<figure id="attachment_465672" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-465672" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1a1bab57"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/025fa99aa461ea96bad77e3a6d91e099.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-465672" class="wp-caption-text">Soap district in Yoshiwara, Tokyo. The &#8220;University of Tokyo professor graft case,&#8221; which came to light in 1925, caused a stir. If the winds of public opinion increase and punishment of the buyers is legislated, the excuse of &#8220;free love&#8221; may crumble like a house of cards (in &#8217;24).</figcaption></figure>
<p> The movement to revise anti-prostitution laws began with the cry that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;it is unequal that only women should be punished</span>. How are countries around the world cracking down on sex trafficking? In this first installment of a series of articles by sex industry journalist Akira Ikoma, we examine how Japan should deal with sex trafficking based on examples from other countries. In the second part, he exposes the problems of the &#8220;Scandinavian model.</p>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-start"></div>
<p><a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/465640"> The &#8220;Nordic Model&#8221; is a revolutionary system that changes the structure of sex trafficking.</a></p>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-end"></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Negative Effects of the &#8220;Nordic Model</span></h3>
<p> There are many voices opposing the Nordic model, which punishes only the male &#8220;buyer. They say that it will lead to a decrease in income for sex workers who make a living from prostitution, and that the undergrounding of sex trafficking will put the people involved in the sex trade in greater danger.</p>
<p> In France, where the Law on Punishment of Prostitution came into effect in 2004, research confirms this.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> The number of clients decreased when prostitution became a crime. Sex workers&#8217; earnings declined, leading to further impoverishment. Troubled by their reduced income, sex workers try to get clients even if they have to push themselves. Their power to negotiate with clients weakened and, conversely, the position of clients strengthened.</p>
<p> Since the Law on Punishment of Prostitution punishes customers, many of the customers who &#8220;would be in trouble if they were arrested&#8221; have decreased. These are the &#8220;decent&#8221; customers who do not want their jobs, families, and other aspects of their lives destroyed by arrest. What remained were the so-called &#8220;shitty customers&#8221; who were violent or did not pay their bills well. In other words, a &#8220;deterioration of customer quality&#8221; similar to that which occurred in Japan during the COVID-19 crisis has occurred.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> Sex workers were forced to accept risky behavior. They are now required to over-serve or under-priced their services, and are more likely to be exposed to violence. However, sex workers who did not want to reduce their income tolerated unfavorable treatment from their clients, and exploitation never ceased.</p>
<p> Laws designed to protect sex workers have created a situation in which they are forced to accept negotiations that they would otherwise have refused.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The police are also dangerous."></div>
<div class="expapp-yahoo-paragraph-break"></div>
<figure id="attachment_465673" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-465673" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bf6fff74"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/6a2c3d23ab1caf1a246985bb26264f1c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-465673" class="wp-caption-text">The love hotel district at the north exit of Uguisudani Station, Tokyo. If the punishment for those who buy is clearly defined, sex trafficking between individuals using deli-helpers and social networking services could become a real target (&#8217;24).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Instead, it is no longer safe to work.</span></h3>
<p> In addition, in order to prevent customers from being arrested, they can no longer negotiate on the streets of the city, where they can be seen by the public. Hotels are no longer available, and clients now drive to out-of-the-way places, such as forests or harbors, to negotiate and perform sexual services.</p>
<p> Clients prefer to negotiate quickly online and no longer provide detailed information about themselves. They avoid playing in hotels and other public places and increasingly go to places that are more convenient for clients than places that are safe for sex workers. In order to earn an income in spite of this, they had to be corrupt in making their clients feel safe.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> In addition, the support services available to sex workers were so small that the amount of money they received was too little to live on. Because of the time gap between application and receipt of benefits, income was interrupted until they received the benefits, and they quickly became unable to make ends meet. In addition, the program is said to infringe on the freedom of the individual, for example, requiring a written pledge not to engage in prostitution.</p>
<p> There is more to the problem. It is illegal for two or more sex workers to work together in an indoor establishment as &#8220;maintaining a brothel,&#8221; and they cannot work safely.</p>
<p> The person who provides a place for prostitution is also subject to the crackdown, and if a sex worker conducts prostitution in his or her own home, the landlord of the apartment will also be charged. As a result, the sex worker is at risk of losing his or her place of residence due to eviction.</p>
<p> In addition, it is now more difficult for sex workers to receive medical care. Because they are considered victims, most of the assistance available to them is focused on counseling, and they are unable to receive assistance such as testing for sexually transmitted diseases, which is easily accessible.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> In addition, a large number of sex workers in Sweden and France are immigrants without permanent residence permits, which is grounds for deportation because prostitution is not a legal job. Hospitals are obliged to report suspected crimes to the police, and they cannot go to the hospital because they could be detained by the authorities.</p>
<p> The police became a danger to sex workers. This is because the police can use sex workers as a threat or stake out their homes or hotel rooms in order to catch buyers. As a result, sex workers, not male customers, are actually the target of the crackdown. It could be said that the criminalization of buyers also means that sex workers are seen as parties to a crime.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A film criticizing the &quot;Nordic model&quot;"></div>
<div class="expapp-yahoo-paragraph-break"></div>
