<figure id="attachment_456979" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456979" style="width: 1891px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d657919e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/64c79035e037266adf85f9facee77023.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456979" class="wp-caption-text">Marine Palace Mito,&#8221; with its castle-like exterior, was a large soap establishment boasting one of the largest number of rooms in Japan. The former ruins were extensively remodeled into a luxury hotel style at a cost of 1 billion yen, and the interior was said to be a national treasure. The photo was taken in the days of &#8220;Marine Blue Mito&#8221; (&#8217;24).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Sudden closing with a single line</span></h3>
<p> At 21:00 on January 30, all 21 branches of &#8220;Marine Group,&#8221; which operates soaplands throughout the archipelago, suddenly closed their doors. The LINE message sent to the enrolled cast members as a business communication stated that &#8220;financial difficulties&#8221; were the reason for the closure. The news of the sudden closure of all stores by a major group was immediately spread through social networking services, causing a tremor in the industry.</p>
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<p> The closure of 21 stores at once was unprecedented. Among them was the luxurious &#8220;Marine Palace Mito,&#8221; which cost a total of 1 billion yen to build. The store opened in May 2010 as &#8220;Marine Blue Mito&#8221; and later changed its name to &#8220;Marine Mito. It was the flagship store of the Marin Group, which began operating as &#8220;Marin Palace Mito Store&#8221; in July 2013.</p>
<p> Speaking of simultaneous closures of soap groups, there was the case of the &#8220;Orange Group,&#8221; which had eight stores in Yoshiwara, Tokyo, in 2012. This was due to a violation of the Anti-Prostitution Law (provision of space), and it is said that the authorities determined that the vested rights granted to the previous management company had been terminated due to the management merger. At that time, approximately 630 soap operators lost their jobs.</p>
<p> This time, too, many cast members and staff members lost their jobs and were left on the street. Former cast members are said to be desperately searching for new jobs. Since many of the properties have already been put up for sale, it is difficult at this point to resume business as a soap, and soaps are expected to disappear from Fukui Prefecture.</p>
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<p> The Marin Group bought up local soaps that were suffering from financial difficulties at the time of the COVID-19 crisis and opened affiliated soaps such as &#8220;Marine Blue Chiba Branch&#8221; and &#8220;Tulip Fukuhara Branch&#8221; at a furious pace in Fukui, Tsuchiura, Kumamoto, Yugoto, Himeji, and other areas. Witnessing such a scene, I thought to myself, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;In such a difficult time, it is amazing that a major company with capital is so powerful.</span></p>
<p> While most of the soaps these days have a subdued color scheme, the group&#8217;s stores stood out with their flashy color scheme, mixing primary colors such as red, blue, and yellow. The group&#8217;s stores also attracted the attention of customers with their &#8220;low price&#8221; claims, <span class="strongInContent">such as &#8220;Chiba&#8217;s lowest price: 9,900 yen for 40 minutes, total price&#8221; and &#8220;Ikebukuro&#8217;s lowest price: 10,000 yen for 40 minutes</span>.</p>
<p> With its &#8220;conspicuous appearance&#8221; and &#8220;low prices,&#8221; the group captured many customers and was considered by all to be &#8220;the furthest from closing. In the early &#8217;00s, the Shinjuku Gijo was the &#8220;furthest thing from closing.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A &quot;solo winner&quot; in Shinjuku&#39;s Kabukicho district in the early 2000s"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_456980" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456980" style="width: 1536px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0ffa0bde"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/130533de12ef9515a187e29fbd8c0d19.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456980" class="wp-caption-text">The teleclub &#8220;Ling Ling House,&#8221; which appeared in the late 1980s, created a huge boom with its low price of 800 yen per hour (Kabukicho, &#8217;01).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The company that operated it was &#8220;the king of the entertainment district.</span></h3>
<p> The Marin Group was operated by the Morishita Group, led by Keiichi Morishita, also known as &#8220;the king of the entertainment district. The group operates multiple businesses, including the teleclub &#8220;Rin Rin House,&#8221; the manga cafe &#8220;Mambo,&#8221; the private room video &#8220;Kintaro,&#8221; the entertainment show facility &#8220;Robot Restaurant&#8221; in Kabukicho, and the ramen restaurant &#8220;Hakata Fu Ryu. Its management style was feared as &#8220;from the cradle of night to the grave.</p>
<p> The Morishita Group was said to be the &#8220;sole winner&#8221; in Shinjuku&#8217;s Kabukicho district in the early 2000s. The Morishita Group had a system in place whereby customers caught at its free information centers were sent to its affiliated cabarets, brothels, hotels, video stores, ramen stores, and other establishments, and the Group collected most of the money that customers spent in the entertainment district.</p>
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<p> The Morishita Group&#8217;s business acumen was also demonstrated in the management of deli-help services: in 1999, the revised Entertainment Establishments Control Law was enacted, legalizing non-store sex establishments, but conventional Web advertising was not effective in attracting customers.</p>
<p> The company made a killing with a building that had an information desk on the first floor, a reception desk in the basement, and service rooms on the upper floors.</p>
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<p> However, this type of delicatessen was considered a storefront adult entertainment establishment, and in 2006 it was found to be in violation of the Entertainment Establishments Control Law (business in prohibited areas).</p>
<p> Morishita was arrested and indicted, and sentenced by the Tokyo District Court to six months in prison, five years suspended, a fine of 500,000 yen, and 70.65 million yen in additional forfeiture of illegal earnings. Morishita admitted all the charges and was made to promise to &#8220;completely withdraw his sex business from Kabukicho.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" He had been caught two days earlier."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_456981" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456981" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ea674512"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/aa58aef57ac6edf1f85f3882a285b398.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456981" class="wp-caption-text">Free information centers for sex services are regulated by ordinances in many areas because they are problematic from the viewpoint of sound upbringing of young people and sound community development. Photo shows a free information center in Kabukicho (&#8217;07).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> The Reason for Sudden Closure</span></h3>
<p> On January 28 of this year, about 20 years after it was first exposed, police conducted a raid on a Sendai City affiliate soap, Marin Senhime. It is said that women with accounts receivable from host clubs had been sent to this establishment. Although the Marin Group ostensibly sold &#8220;in-house recruitment without scouts,&#8221; the police believe that there was a &#8220;supply&#8221; from scout groups and others.</p>
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<p> Recently, the police have been exposing soap operators in order to prevent the expansion of scout groups that ply women by cutting off the receiving side. It is possible that &#8220;Marin Senhime&#8221; was also an investigation to force the police to close in on a criminal organization.</p>
<p> It was two days later that all 21 soap operators of the Marin Group were closed. By immediately closing all of the stores, they may have erased the reality of the business and eliminated the sites where the police could raid.</p>
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<p> Morishita is said to have isolated himself from the risk of arrest by becoming a &#8220;landlord,&#8221; owning the properties through the company he represents and renting them out as tenants to a subsidiary management company under a separate management structure.</p>
<p> However, the raid on January 28 showed that this was no longer the case. If he were arrested again, the entire group&#8217;s assets could be confiscated. Perhaps what Morishita feared was a return to the nightmare of 20 years ago: the confiscation of assets.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Reorganization of the industry is inevitable."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_456982" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456982" style="width: 1354px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d42d78db"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/4509855b5d0b95dde90d1ff36a0bee39.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456982" class="wp-caption-text">Robot Restaurant&#8221; in Kabukicho, which is said to have cost 10 billion yen in total. The restaurant was a hit with inbound customers with its flamboyant performance featuring giant robots and beautiful dancers. The restaurant reopened in October 2011 as &#8220;Samurai Restaurant&#8221; (&#8217;16).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> No longer safe even for the big players</span></h3>
<p> With so many soaps disappearing at the same time, a restructuring of the industry will be inevitable. The recent round of closures has added fuel to the growing concerns of sex workers due to the excessive number of seizures over the past few years.</p>
<p> It is still fresh in our minds that at the end of last year, a number of good soaps and health clubs, which used to be regarded as &#8220;winners&#8221; in the industry, were exposed as a result of scouting activities. From the viewpoint of the working cast members, it is becoming a myth that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;if you work for a major group, you are safe&#8221; or &#8220;if you work at a popular and well-known establishment, you will be safe</span>.</p>
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<p> As in general society, where large companies are restructuring one after another, the sex industry has entered an era where &#8220;you can no longer rely on organizations,&#8221; and it is expected that the &#8220;individualization of sex workers&#8221; will accelerate in the future.</p>
<p> More and more women will be selling their sexual services in more underground areas, such as stand-up sex, daddy-seeking using SNS and matching apps, and overseas migrant prostitution. Urafuki (women trading money and goods with customers without going through the establishment, also known as &#8220;direct sales&#8221;) at health clubs and deli-help services are also expected to increase.</p>
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<p> The more stringent the crackdown on sex services that operate in the gray zone, such as soaps, the more sex trafficking will go underground, the more public safety will deteriorate, and the more dangerous it will be for sex workers.</p>
<p> Recently, there have been calls for &#8220;decriminalization of prostitution,&#8221; but excessive regulation can restrict people&#8217;s free activities and hinder social development. It seems to me that modern politicians need to have the courage to &#8220;swallow both sides of the equation.</p>

