More on the Kabukicho Clean-Up

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Saitama - Police cracking the whip on illicit sex trade
Tired of the seemingly never-ending battle to put an end to Saitama Prefecture's illegal sex industry, prefectural police here are now going after landlords who rent their premises to crooked sex shops. Under a prefectural ordinance, sex-related businesses are permitted to open their doors in only two districts--sections of Omiya Ward in Saitama city and Nishi-Kawaguchi in outlying Kawaguchi city. But according to police, as of the end of September about 290 sex shops were operating outside the boundaries, despite 67 related arrests for violating the adult entertainment business law.

Police officials say for every operator forced to close, there is another waiting to open, a fact confirmed by a real estate agent based in Nishi-Kawaguchi, the prefecture's largest entertainment district. "Most of those who close their shops soon start another illegal one as there is really no other job to do in such night-time districts," says the agent. The only way to stop the shops bouncing back, say police, is to ensure landlords with property in the banned areas stop leasing to sex industry businesses. Those who do, risk being held on suspicion of aiding illegal business.

Until now, landlords have largely been able to plead ignorance about their tenants by leasing through a string of subletting agreements, intermediated via several real estate agencies. But police now say such excuses will no longer be accepted. As proof, police on Oct. 7 sent papers to prosecutors on a building owner in Nishi-Kawaguchi for aiding an illegal business. It was the first time prefectural police had done so for that offense. Police officials said the owner had signed a covenant saying he would not lease to sex shops after four of his tenants had been arrested since 2001 for violating the adult entertainment business law. But in June, he contracted with another outlawed business. "I knew the district banned sex shops. But I was unable to find a tenant for two years and I thought I could earn the rent if I pretended I didn't know (the shop was illegal)," police quoted the owner as saying.

Real estate agencies, too, are not without liability, say police, who are warning that businesses who help oversee rental agreements for the illegal shops also face having charges brought against them. Tetsuma Yamada, an editor with Naitai Group, which publishes magazines offering information on Tokyo's adult entertainment shops, says the police are moving in the right direction. "Shops that violate the law deserve to get sacked by police. In order to recover thriving entertainment spots, those in the sex business need to stick to the minimum rules," says the 51-year-old. Shoichiro Yukawa, 64, chairman of a Kawaguchi-based council organized to promote a safer city, agrees. He says Nishi-Kawaguchi, with its many illegal sex-related businesses, is a hotbed for crime organizations and drug dealers. "Drastic measures by the city and prefectural governments are critical," he says.

[Mulboyne]

This is in Fukuoka which is going against Tokyo for the right to bid for the Olympics. Interesting that both cities are trying to cut off the supply of legal services to illegal industries.

Mainichi: Police crackdown on adult adverts proving effective in Fukuoka
A police crackdown on advertisements for adult entertainment businesses has led to a significant decrease in the number of adverts being posted in Fukuoka...Police officials said that as of the end of November last year, more than 570 people had been apprehended under the ordinance. Moreover, the number of confiscated adverts fell to one-ninth of initial levels...At the end of last year, police made their first arrest of a printing dealer who produced adult-business adverts.
...Since the municipal ordinance was established in March 2003, prefectural police and city officials have patrolled main entertainment districts twice a day, removing the adverts. At first the adverts were not only placed along roads and in telephone boxes, but also on building walls and other locations, and up to 19,000 were removed a day. However, the number of adverts that were removed fell to an average of about 6,700 a day in November 2004, and 2,100 a day in November 2005.

[Mulboyne]

what's the status of the investigation of that fire that happened there almost exactly three years ago?

Kyodo via Crisscross: Y800 mil in compensation paid to families over Kabukicho fire

The owner and operator of a building in Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district where 44 people died in a fire in 2001 have agreed to offer a total of 800 million yen in compensation to relatives of 33 victims who filed a damages suit, sources close to the case said Tuesday. The settlement was reached between all the plaintiffs and Kurume Kosan, the company which managed the four-story building, Shigeo Segawa, 64, the effective owner of the building, and Kazuo Yamada, 54, president of Kurume Kosan.