<figure id="attachment_465674" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-465674" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6a2e5d04"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/017c62e0489c9f8350cdc49b22afe3ba.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-465674" class="wp-caption-text">The entertainment district of Susukino, Sapporo. It used to be the largest entertainment district in northern Japan, crowded with business travelers and tourists, but recently it is no longer as bustling as it used to be. If prostitution is decriminalized, there will be even fewer customers, and many storefront sex establishments may be forced to withdraw from the market (&#8217;19).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Are sex workers &#8220;inferior&#8221;?</span></h3>
<p> In countries with laws punishing prostitution, women who sell sex are &#8220;objects that must be rescued&#8221; and are considered &#8220;inferior to ordinary people. Therefore, in Sweden, simply because a woman is a &#8220;sex worker,&#8221; she is judged by the social welfare office to be an &#8220;inappropriate parent who is not responsible for raising her children&#8221; and is not entitled to parental rights. Even if there was nothing wrong with their parenting.</p>
<p> The film &#8220;Better Than a Whore,&#8221; produced in France in 2005, is a documentary about the case of a sex worker who lost custody of her child to her ex-husband due to this social norm, and was murdered by him in the process of fighting to get her child back.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> The government&#8217;s overbearing patternalism (paternalistic warmongering) of &#8220;the state will bail you out&#8221; and &#8220;the state will teach you morality,&#8221; excessive interference in the lives of citizens, and power run amok. This is a sad and angry film that reflects the darkness of Sweden, a social welfare powerhouse, and exposes the harmful effects of the Law on Punishment of Prostitution.</p>
<p> The film shows that the view of sex workers as &#8220;victims&#8221; or &#8220;people who have chosen a path of self-destruction&#8221; socially excludes and marginalizes them. It leads to forgiveness for the violence of the perpetrators. In the work, the killings occurred as a result of such a negative cycle.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> Perspectives on sex work <span class="strongInContent">such as &#8220;it is best to eliminate it&#8221; or &#8220;it is not a job,&#8221;</span> or the remedial approach that it <span class="strongInContent">is discrimination and violence against women and must be stopped</span>, are not only simplifying the problem of sex work. They encourage violence and unreasonable treatment of sex workers and make it difficult for them to claim victimization. The result is an ironic situation in which sex workers who need help are less likely to receive support. The problem is that there is a huge gap between the reality of sex workers and the reality of those who sell sex.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Japan should not adopt the Nordic model."></div>
<div class="expapp-yahoo-paragraph-break"></div>
<figure id="attachment_465675" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-465675" style="width: 2026px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4c2921c5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/80313d4bdc3c71faa0165906aaa35348.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-465675" class="wp-caption-text">A storefront health club in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. If the Scandinavian model is adopted, even sexual intercourse-like acts that are legal in Japan today under the Entertainment Establishments Control Law may fall under the crime of &#8220;prostitution&#8221; as sexual relations and be punished (&#8217;26).</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Should Japan adopt the &#8220;Nordic Model&#8221;?</span></h3>
<p> The Scandinavian model is clearly divided into two sides, depending on one&#8217;s view of sex trafficking. One direction that has emerged is the policy of Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, to <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;not support the Nordic model</span>.</p>
<p> Amnesty demands that governments <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;should protect, respect, and realize the rights of sex workers.</span></p>
<p> In Japan, some women&#8217;s groups insist on introducing the Nordic model. On the other hand, domestic sex worker support groups are vehemently opposed. From the standpoint of the sex workers&#8217; rights movement, the punishment of prostitutes that threatens the livelihood of the sex workers involved is unacceptable.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> The author <span class="strongInContent">feels that &#8220;Japan should not adopt the Nordic model</span>. It is unreasonable to say that <span class="strongInContent">all women who sell sex services are &#8220;victims&#8221; who should be helped</span>. I have been covering the sex industry for more than 27 years, and most of the prostitutes work diligently, considering sexual services as &#8220;work. Most of them were working hard with a positive attitude to &#8220;earn money.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent">The reason for this is because there are men who buy and women who sell.</span> The Scandinavian model, which <span class="strongInContent">says, &#8220;Men who buy are the reason women who sell appear, so we should eliminate men who buy.</span> It <span class="strongInContent">could also be</span> said that <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;where there are women who sell, there will be men who buy.</span></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> The prejudice against sex trafficking should also be removed. If prostitution is viewed simply as a one-sided power relationship, it may appear as if the &#8220;strong man&#8221; is using his power of money to overpower the &#8220;weak woman.</p>
<p> In reality, however, there is also the aspect of &#8220;men as the weak and unsatisfied&#8221; who pay women for sexual services. It is not necessarily the case that &#8220;men who buy = the strong = the aggressor, and women who sell = the weak = the victim. We must not forget that there are men who cannot have sex without buying (the sexually vulnerable).</p>
<p> The examples of countries that have implemented the Nordic model so far show that it will not solve all problems. We should not make decisions on the spur of the moment, letting our emotions get the better of us. It will be important to look carefully at reality, take time to consider it, and settle on the best form that will satisfy the majority of people.</p>

<p> References.</p>
<p> Sex Work Studies, SWASH (ed.), Nippon Hyoronsha, 2018.</p>
<p> The Original Theory of Sexual Self-Determination,&#8221; Shinji Miyadai, Yukiko Hayami, Naoei Yamamoto, Yoshiko Miya, Seiji Fujii, Hiroaki Hirano, Noriko Kanazumi, Yuji Hirano, Kinokuniya Shoten, 1998.</p>
<p> Why We Shouldn&#8217;t Kill People,&#8221; Itsuro Obama, PHP Research Institute, 2014.</p>
<p> In addition, numerous other books and online media were referenced.</p>


 Akira Ikoma

 In this first installment of a series of articles by sex industry journalist Akira Ikoma, we examine how Japan should regulate prostitution, based on examples of sex trafficking regulations in countries around the world. In the second part, he explains the "negative aspects" of the "Scandinavian model," which has been praised as "groundbreaking.

The Ironic Reality of the “Nordic Model,” Which Was Supposed to Save Women, but Instead Caused a Quagmire

Access Ranking