The 1966 Entertainment Law Revision That First Targeted Japan’s Sex Businesses

Since its enactment in 1948, the Entertainment Business Control Law (Fūeihō) has been revised no fewer than 38 times up to the present day. Regulations have shifted in response to changing times and social needs, with the industry repeatedly forced to attempt reforms for its survival. In this serialized feature, sex industry journalist Akira Ikoma traces that history, titled “The Revision History of the Fūeihō.”

This is the second part of the first installment, covering the period from the law’s birth through the 1970s.

[Part 1] In the era of the red-light (akasen) and blue-light (aosen) districts, the law only applied to businesses such as hostess dining, dance halls, and gambling.

Even customer service conducted across the counter was classified as entertainment business

In 1964, five years after the previous major revision, the Adult Entertainment Business Control Law (Fūeihō) was amended once again, just before the Tokyo Olympics, when various cleanup campaigns were unfolding in urban areas. In the provisions regulating cabarets, tea houses, restaurants, and cafés, the phrase “entertaining customers at the tables” was altered—the words “at the tables” were deleted.

Up until then, it had been possible to evade regulation by arguing that “as long as there was a counter in between, the act of entertaining did not fall under the scope of the Fūeihō.” There had been room to interpret it as not constituting “entertainment at the customer’s table.” However, with the amendment to the provision, enforcement became possible regardless of the establishment’s layout. As a result, even service conducted across the counter was now classified as an act of entertainment.

I have often heard this, but the long-standing belief in nightlife districts that “service across a counter does not violate the Fūeihō” was simply a leftover from the past. From 1964 onward, it had already become an urban legend.

The purpose of the 1964 revision was to enable authorities to crack down on hospitality businesses, such as cabarets, that were allowing minors to drink or work. The situation had grown so severe that boys under 18 were drinking in entertainment districts, while girls were working in bars. Even after the 1959 amendment five years earlier, the problem of juvenile delinquency late at night had not improved—in fact, it had become more serious. The year after the 1964 revision, police nationwide began cracking down on late-night movie theaters, on the grounds that “all-night shows are breeding grounds for juvenile delinquency.”

As a bit of trivia about the Fūeihō, the 1964 implementation standards (criteria set by local ordinances) included clauses intended to increase the visibility inside business establishments. For example: “Do not install fixtures that obstruct the view inside customer rooms” and “Do not install locks on customer rooms.” Following these standards, each prefecture set its own equipment requirements.

In municipalities such as Tokyo and Saitama, ordinances mandated the “Installation of visibility windows”. This is why the doors of present-day storefront health parlors in Shinjuku have small windows. Some even use these windows for magic mirror customer selection, showing the industry’s resourcefulness in turning restrictions into business opportunities.

Furthermore, when the author once visited a long-established storefront health parlor in Hiroshima City and a soapland in Taneichi (now Hirono), Iwate Prefecture, the entrances to private rooms were not doors but curtains—likely also a result of such ordinances.

The 1966 revision that brought sexual entertainment under regulation

The period often referred to as the “Turning point for sexual entertainment” was the late 1960s, when new forms of sexual services—such as the expansion of Turkish baths, which became the new red-light districts, and the proliferation of pink salons—swept the scene. During this time, multiple proposals were submitted to the Diet to amend the Anti-Prostitution Law to target simple prostitution, but strong opposition, citing conflicts with freedom of occupation, prevented them from passing. Instead, amendments to the Fūeihō were enacted to regulate Turkish baths.

The increase of Turkish baths and nude studios (places where women posed naked for photography or drawing models) had become a concern several years before the Tokyo Olympics. The 1966 amendment explicitly brought these two establishments, along with strip theaters, under police regulation.

Until then, these three types of businesses were not considered sexual entertainment and fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, which dealt with hygiene regulations. Oversight of public morals was difficult, as local health office staff could inspect water quality but had no clear way to address prostitution occurring within the establishments.

However, after the abolition of the red-light districts in 1958, Turkish baths began offering intensive sexual services, which became a target for regulation. The amendment added private-room bathhouse operations to the scope of the Fūeihō, and it was at this time that Turkish baths were officially classified as private-room bathhouse operations.