[Taro Toporific]

Kyodo via Crisscross: Y800 mil in compensation paid to [44] families over Kabukicho fire

800,000,000 yen divided by 44 families = 18,181,818 yen or $153,991.81 U.S. dollars which sounds shabby.

WOTS the standard legal fee in Japan? (in the US it's at least 33%)

[Captain Japan]

Seedy Kabukicho dancing to an African beat
Mainichi

Africans, aided by a cleanup enforced by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, are taking over the streets of Kabukicho, Japan's most notorious entertainment district, according to Flash (9/12).

"They're really into bottakuri bars (illegal drinking holes where customers are charged extortionately high charges. They drag customers in, get them roaring drunk and then rip off anything they've got of value. They sell their stuff to us and we take it to the pawnshops and exchange it for cash," a yakuza boss active in Kabukicho tells Flash. "Some of the rich black guys are in to dealing drugs. They buy 100 grams of speed for 800,000 yen, then sell it in the clubs in 2-gram hits costing from 10,000 yen to 15,000 yen apiece."

Kabukicho has long had a strong attraction for the foreign element of Japan's netherworld. It welcomed ethnic Koreans decades ago when most of mainstream Japan shunned them. As more foreigners swarmed into the country during the '90s, the seedier elements headed straight for Kabukicho....more...

[Captain Japan]

Kyodo via Crisscross: Y800 mil in compensation paid to families over Kabukicho fire

A few weeks back I was doing a street survey in east Tokyo. The street is elevated so I climbed up a few nearby buildings to somewhere around the 8th or 10th floors so I could get a decent photo from the stairs looking down. I couldn't believe how many of the doors leading to the stairs were LOCKED.

At one place a video store had their large cardboard promos over the exit leading to the stairs. One restaurant had blocked the door with their large bags of laundry (or someone had tossed the bags there).

One of the locked floors had about four restaurants on it. When informed that the fire door was locked, the proprietor of one gave a half-dozen hopelessly exaggerated "sumimasen"s and bid me farewell as I got on the elevator.

[dimwit]

Even worse, on the very very rare occasions when fire department do make fire inspections the places are tipped off weeks in advance as to when they are coming so they clear debris from stairwells, inlock fire doors etc. The day after the inspections stairwells they return to being the storage depots they usually are.

[Mulboyne]

...And speaking of cleaning up Shinjuku, what's the status of the investigation of that fire that happened there...?

[floatl][/floatl]It has become part of the "fire database" of the National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster in Chofu:

"...To profit from this fire database in fire investigation and fire protection building design, the development of a fire experience simulator using VR technology is also underway. If you step into this simulator wearing anaglyphic glasses, you will be able to have a fire experience with a real fire scene. We have already developed simulation models reproducing the Shinjuku Kabukicho building fire and the Hotel New Japan fire. We are studying on a methodology to utilize these data in evaluation of evacuation guidance and to develop more effective techniques".

[Charles]

[floatl][/floatl]It has become part of the "fire database" of the National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster in Chofu:

"...To profit from this fire database in fire investigation and fire protection building design, the development of a fire experience simulator using VR technology is also underway. If you step into this simulator wearing anaglyphic glasses, you will be able to have a fire experience with a real fire scene. We have already developed simulation models reproducing the Shinjuku Kabukicho building fire and the Hotel New Japan fire. We are studying on a methodology to utilize these data in evaluation of evacuation guidance and to develop more effective techniques".

That link is dead, it appears to be a dynamic .cgi link, and I can't find the actual story about the fire database.

But this story is just typical. Instead of actually doing anything about fire safety, they poured their money into a stupid computer simulation. Just think what they might have spent that money on, stuff like fire inspectors making sure exits weren't chained and blocked.

[Captain Japan]

Host clubs bond together to clean up soiled image
Mainichi

Respectable host clubs from Tokyo's Kabukicho entertainment district have formed a union to take on the yakuza and make sure their business of pleasing women young and old remains a clean one, according to Shukan Asahi (12/1).

The Shinjuku Kabukicho Host Club Anti-Organized Crime Gang Association has also pledged to crack down on underage drinkers and promised to tackle the problem of bottakuri, where extortionate charges are made for drinks or even simply entering establishments.

