Japan moves for the first time to criminalize paying for sex

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16319839

37 Comments

  1. inb4 patrons will need to buy “gifts” which happen to be priced exactly like the services did and give it to the sex workers, who in turn provide sex and then later “sell” the gift for the same amount of money. Hey, nobody paid for the sex itself, it was all perfectly legal!

    If pachinko parlors figured it out how to avoid anti-gambling laws, no way brothels won’t avoid this one.

  2. To my understanding after reading, their focus is on street workers and solicitation, focusing on the discrepancy on how there’s only punishment/fines for the s.workers, not the customer. Surprising that the customer isnt fined… Which is what they are addressing. Nothing about closed door establishments or health delivery… Which is more the focus on *Shinjuku*

  3. Damage-Classic on

    Criminalizing sex work does nothing but harm sex workers. It does not stop sex work because it doesn’t fix the systemic issues that cause people to turn to sex work. Criminalizing sex work creates a cycle of financial punishment on an already impoverished demographic and adds a criminal record to their difficulties of finding well paying employment outside of the sex work industry. This reduces any chance they had of leaving the industry instead of acting as a motivator. It also can cause sex workers to make riskier decisions during work because they have less time to gauge their own personal safety when they’re afraid of being arrested or losing the only client they’ve had for the day. Also, criminalizing sex work often creates laws that punish sex workers for working together by calling a work place or home with two or more sex workers a brothel. This removes even more control and safety from the sex workers hands.

    In relation to sex work, we often hear the question, “how can we stop our daughters from becoming sex workers?” I think we should reframe the question as, “if my daughter was a sex worker, how would I want her to be treated?”

  4. Congrats to japan for creating a new black marked. Instead of regulated you now get more trafficked persons to “sell” their bodies.

  5. relevant__comment on

    In 2026 we all should be looking at ways to regulate, legalize, educate, and enforce. We’re way too advanced as a civilization to be wasting time trying to dance around the subject.

    Criminalizing this will do nothing but make the underground kingpins and sex traffickers more powerful. Not to mention the continued spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

  6. >In an extraordinary Diet session last autumn, the discussion turned to the lack of a provision in the anti-prostitution law to punish the “buying side,” leading to a series of calls for legal reform, with comments such as, “There is a distorted structure where only women who are forced into selling sex are arrested.”

    >In response, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said, “Taking into account recent social conditions, we will conduct the necessary review on the state of regulations related to prostitution.”

    Sorta feels like leaning into the problem rather than the solution if they just want to increase punishment while not addressing social equity.

  7. Paying for Vaginal sex is already illegal in Japan and there are ways to circumvent the ban (also how will they control that).

  8. …why? People aren’t going to stop (especially the people passing the laws) and it’ll force it underground putting the health and lives of workers at risk…thus putting the general population at risk.

  9. Was in a Japanese bar a couple days ago and got charged a chat fee for talking to the barman, criminalise that too.

  10. AmatureProgrammer on

    Pretty sure they are trying to get dudes to now seek a partner instead of sex or porn.

  11. Are they actually fucking stupid? Literally all data ever gathered shows legal sex work results in less rape and sexual violence. This was something Japan got right a long time ago, where is this pressure to change the law actually coming from?

  12. Kind_Commission_427 on

    Tea-drinking companions, “tea” or “taking tea” (e.g., in *Enjo-kosai* or “compensated dating”) is a euphemism for a paid meeting that may or may not lead to sexual activity

  13. Ah yeah. Some criminal fuckheads paid for sex with minors, so let’s ban paid sex adults with adults.

    What will happen to alcohol industry if they found a 12-year drink sake?

    Kids safety is not negotiable, but using kids safety for banning whatever adult stuff for adults is dumb and amoral