20 Million Yen for a Fake Marriage 200,000 Yen for a Virgin: The Human Rights Price of Kabukicho

Since last year, “Itadaki Joshi Riri-chan,” also known as defendant Mai Watanabe (26), has caused a huge stir in the Kabukicho area. She was convicted of defrauding multiple men of a total of more than 150 million yen and selling the methods as a manual, for which she was also charged with aiding and abetting fraud.

During the trial, it was revealed that Riri-chan had a husband of Vietnamese nationality. She explained about her husband, saying, “I am still married, but I don’t know where he lives, what he does, or how to contact him,” and continued, “I met a Japanese businessman through a delivery health service, and he told me, ‘If you marry a Vietnamese man, I will give you money,’ and I agreed.”

A person familiar with the sale of family registers in Kabukicho, known as Seitaro (alias, 34), revealed the truth.

“When a foreigner marries a Japanese person to obtain a spouse visa, the first benefit is that there are no work restrictions. The second is that the requirements for naturalization or obtaining a permanent residency visa are eased. I’ve seen a few women who got married to foreign men for this purpose and received compensation. The going rate is around 3 to 5 million yen, but in Riri-chan’s case, I heard she received about 20 million yen.”

The reason Riri-chan was willing to go this far to get money was reportedly to lavish it on her host. In this city, where death, money, and sex swirl together, it may be that not only life but everything else is considered cheap.

 

Behind-the-scenes work of nailing busts

In Kabukicho, such acts of selling oneself are not uncommon. Aika (pseudonym, 24), a hosiery fanatic, says she was once told about a deal.

“I get a lot of bad deals. They want me to make a baby with a rich guy. A few weeks ago, it was popular to shoot in a house with mirrors. There were several girls playing with one guy with their hands and mouths, and it was easy because there were several girls and they didn’t have to do the real work.

The requirements for the girls they were looking for were that they had to be well-dressed and have hair on the bottom. Some girls even wore fake hair to the interview. I got 10,000 yen if I got naked at the interview, and it seems I got 70,000 to 80,000 yen if I proceeded to film. But then I heard a rumor that the person who filmed the illegal video had been arrested, and I remember being scared that I didn’t think it was that one.”

This type of filming is called video-related and carries a high risk of being exposed. On the other hand, the risk is low and the payoff is good for those with special propensities.

“One of my friends worked as an M-male in a hardcore SM brothel. She was meeting with customers who wanted to do things that were forbidden in the store, without going through the store. They would make them hit a nail in the bust, and for 300,000 yen or 500,000 yen, they could do whatever they wanted for a day. He laughed and said it was tough on the days when the enema went on and on. At the time, it was for the sake of the host who was in charge, so he was able to do it.” (23-year-old sex worker Mikoto, pseudonym).

An extension of these deals was the overseas migrant work. In particular, in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos, there were many cases in which the migrants had their passports and cell phones taken away and were unable to return to their home countries after going there.

Recently, these cases have significantly decreased, but dangerous offers still persist within the country. Fumika (pseudonym, 20) revealed her experience with one such offer.

 

“A friend introduced me to a gig offering ¥100,000 per session. In regular ‘papa-katsu’ (sugar daddy arrangements), the going rate is usually ¥30,000 to ¥50,000, so getting over ¥100,000 upfront is rare.

As soon as we gathered at the designated family restaurant, a rough-looking person took a photo of my ID. After they explained everything, I realized it was an illegal ‘aid worker’ (a type of escort service disguised as compensated dating).

That same day, I posed as a virgin and entertained a client for ¥200,000. Of course, I wasn’t actually a virgin, but I pretended to be. I said something like, ‘I used to play tennis, so maybe my hymen broke back then (sweat).’ It was easier than expected since I didn’t have to put much effort into pleasing the client.

The client seemed to be a regular, and the friend who referred me had also been with him. After it was over, we laughed and talked about how easy he was, like, ‘That guy wasn’t in much trouble, right?’ When multiple people or the same girl meet the same client, this kind of chatter happens behind the scenes (laughs).”

 

 Letter from a detention center

This example involved a fake virgin case, but when asking people in Kabukicho about their first experiences, stories emerge such as selling their first time to a client, sleeping with a client, or ending up with an older lover who became a freeloader. Despite having unpleasant memories, everyone seems to have made up their minds to cling to Kabukicho. What is this mysterious pull of the place?

During the course of this column series, I once received a letter from a “Toe-Yoko kid” in a detention center. He wrote about being kicked out of his family home as a teenager, surviving on day labor jobs or trial shifts at host clubs, and hanging out in Toe-Yoko.

“I didn’t have anything I wanted to do; I just wanted to have fun living with my friends,” he wrote. “When I get out, I want to go back to Toe-Yoko.”

Afterward, I sent letters to the detention center and correctional facilities across the country using the return address he provided, but all were returned undelivered. I lost track of him. Perhaps he’s facing additional charges and ongoing trials, or maybe he wasn’t prosecuted at all.

If he is serving time for the crime he mentioned, he’ll likely be released around next year. I wonder what Toe-Yoko will look like then. Not being able to continue this series until his release remains a small regret.

Thank you for reading over these past two years and nine months. As a Keio University student obsessed with hosts, I spent countless nights in Kabukicho, swapping out host after host. In the end, though, I never found true love!

Participated in the filming of the drama “Shinjuku Field Hospital” (Fuji Television Network),
Sasaki Chihuahua’s book “Host! Stand up! To Yoko! Overdose na Hito-tachi” (Kodansha) is now on sale!

From the November 1-8, 2024 issue of FRIDAY