Union members - there are 27 host clubs involved -- have also made up a list of 13 principles they promise to keep, including not employing underage hosts, providing clearly understandable pricing systems and not forcing sex work on women who rack up huge bills they can't pay.

"The Vice Squad at Shinjuku Police Station asked me in August to form the union. They want to get rid of the yakuza and asked me to give them a hand. I guess this is all part of Tokyo Gov. (Shintaro) Ishihara's efforts to clean up Kabukicho," said Takeshi Aida, operator of Club Ai and a legend in the Japanese host world. "Tokyo's now officially a candidate to host the Olympics, so we want Kabukicho, the city that never sleeps, to become a clean city we can be proud to show the world."...more...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Host clubs bond together to clean up soiled image
Mainichi

Sounds like the fox guarding the whorehouse to me.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Merchants take on mobsters

Drinking and eating establishments in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, have formally declared they will no longer pay protection money to gangs. The declaration was endorsed at a meeting held in a Shinjuku hotel Thursday with about 1,300 people attending. Such establishments in and around Kabukicho have been threatened by crime syndicates and forced to pay protection money or purchase goods at exorbitant prices. Some proprietors who have paid protection money said it was hard to cut their unsavory ties with underworld organizations. Those who have promoted a campaign to drive away gangsters have been harassed, victims told The Yomiuri Shimbun. There are more than 7,000 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and adult entertainment establishments in Shinjuku Ward, about half of them concentrated in Kabukicho. The proprietor of a drinking and eating establishment in the ward said he had paid protection money for more than a decade. A young crime syndicate member visited the shop every month and changed the air fresheners and doormats, services for which the shop paid 10,000 yen each time, much higher than the market price. The shop paid in cash on the spot. "I am realistic about it because it has been done for a long time," the proprietor said.

The shop owner has had to buy New Year's decorations, tickets for cherry-blossom viewing at a Tokyo shrine in spring and vouchers for use of seaside houses in summer for 20,000 yen to 30,000 yen each season. "If I refuse to meet their demand for payment, it will become difficult to run the shop without trouble. It would be better if the police could protect us permanently, but I don't think it will happen," he said. Another shop owner said when he took over the shop from the previous owner about two years ago, he agreed to carry on the practice of paying protection money. He has since been called every month to come to an alley near the shop and hand over 30,000 yen in cash to a gang member. But he decided to refuse to go this autumn. He won over the gang member at a meeting also attended by another proprietor.

In October, 30 so-called host clubs, where young men serve female customers, established an association to drive away gangsters and decided to refuse to pay protection money. But since then harassing calls have often been made to the club leading the campaign, and the home of the club's owner. The anonymous callers said, "We'll crush you to death, you damn fool!" and "If you continue to ignore us, you need to have dozens of lives for survival." However, the owner was determined not to buckle, saying, "I can't forgive them and I won't yield to pressure." In addition to the shop owners, businesspeople, the mayor of Shinjuku Ward and the heads of police stations in the ward attended Thursday's meeting.

Masashi Kaneko, chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations committee on measures to deal with gangsters' intervention in business transactions and civil affairs, said: "[The declaration] marks the first step toward cutting off gangsters' financial resources and it's significant that such a declaration was made by shop owners in Kabukicho, a symbol of entertainment districts across the country, considering the ripple effect it will have." Gangsters are expected to cause the shop owners trouble as the antigang campaign continues. Shinjuku Police Station said it would take tough measures to deal with the situation.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Yomiuri: Merchants take on mobsters

Wow, that's a really cool story. The Yaks can't win if all the shop owners really do band together. Sounds like a true story fit for the big screen.

Shinjuku Police Station said it would take tough measures to deal with the situation.

Tough measures against the gangters or shop owners?

[GuyJean]

Wow, that's a really cool story. The Yaks can't win if all the shop owners really do band together. Sounds like a true story fit for the big screen.

Yeah, you're probably right.. But the cynic in me smells a mafia PR campaign.. 'Look, it's now safe to open a new business in Shinjuku since I don't have to pay the Yaks.. If I pay this obligatory monthly 'Shinjuku Merchant Power' fee, I'll get protection by both the police and the fellow merchants'..

