MAP Forum

On a recent sweltering day in August, men were seen repeatedly walking back and forth along a street in a hotel neighborhood in Tokyo’s Kabukicho red-light district.

They were appraising a number of young women who stood at hotel entrances amid the temperatures hovering near 40 degrees.

News reports have indicated that some inbound visitors and other foreigners come here in search of women available for a price.

However, an Asahi Shimbun reporter had the impression that middle-aged and elderly Japanese men accounted for the majority of the potential johns who were talking to the women.

In 2016, France enacted a law to punish clients of prostitutes, which defines the sex sellers as victims to be protected and penalizes the sex customers.

Those who have paid for sex from individuals in vulnerable settings, such as minors, disabled or pregnant persons, face particularly severe punishments.

What, then, does Japan look like in the eyes of a citizen living under such a legal system?

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The reporter toured the Kabukicho district with Sebastien Brochot, a French specialist and trainer in the prevention of sexual violence, under the guidance of female activist Mirai Kisaragi.

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He was seen eyes wide open at the sight of women who fiddled with their smartphones as they stood, half in hiding, in the back of hotel entrances in Kabukicho.

“Oh, they are so very young!” he said.

Tears filled his eyes as he said: “The scene evokes the thought of my niece, who is 14.”