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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Rare images of a soap shop that closed down in the past."></div>
<figure id="attachment_456983" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456983" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f80acb08"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/d8f6bf287f4ca27c2fbc17118c7fb063.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456983" class="wp-caption-text">The Orange Group in Yoshiwara, Tokyo, brought price destruction to Yoshiwara with its low price of 12,000 yen for a basic 50-minute session. It is said that the price was broken by the tipping off of competitors, which led to the exposé. The photo shows the very popular cheap soap &#8220;Orange Club&#8221; (2007).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_456984" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456984" style="width: 1536px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bbf27a55"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/8cf39392f25c3a05daa0da16c835b991.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456984" class="wp-caption-text"> Barbora Marine Blue&#8221; in Kabukicho. The former &#8220;Barbora&#8221; was a historical high-class establishment (&#8217;22).</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_456985" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456985" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8a4f214a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/f3683001947df0c7ea300548bb1de3fc.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456985" class="wp-caption-text"> Ikebukuro Marine Honten&#8221;. The signboard is so gaudy that it attracts the eye. It used to be a popular mat health club (2010).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_456986" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-456986" style="width: 1536px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6cb9e658"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/8e7dbb356ba7db59d10299ce5644ec21.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-456986" class="wp-caption-text"> Marine Blue Chiba Branch. It gained popularity by claiming to be the &#8220;cheapest in Chiba&#8221; (2011).</figcaption></figure>


 Akira Ikoma

 On January 31, the Marin Group, which operates soaplands nationwide, closed all of its stores. It was a sudden event, with only one message sent to employees the night before. What happened?

21 soap operators disappeared overnight&#8230; &#8220;Behind&#8221; the simultaneous closure of &#8220;Marin Group,&#8221; which had been gaining momentum at sunrise.

21 soap operators disappeared overnight… “Behind” the simultaneous closure of “Marin Group,” which had been gaining momentum at sunrise.

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