<figure id="attachment_248886" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5760px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-248886"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8a11bea2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/aflo_67185751.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-248886" class="wp-caption-text">More and more sex workers are heading from the city center to the countryside (Photo: Image) (Image: Afro)</figcaption></figure>
<p>Today, &#8220;dekasegi sex workers&#8221; are the backbone of the local sex industry. Not a few of the 350,000 sex workers in Japan are making a living by moving from one local brothel to another every few months. We will look at the daily lives of these &#8220;floating sex workers&#8221; in two parts.</p>
<p>In Japan, there is usually a sex establishment, including non-store type, in every municipality with a population of 100,000. The number of cities, wards, towns, and villages is about 300.</p>
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<p>Entertainment districts in tourist areas such as Okinawa Prefecture are popular places for sex workers to work, and many of them come here for sightseeing as well. During the season, there is a constant stream of customers, and on days off, they can play in the sea with its coral reefs. According to a man who runs a brothel in Naha City, more women who work at his store come from the interior of Okinawa than from the prefecture, depending on the season.</p>
<p>However, the popularity of the business means that competition is fierce. Therefore, even if you come to Okinawa because you cannot get nominations in the entertainment districts of cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, you will be exposed to the same competition and will not be able to earn money easily.</p>
<h2>A &#8220;sense of bargain&#8221; not found in the city</h2>
<p>The dekasegi sex workers discussed in this paper are different from those who migrate for sightseeing purposes. They consciously escape from the city and tourist areas and try to find their own place in the entertainment districts of more desolate towns.</p>
<p>They may live in towns that were once prosperous hot spring resorts but are now deserted outside of the season, or in towns that were once bustling with coal mines and harbors but now have many of their shopping streets shuttered.</p>
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<p>In these towns, relationships are closer, so local women do not often work in brothels. Therefore, there is room for women who can no longer work in the cities to flow here.</p>
<p>The stores provide dormitories to accommodate these women, says a woman in her 30s who has worked as a migrant sex worker for five years.</p>
<p><strong> Some sex establishments in urban areas such as Tokyo and Kanagawa also have dormitories, but the rent is about the same as renting an ordinary apartment, so it is not very economical. The store would not want to hire a girl who does not have a home.</strong></p>
<p><strong> However, local brothels are different. They have to accept girls who come from the city, and those girls are usually in need of a place to live for some reason. Therefore, it is normal for the store to prepare a dormitory and pay a percentage of the rent. Sometimes, pots, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. are included. In some stores, almost all girls who work there live in the dormitory.</strong></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Three unexpected types of brothel dormitories"></div>
<p>There are three main types of brothel dormitories.</p>
<p>1: Private rooms in apartments or condominiums.</p>
<p>2: A few people live together in a rented house or a large apartment.</p>
<p>3: An office of a delivery health service is also used as a dormitory.</p>
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<p>The first is a completely private dormitory. The store rents a number of apartments or condominiums in advance, which are then rented out.</p>
<p>The second type is a dormitory-style dormitory with multiple beds in a rented house or apartment. Cooking facilities and restrooms are shared.</p>
<p>In 3, for example, one room of a three-bedroom apartment is used as an office for a delivery health service, and the other room is a waiting room for women. The other room is a waiting room for women, and in the remaining room, several bunk beds are placed for sleeping.</p>
<h2>Major Problems with Sex Dormitories</h2>
<p>The woman continues, &#8220;Private rooms are the most expensive in terms of rent.</p>
<p><strong> Private rooms are the most expensive in terms of rent. Dormitories are cheaper, because the rent is divided by the number of people in the dormitory. What is unique is that you are not paid monthly, but daily. The cheapest is 1,000 yen per day, and the most expensive is about 3,000 yen, which is cheaper than a business hotel. Most of them are located in the immediate neighborhood of the store or office, and even if they are far away, they can be picked up and dropped off by the store&#8217;s car, so as long as you live in the dormitory, you don&#8217;t have to pay for transportation.</strong></p>
<p>However, this does not mean that there are no problems.</p>
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<p>If the dormitory is a house far from the downtown area, the girls are taken to the store by car when it opens and sent back to the dormitory when it closes. There is not even a convenience store around the dormitory, so the only thing they can do after returning home is to go to bed quickly or look at their smartphones.</p>
<p>In addition, the women who use the dormitories are responsible for cleaning them, but few of them are willing to do so because they do not intend to live there for a long time in the first place. It is common to find garbage scattered here and there, and in some dormitories, there are holes in the floor or rats living in the house.</p>
<p>There are also security issues.</p>
<p>As a rule, sex workers are paid in cash on a daily basis, but they are responsible for managing their personal belongings in the dormitory. Therefore, they are not allowed to take their wallets with them while showering, and sometimes they have to carry a carry case to go from the dormitory to the store every day. For these women, the contents of their carry-on cases are their entire wealth.</p>
<p>One of the women mentioned above stated the following.</p>
<p><strong> I feel that many of the girls who come to work in the local sex industry do not have a home to begin with. If they had a house to begin with, they wouldn&#8217;t want to live in the dormitories of local establishments, and even if they did, they would have to cancel the apartment they are living in and go through all kinds of trouble.</strong></p>
<p><strong> So, even if they come from the city, there are many girls who used to live in the city, or were kicked out of their boyfriend&#8217;s house and have nowhere to live, who jumped in because it is easy to get a job and a place to sleep.</strong><strong> They often jumped in because it was easy to get a job and a place to sleep.</strong></p>
<p><strong> I don&#8217;t mean to sound like I&#8217;m saying this, but there are many prostitutes who seem to be on the verge of homelessness. They are moving from one mistress to another, or staying at the house of a manager or scout. Men will easily let them stay over if it is in exchange for their bodies. That&#8217;s why there are so many prostitutes who are pre-homeless.</strong></p>
<p>One of the reasons for migrant workers is that &#8220;the competition is lower in rural areas. However, there are places in the city where they can work under lower conditions if they look for them. Nevertheless, the reason why these women choose to migrate is largely due to the housing problem. The details will be presented in Part 2.</p>
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<p><a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/248889"> Part 2: The Sad Background of &#8220;Dekasegi Sex Workers&#8221; Committing Crimes</a></p>
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 Afro

 Born in Tokyo in 1977. Nonfiction writer. Graduated from Nihon University College of Art. He has reported and written about culture, history, and medicine in Japan and abroad. His books include "Kichiku" no Ie - Wagakko wo Kajiru Oyasato Tachi" ("The House of 'Demons' - Parents Who Kill Their Children"), "43 Kichiku no Kyoi: In Depth in the Case of the Murder of a Student at Kawasaki Junior High School," "Rental Child," "Kinshin Homicide," and "Kakusa to Segregation no Shakai Chizu" ("Social Map of Disparity and Division").

 Kota Ishii

 An increasing number of sex workers are moving from the city center to the countryside. They move from one city to another every few months. They do not have a home. Many live in dormitories. Why do they prefer such a nomadic life? Nonfiction writer Kota Ishii delves deeper.

Confessions of a “Dekasegi Sex Worker” – The tragic reality of losing one’s way in the city and moving to the countryside

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