Welcome to Tokyo: Asia’s new sex tourism capital?

In a grim mirror of Japan’s economic decline, the sex trade is drawing in foreign men and trapping local women in a cycle of desperation

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A woman looks out at the Tokyo skyline. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 17 Nov 2024Updated: 8:37am, 18 Nov 2024

In the golden years of Japan’s economic boom, its men would venture to foreign shores, seeking the thrill of illicit encounters offered by women from poorer nations. But today, the tables have turned, with foreign men now flocking to Tokyo for “sex tourism” as the yen weakens and poverty rises.

Yoshihide Tanaka, secretary general of the Liaison Council Protecting Youths (Seiboren), painted a grim picture of the current landscape.

“Japan has become a poor country,” he told This Week in Asia at the organisation’s offices. Nearby, in a park that’s become synonymous with the city’s sex trade, young women wait for customers before the sun has even set.

Tanaka’s organisation noticed an increasing number of foreigners frequenting the park as soon as pandemic-era travel restrictions were dropped.

“But now we are seeing a lot more foreign men,” he said. “They come from many countries. They are white, Asian, black – but the majority are Chinese.”

An older man approaches a woman near Okubo Park in Tokyo, presumably to solicit sexual services. Photo: Eric Fior

This influx has coincided with a troubling rise in teenagers and women in their early twenties turning to the sex industry to survive, Tanaka said, alongside an alarming increase in violence.