At the time of the amendment, there were reportedly over 200 nude studios nationwide. Strip theaters were declining, halving from just over 500 three years earlier to around 250, but their content had become more extreme, resulting in many arrests under the public obscenity law.

About a year before the amendment, Turkish bath openings had caused local disputes over location. Residents in areas such as Kichijoji, Tabata, and Nakano in Tokyo protested against new openings. Even in Nagatacho, near the Prime Minister’s Office, permit applications sparked uproar, reportedly angering then-Prime Minister Eisaku Satō. These developments accelerated the push to amend the Fūeihō.

Restrictions on Where Turkish Baths Could Be Established

The content of the amendment established a definition for private-room bathhouse business within the Entertainment Business Act, restricted the areas where such businesses could operate, and allowed the Public Safety Commission to order business suspensions. However, the practice of prostitution at the discretion of women within Turkish baths was tacitly tolerated. The revised Entertainment Business Act left many loopholes for businesses involved in prostitution, similar to the Anti-Prostitution Law.

Under this amendment, it became prohibited to open new Turkish baths within a 200-meter radius of schools, libraries, and child welfare facilities. In addition, prefectural governments could, through ordinances, designate other facilities where it was “necessary to prevent actions that harm public morals in the surrounding area,” such as hospitals, parks, and shrines/temples. The police aimed to prevent illicit businesses from spreading outside designated areas, ensuring that businesses and women involved in prostitution would not disperse.

Using facilities frequented by children, women, and the elderly—so-called protected facilities—as a shield to create prohibited zones for entertainment and sex-related businesses was a method already seen before the war. By using schools and hospitals as a shield to build invisible walls, authorities aimed to prevent social evils from spilling out into public spaces. This can be seen as a continuation, in altered form, of the concentrated prostitution system that had existed since the Edo period.

In some prefectures that regulated the establishment of new Turkish baths—such as Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, and Toyama—the entire prefecture was not banned because it was feared this would violate constitutional freedom of occupation. Instead, remote mountain areas and the tips of peninsulas without electricity were designated as exclusion zones. This explains why, historically, there was a solitary soapland located in a remote area near the border of Iwate and Aomori prefectures.

Limitations of Containing Social Evils in One Place

By the 1970s, the increase in amateur couples began to change the approach to regulation. Around this time, the rise of motorization led to a surge in roadside lodging facilities—motels—where garages were connected to private rooms. While motels were originally intended for travelers, in Japan they were often used as love hotels. They also frequently became sites for crimes such as underage prostitution.

In addition to the fact that many users were couples, the large mirrors and specialized beds in these rooms were considered problematic from a moral standpoint. As a result, the 1972 revision added motels to the list of regulated businesses and designated areas where their operation was prohibited. This amendment was necessary because the Hotel Business Act could no longer adequately address the situation.

The proliferation of motels, which could open almost anywhere, highlighted the limits of spatially isolating social evils. This revision served as a prelude to the eventual collapse of the concentrated prostitution system that had existed since the Edo period.

From its inception to the revisions of the 1970s, the constant theme in the Entertainment Business Act was the maintenance of the concentrated prostitution system. At that time, outcall-style establishments included call girls and guide clubs (initially attracting customers via pink flyers, later renamed “date clubs”), but they had not yet become the mainstream of the industry like today’s delivery health (deriheru) services. The revisions of this era can be seen as measures to preserve public order and security by maintaining the concentrated prostitution system. Even today, offices of delivery health services sometimes cause friction with local residents, showing how effective the system of isolating sex work from general society once was.

References

Nagai, Yoshikazu. Teihon Fuzoku Eigyō Torishimari. Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 2015.

Shimokawa, Kōshi (ed.). Seifuzoku Shinenpyō: Shōwa [Sengo] Hen. Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 2007.

Shirakawa, Mitsuru. Shōwa Heisei Nippon Seifuzoku-shi. Bōkōsha, 2007.

Fujino, Yutaka. Sei no Kokka Kanri. Fuji Shuppan, 2001.

Ōhibata, Sumio. Kingen-dai Nihon no Keisatsu to Kokka/Chiiki. Nihon Hyōronsha, 2024.

Additional references include numerous books and online sources.