How to sell sex in Japan without falling foul of the 'law'
One of the most perplexing aspects of the Japanese netherworld is why so many sexual services can be performed when prostitution is officially outlawed.
Examining why intercourse is permitted at soaplands and not "fashion health" establishments, where oral or digital ministrations are the norm, Spa! (3/18) explains it all has to do with how the bubbles blow.
Even though the Prostitution Prevention Law banned the sale of sex in 1958, the legislation is filled with loopholes (it was, after all, enacted on April Fools Day) and soaplands are basically brothels, though not officially so in the legal sense. They're staffed by women referred to in Japanese as awajo, a rough translation of which could be "bubble birds." And it's how these bubbles blow their clients that determines whether they're skirting the rules.
"Legally, the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law (Fuzoku Law) defines soaplands as being 'bathhouse operators who have set up private rooms where members of the different sexes make come in contact,' while fashion health places are defined as being 'businesses where private rooms have been set up where the different sexes come in contact and reactions made toward the customer's sexual curiosity,'" lawyer Yukio Yama****a tells Spa! "Theoretically, the law gives a lot more scope to the fashion health industry to provide sexual services."
The reality, however, is completely different, with coital sex strictly avoided in the fashion health business. Adult entertainment industry writer Sansuke Sasuga explains why.
"The soapland operators' stance is that they are lending out rooms to the awajo and they have no idea what goes on in those rooms. That's the argument they have to keep the business clean on the surface," Sasuga tells Spa! "Any intercourse that occurs is purely and simply an agreement made freely between the customer and awajo. The operators have nothing to do with it."
Should the soapland operators get involved in the deals, they would be encouraging prostitution and liable for prosecution.
"Say, for instance, a woman tried to sleep over in the room she uses at a soapland. There is no way the operator would allow it," Sasuga tells Spa! "Soaplands only charge a fee for entering the bathhouse and the money for (sexual) services goes directly to the girl performing it. Women paying for the lubricant and beverages made available in the rooms works on the same precept: it allows the operators to appear as though they are not involved in a sexual transaction."
By Ryann Connell