GJ

[Mulboyne]

I think the shopkeeper project is genuine rather than a gang-related front. In fact, one club owner who moved to Roppongi a few years ago to escape the random violence of Shinjuku gangs in favour of what she saw as the more ordered criminal approach in Minato-ku decided to move back a few months ago. She said that the gangs have been weakened in Kabukicho which has made it cheaper and less violent. On top of that, the Roppongi police have become very intrusive in all forms of clubs opening past 1:00am. After being closed down four times in six weeks, the higher Roppongi rent became even more of a burden.

She mentioned a theory I've heard from a few other people. The Kabukicho clean-up and Roppongi crackdowns are thought to be part of an attempt by the Metropolitan authorities to engineer a major transfer of cabarets and clubs to Odaiba which is where the pro-gambling lobby also want to build a casino. The thinking is that it will be easier to regulate businesses over there and it has a historic counterpart in the decision of the Tokugawa shogunate to restrict prostitution to Yoshiwara (Shinmachi in Osaka and Shimbara in Kyoto). Yoshiwara itself was moved from Nihombashi to Asakusa when Nihombashi became more important for commerce. Likewise, it is thought that Roppongi and Shinjuku would become less louche and more attractive business centres.

It's possible that people are adding two and two together and coming up with five. It certainly wouldn't appear to be an easy thing to engineer: Odaiba isn't anyone's idea of a fun place and there are no suitable buildings there now. An interesting idea nonetheless.

[DrP]

If you ask directly the owners of the clubs you'd know that the greatest threat they have is not from Japanese 'business associations' (yakuza) but from the foreign organised gangs. A few years back most of the chinese related gangbangers were deported, along with hundreds of illegal residents mostly shabu slingers, prostitutes and touts. This 'compliance' went a long way to getting Japan off the human rights wacth lists and on to the security council. Now with Japan's increased dependency on oil, they have struck new deals with countries like Nigeria to slacken immigration requirements and increase visa allotments. Anyone with half a brain knows how the Nigerians have moved into the scene - I guess preying in Japan is easier than their stupid e-mail scams.

Back to the clubs. The Japanese hostess club owners are increasingly under threat from the newly arrived thugs and the once strong yakuza 'business association' basically ball-less to help them. So - they gotta do what they gotta do.

Of course this is a fictional story based totally on alcohol soaked rambling conspiracy thoughts, but , hey , it's fun!

[dimwit]

I think the shopkeeper project is genuine rather than a gang-related front. In fact, one club owner who moved to Roppongi a few years ago to escape the random violence of Shinjuku gangs in favour of what she saw as the more ordered criminal approach in Minato-ku decided to move back a few months ago. She said that the gangs have been weakened in Kabukicho which has made it cheaper and less violent. On top of that, the Roppongi police have become very intrusive in all forms of clubs opening past 1:00am. After being closed down four times in six weeks, the higher Roppongi rent became even more of a burden.

She mentioned a theory I've heard from a few other people. The Kabukicho clean-up and Roppongi crackdowns are thought to be part of an attempt by the Metropolitan authorities to engineer a major transfer of cabarets and clubs to Odaiba which is where the pro-gambling lobby also want to build a casino. The thinking is that it will be easier to regulate businesses over there and it has a historic counterpart in the decision of the Tokugawa shogunate to restrict prostitution to Yoshiwara (Shinmachi in Osaka and Shimbara in Kyoto). Yoshiwara itself was moved from Nihombashi to Asakusa when Nihombashi became more important for commerce. Likewise, it is thought that Roppongi and Shinkuku would become less louche and more attractive business centres.

It's possible that people are adding two and two together and coming up with five. It certainly wouldn't appear to be an easy thing to engineer: Odaiba isn't anyone's idea of a fun place and there are no suitable buildings there now. An interesting idea nonetheless.

Damn Mulboyne, you know WAAYYYY to much about all this.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Fire guts cosmetic clinic in Kabukicho

A fire in a cosmetic surgery clinic on the eighth floor of a nine-story building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, gutted an area of about 85 square meters of the floor early Wednesday morning, the police said. There was no one in the multitenant building when the fire started at about 12:45 a.m. A donut shop takes up the first three floors of the building, and company offices and shops including a nail salon occupy the fourth floor up. The building is located in the entertainment district of Kabukicho at the intersection of Yasukunidori avenue and Kuyakushodori avenue, about 300 meters from the east exit of JR Shinjuku Station.

