- Shibuya, in Japan's capital, is a magnet to youth. But
many fear their children falling victim to its seedier side.
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- In the runaway Japanese bestseller Ayu no Monogatari
(Ayu's Story), the eponymous young hero trades the hated world of strait-laced
teachers and semi-detached parents for life as a teenage prostitute, servicing
middle-aged men in cheap love hotels.
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- At 1.2 million copies sold and counting, the novel has
clearly struck a chord with Japan's youth, even as most adults react with
horror to its graphic depiction of a Tokyo underworld of predatory older
males and prematurely sexually aware school-girls. The trouble, parents
say, is that the novel is too close to home for comfort.
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- The story, and the purpose-built youth mecca of Shibuya,
where much of it is set, encapsulates their deepest fears about modern
Japanese urban life and its effect on their children.
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- A swarming district of fashion boutiques, restaurants
and clubs built around the western hub of Tokyo's major train lines, Shibuya
draws millions of youngsters every year, who come to shop, eat and play.
Lingerie and cosmetics for pre-pubescents are worrying enough for many
parents, but the surrounding district is infested with hundreds of massage
parlours, flesh joints and porn companies, part of a booming sex industry
that is always hungry for young flesh.
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- Shibuya is also known for so-called enjo kosai, or compensated
dating, a murky form of prostitution arranged between older men and school-girls
who are looking for extra pocket-money. For youngsters, Shibuya offers
all that money can buy and the dubious means to get it.
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- "I worry so much about my kids going there,"
says Naoko Shimoda, a mother of three teenage children. "I've tried
to tell them to be careful and not to do anything stupid, but I can't stop
them going if they want to. It would just make them more curious."
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- Shibuya's volatile mix of consumerism, youth and sex
has been brewing minor scandals for years, but it took a 29-year-old paedophile,
Kotaro Yoshisato, finally to cause a storm that made the nation's front
pages. Yoshisato had been using school scouts to recruit children in Shibuya
for months when he persuaded four primary school-girls last summer to take
a taxi ride to his flat by telling them they could earn extra money.
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- When police broke into the flat four days later they
found the terrified girls in a room next to the body of Yoshisato, who
had committed suicide. They also found lists of paedophile clients and
schoolgirl prostitutes, many of primary-school age. Yoshisato's business
was lucrative. Police said he had millions of yen in bank accounts and
two Ferraris. He paid his huge hotels bills in cash.
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- The news that girls as young as 12 were being targeted
for sex work in the heart of the world's largest metropolis led to much
earnest media hang-wringing and pledges to follow the example set by New
York City when it cleaned up the Times Square area.
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- But a stroll around Shibuya station today shows it is
still very much business as usual. Young women are still likely to be propositioned
for everything from hostess work to being photographed in their underwear.
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- Posters offer cash to amateur adult video actresses,
young women hand out copies of magazines advertising lucrative jobs in
the sex industry, and scouts hover like hawks, preying on the gullible,
the curious and the greedy. Usually recognisable thanks to their perma-tans
and designer clothes, the male scouts can instantly size up their female
prey for their sexual marketability.
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- "We aim for women around 18 to 20 and rank them
A to D, for beautiful to ugly, and S for saiko (best)," says 20-year-old
Kenichi Sato, who scouts for a strip club. "I'm on a commission. When
I deliver the girls to the club, and provided they stay for a set time,
I get paid ·40,000 to ·50,000 [£195 to £245]."
The scouts have divided the area for years, with those working for yakuza-related
businesses (organised crime), often adult video, hogging the square closest
to Shibuya station and others on assignment for kabukura (cabaret) clubs,
magazines and other smaller outlets plying their trade elsewhere.
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- Recently, female scouts, such as those employed by Yoshisato,
have also started working the area. Most girls between the ages of 15 and
30, and some even younger, who walk out of Shibuya station, have heard
a scout's slick patter.
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- "If you're a young girl, even a fat, ugly one, the
scouts will bug you," 19-year-old Emi Ishii says. "First they
ask if you have any money, then they tell you there's an easy way of getting
some. If you stop, they'll explain as much as they can without giving details.
Then you're brought for an interview and they slowly tell you what the
job involves. There are plenty of girls from the country who are flattered
by the attention and go along with it out of curiosity."
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- Over the years, thousands of young women have entered
the sex industry after a trip to Shibuya. Maria Yumeno arrived in Tokyo
10 years ago from distant Yamaguchi prefecture and accepted an offer to
go for a "modelling audition". Now a porn-industry veteran who
has performed in more than 60 adult films, she says she can still remember
how she was recruited. "I was penniless and every time I was in Shibuya
these guys would tell me I could make good money, so I went along,"
she says. "First they ask if you'll model, then whether you'll take
your clothes off, and it goes on from there."
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- Tomomi Sawaguchi, from Hiroshima, was also recruited
in Shibuya to work in a strip-joint. "I kept telling myself I'd back
out, but I found myself terrified on a stage within weeks, taking my clothes
off. I don't blame anyone but myself because you can earn a lot more than
working in an office, but you sometimes see girls who are totally lost
and unhappy who fall into this business."
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- What makes the Shibuya scene especially disturbing is
the curiously laissez-faire approach of the authorities. Watching over
the square in front of the station are three policemen who rarely venture
outside their box. Can they not intervene? "The scouts have to stay
within the law," one policeman who declined to be identified says.
"They cannot proposition underage girls and they are not allowed use
physical force such as grabbing or pushing. Unless they break the rules
there's nothing we can do."
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- The scouts are well aware of the limits of the law. One,
who gave his name as Sekiguchi, says the police have never given him any
trouble. "As long as I obey the rules; no touching or harassing, and
stick to legal age; no high-school girls." But he admits: "There
are guys who are trying to stop younger girls, but they're careful not
to do anything when police are around."
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- The Yoshisato case did galvanise city authorities enough
to put in a squad of special officers, but many people see the measure
as inadequate. Misao Hanazaki, who runs a haven for former sex workers
in nearby Chiba prefecture, cannot understand why something isn't done.
"The authorities let the groups behind the scouts have a free hand.
The police make some efforts during the summer and spring holidays to catch
young runaways, but do nothing."
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- Some observers say the bigger problem is the widespread
acceptance that smut for sale enjoys in Japan, where the size of the sex
industry was estimated by Takashi Kadokura, an economist, at a staggering
·2,370bn (£11.5bn). "The entertainment industry is huge
and it's fundamental," Sally Cameron, a UN researcher says. "The
government is not interested in changing that or in creating the legal
infrastructure to fight it."
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- Campaigners are trying to change this, but girls such
as 17-year-old Aki Sakaguchi, who has been propositioned many times by
scouts, continue to flock to Shibuya. "I ignore them but some of my
friends have taken jobs in clubs after being scouted," she says. "To
be honest, it's tempting."
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=495094
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