Japan vice club victim tells of being tricked into sex work in Macau: 'it's a trap'

Yu is nervous. She tugs at her hair constantly and adjusts her mask to cover as much of her face as possible. As she displays dozens of credit cards bound with elastic bands and photocopies of bar bills showing eye-watering amounts, her movements are twitchy.

And Yu, who did not want to give her real name, has good reason to be fearful; she is in the neon-lit streets of Tokyo's Kabukicho nightlife district, a couple of hundred metres from a host club where she still owes a quick-talking host 15 million yen (US$100,000), with yakuza members who control much of the city's vice "industry" never far away.

It was these people who forced Yu into prostitution to pay off debts that she ran up in her favourite host club, ultimately sending her to work in Macau. She has no desire to bump into them again, as they will inevitably ask her where the money is.

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While Yu is trying to turn her life around, many other young women in Kabukicho face similarly dire situations, trapped in a cycle of debt and exploitation that has largely been ignored by the authorities and society.

Yu was interviewed for this article in the offices of the Liaison Council Parents Protecting Youths (Seiboren), the organisation she had turned to for help. Directly outside a ground-floor cafe where young women are given hot drinks and receive advice from Seiboren's counsellors is Okubo Park. As the sun goes down, girls in short skirts who appear to be little more than teenagers lean on the park's railings, waiting to be approached by potential customers.

For Yu, the spiral began on January 6, 2022, when she first entered one of the most famous host clubs in Kabukicho.

"I had been watching videos of him [the club's most popular host] on YouTube for two years before I got up enough courage to go there in person," said Yu, who was working as a veterinary assistant in southern Japan at the time. "He was my idol. I sent him messages on Instagram, and then I finally went to the club."

Charmed by the host, she went three times within a week, arriving when the club opened at 6.30pm and staying until it closed at 1am. Her chosen host talked her into splashing out 100,000 yen (US$667) on a bottle of champagne, which he claimed he was getting for half price, and she went on a dohan, or customer, date with him to a karaoke bar.

By the end of the month, the bill that Yu had racked up at the bar soared, but she convinced herself that the host was in love with her. The following month, the host suggested that she start work in a "soapland", a type of bathhouse that is effectively a brothel.

Yu refused, but the host gradually wore her down as her bill continued to climb. By April, it had reached 10 million yen (US$66,700) and she'd reached the limit on her credit cards. The host warned her she no longer had a choice.

"He told me that I had to pay off the debt and that I should go to Macau to pay it quicker," she said. "I didn't want to go, and I told him, but he shouted and threatened me. He forced me to contact the agent and I went."

Yu eventually went to Macau twice and was met by an "agent" each time. She was taken to a hotel that had a "soapland" attached. She worked eight hours a day, but never saw any of the money that she earned.

"I fell in love with that host, and he made me do that," she said. "He told me he cared [for me] and he brainwashed me into doing whatever he wanted. And if I refused, he shouted and threatened me with violence. I had no one to turn to for help.

"Now, I'm angry," she said.

With the help of Seiboren and a pro-bono lawyer, she has submitted a letter to the host requesting that he cancel her debt to the club and return the money that she has already paid. The host has supposedly agreed to do so.

Yu, however, is not too hopeful about recovering her money. The club's management has said it cannot be held legally responsible because it was only providing a place for people to meet, and the hosts are freelance workers and not its employees.

Hidemori Gen, a member of the Seiboren board, said Yu's tale was distressingly commonplace in a district of around 1,000 host clubs and 20,000 hosts.

"In the last six months, there have been dozens of girls trafficked abroad for sex," he said. "We only opened the cafe six months ago, so that is the number that we have heard about. Before that, the girls were afraid to talk, so we have no way of knowing the real figure."

"It is only now that the scale of the problem is becoming apparent," he added.

Seiboren's activism had finally encouraged the police to do more, although domestic laws covering the sex industry were full of loopholes and poorly enforced, Gen said. The Tokyo government also turned a blind eye to what went on outside its imposing city hall. Officials claimed many of the women involved in sex work were from outside Tokyo and were therefore not their responsibility, Gen added.

The domestic media was also complicit in failing to talk about the abuse, Gen said. The media said if a woman chose to sell her body, then it was a "personal problem", the 68-year-old added with a shrug.

"The host bars are free for women to go in, they order one drink, and it starts," he said. "It's a trap and from the first time they go in, it's over for them. They are victims, and every business in Kabukicho just eats girls alive."

Gen, who has two daughters, has lost count of the number of tearful parents who have come to him asking for help to trace a missing daughter or to extricate a young woman from a huge debt. But there is only so much he can do on a shoestring and with little help from the authorities.

Yu's case is a partial win for Seiboren. While she still works in a "soapland" part-time, she is also working for a pet company. And she is waiting for the host to pay her back millions of yen.

"He destroyed my life. I was in love with him. He has promised to pay me back. But he still has a key to my flat and I cannot afford to move. I am frightened."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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