[Buraku]

[Samurai_Jerk]

[Mulboyne]

A citizens patrol has started around Kabukicho this month in partnership with the police. From 6-8:00pm, every day except Sunday, the patrol aims to discourage street touts from interfering with the public near the Central Road area. The volunteers include members from the Kabukicho Host Club Association, the Shinjuku Restaurant Association and The Kabukicho Merchants Association. A representative of the Host Club Association said that hassling people on the street brings down the image of their clubs and so they are happy to be part of efforts to reduce it.

The initative isn't a bad one but the hours of 6-8:00pm don't strike me as being the most active for scouts and touts on the street.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Sorry!

[Greji]

While waiting for a friend the other night, I happened to pick up on how the hosts are now working and it was fascinating! Instead of the tacky suits, they now dress like any other young guys and all carry briefcases. They hang around in the crowds waiting to cross the road, pick out a target and spring on her as she traverses the pedestrian crossing. They then line up and do it all over again. They had their operation moving really slickly. But, as in the past, I've never seen one of these guys pick up a woman.

Ya need to hang out with Jack and me more often Marvin, if ya wanna see the real pros at work!

[Mulboyne]

...The Kabukicho clean-up and Roppongi crackdowns are thought to be part of an attempt by the Metropolitan authorities to engineer a major transfer of cabarets and clubs to Odaiba which is where the pro-gambling lobby also want to build a casino...

I was reading a press release talking about a new Chinese restaurant opened by Lee Xiao Mu. Lee operates tours around Kabukicho where he takes people to clubs where he claims they won't get ripped off. He has also written a number of books on Kabukicho nightlife and released a DVD recently. This is all detailed on his website (Japanese). One other thing I noticed on his website is a column he wrote for the Japanese edition of Newsweek. If your eyes and Japanese are good, you might just be able to make it out in this image:



Lee believes that Tokyo nightlife is at a low ebb and suggests using setting up a Special Administrative Area in Tokyo in the manner of China's "One country, two systems" deal with Hong Kong. He thinks Odaiba would be a good place and recommends staffing it with people competent in both Japanese and English plus, preferably, one other language. He thinks such a district could be attractive to foreigners and local partygoers. It's unlikely that Lee came up with the idea of Odaiba on his own so it seems more probable that someone in authority dropped him a few hints.

It still isn't clear whether the proposal to shift major nightlife activity to Odaiba really has any legs but the crackdowns around Tokyo are still continuing. In Roppongi, the major move right now is the development of the TSK building which lies right between Tokyo Midtown and Roppongi Hills and so is a key piece of real estate in bringing those two areas together. The TSK building was originally built by The Tosei-kai who were one of the main Korean gangs which grew to prominence during the postwar period. The building used to house the offices of political fixer Yoshio Kodama who brokered a peace between the Tosei Kai and Yamaguchi Gumi. FGs will know the building as the place where Private Eyes, Vanilla, One-Eyed Jacks and the Tokyo Sports Cafe used to be.

When the head of the Tosei Kai, Hisayuki Machii, died in 2002, there was a tussle in the underworld over the building and ownership became unclear. It was recently part of the scandal involving the former head of the Public Security Agency, Shigetake Ogata, in which he is said to have attempted to defraud the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) over real estate.

For any FGs who can't imagine Roppongi as anything other than party central, I recently saw a 1968 copy of an English publication that Greji probably knows - "Man's Guide to Tokyo". The entry on Roppongi says it has good restaurants but is "a place to take a lady friend but not a place to find a lady friend".

[halfnip]

My idea of partying does not involve Odaiba at all. Come to think of it, in all of my years here, I may have NEVER consumed an alcoholic beverage in Odaiba at all (OK, that's a damn lie).

The Yurikamome is not my idea of convenience and there's no way in hell all of the FG's would trek all the way out to Odaiba to "party".

[Taro Toporific]

...The Kabukicho clean-up and Roppongi crackdowns are thought to be part of an attempt by the Metropolitan authorities to engineer a major transfer of cabarets and clubs to Odaiba which is where the pro-gambling lobby also want to build a casino...

