural Police on September 30 on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law (facilitation) for soliciting women to male customers.

Models, college girls, and housewives were ……

The “Tu-Ba Umeda branch” is located near the “Izumi no Hiroba” underground shopping mall in Kita-ku, Osaka City, and is described on its website as a “members-only dating cafe where you can meet gentlemen who are financially well-off. The female members included models, race queens, companions, college girls, housewives, etc., and the number of registered members was said to be as many as 1,000.

(A reporter from a national newspaper’s society section) “On the surface, it was a ‘dating cafe,’ but behind the scenes, it was said that the exchange was based on the premise of prostitution.

The system was such that “the female members were asked about their bust size, convenient days and times, desired price, and desired status and position of men, and if they matched the customer’s preferred type or age, they would be taken in. The market price was 35,000-40,000 yen per session, and female members did not need to pay any registration fee or commission, making it easy for them to earn pocket money. Customers had to pay an admission fee of 10,000 yen each to the store and a negotiation fee of 10,000 yen, and they also had to pay hotel charges, so they had to spend at least 60,000 yen. Inevitably, the customers were limited to high-class men who could afford it,” said an investigator.

In fact, the customers were all men of high social standing, including lawyers, university professors, and company executives. The Tu-Ba Umeda store’s sales for the past year were 32 million yen, and over the past 10 years, it is said to have raked in 300 million yen.

Dating Cafes are Hotbeds for Prostitution

In response to the police investigation, the suspect Murakami stated, “I didn’t make enough sales by just providing the original meeting place. I didn’t think I would be exposed. What led to the arrest?

The police had long considered dating cafes to be a hotbed of prostitution. The police were concerned about the problem. It would be difficult to prove if they explained, ‘We are just providing a place for free love, and they hit it off and went to a love hotel. The store also put up a sign in the store that said, ‘This is a place for meeting, but prostitution is prohibited,’ and made female members write a written pledge that they would not engage in prostitution, thus pretending to be a wholesome store. At the same time, however, the manager was coordinating the prostitution schedule, for example, by checking with the women when their menstrual periods were due. The police painstakingly gathered statements from members and customers to solidify their suspicions.”

The police had to be careful not to leak anything, because if you do something wrong, you will not be able to escape punishment.