...Lee believes that Tokyo nightlife is at a low ebb and suggests using setting up a Special Administrative Area in Tokyo in the manner of China's "One country, two systems" deal with Hong Kong. He thinks Odaiba would be a good place and recommends staffing it with people competent in both Japanese and English ....

I could see the "logic" that Odaiba is an idea place for Neo-Deshima. The toxi-beach of Odaiba even looks like Deshima. It is isolated from the rest of Tokyo and all its buildings are owned by Japan Inc. unlike alien inroads made by Roppongi's Koreans and Kabukicho's Chinese.
My feeling is that Odaiba is very under-utilized compared the return on public and public capital that has been dumped into it. At the moment, Odaiba is not sleazy enough to please salarymen.]http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/12946d53b90c690a.jpg[/img]

[Captain Japan]

I did a story on this subject. You can find it here.

[Captain Japan]

Despite Kabukicho's sex trade going limp, love hotels start 2008 with a bang
Mainichi

Kabukicho -- Japan's biggest, brashest, raunchiest entertainment district -- suffered a slow, boring entrance to 2008, with one notable exception: love hotels, Shukan Shincho (1/17) says.

"It's really sad," a Kabukicho restaurant employee tells Shukan Shincho. "There wasn't a soul around on New Year's Day. About the only places in Kabukicho that attracted anyone over the New Year holidays were game centers and pachinko parlors."

Rumors have recently sprung up that Japan's once-spurting "ejaculation industry" is well and truly on the wane....more...

The part about Kabukicho being empty on New Year's is accurate. Lots of places seemed to be shutting around 3 or 4 a.m.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Kabukicho's pink businesses complain new hotel brings up the tone

In what could be a bit of a turn for the books, operators of adult businesses in Tokyo's Kabukicho district may soon be moaning about a new hotel "spoiling" the neighborhood, judging by Shukan Shincho. Though it's common for love hotel operators in particular to face fierce resistance from local residents whenever they build anew somewhere, the shoe is now on the other foot as a respectable establishment sets up in the center of what remains a netherworld. On March 23, the Best Western Shinjuku Astina Hotel Tokyo opened in Kabukicho, giving the famous U.S. Best Western hotel chain its first establishment in Tokyo, though it does already have hotels in Kochi and Nagasaki. "(Best Western) has a history extending over 60 years, but compared to companies like The Peninsula or Conrad, awareness of the brand in Japan is not strong," an economic beat journalist tells Shukan Shincho. "It's not a luxury hotel, but by no means is it lower grade, either. It's a chain firmly in the middle range."

Nonetheless, the foreign-funded hotel aims to serve as an oasis in the busy heart of the capital city. With most of its 206 rooms costing in the vicinity of 25,000 yen a night, the hotel is expected to provide an air of sophistication to a Kabukicho still being targeted by a clean-up campaign. Expectations are certainly high among some Kabukicho proprietors. "Some people complained that the sudden appearance of such a tall building has ruined their TV reception. But times have been tough recently in Kabukicho and we're hoping the hotel will give us a bit of a spark," a Kabukicho restaurateur tells Shukan Shincho. Insiders from the adult businesses that have built up the entertainment industry aren't quite as upbeat. "The hotel is surrounded by cabaret clubs, nightclubs and karaoke joints. Right behind it is the Golden Gai and the love hotel district lies right before your eyes," a Kabukicho adult business source says. "I'm sure the refined lobby and its cafes will be used for all sorts of meetings or places to have interviews for nightclub hostessing jobs. But I wonder whether the call girls will be able to use it..."

Best Western officials, however, send an ominous warning to those involved in Kabukicho's flesh trade. "We weren't aiming for Kabukicho in particular, but the redevelopment of the eastern part of Shinjuku, in a broader sense, met our needs. We would like to see businessmen and women use our hotel," a hotel spokesman tells Shukan Shincho. "We have consulted with the Shinjuku Municipal Government about adult businesses and we'll work together to keep them under control."

[Kuang_Grade]

Interesting, they appear to charge 500 to 1000 yen more for smoking rooms than non smoking rooms. I'm surprised it is not the other way around.