Photo/Illutration Investigators enter a host club in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward for an on-site inspection on Dec. 15. (Shigetaka Kodama)

Police arrested 140 women this year for soliciting customers for prostitution in Japan’s largest red-light district, and 43 percent of these women said they were seeking cash to visit host clubs or meet “idols.”

The Metropolitan Police Department said on Dec. 20 that, from January to Dec. 19, they had arrested 140 women around Okubo Park in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law.

The women ranged in age from 17 to 56. Of these, 106 were in their 20s, 22 were in their 30s, nine were in their 40s or older and three were teenagers.

The number of arrests had nearly tripled from last year, when only 51 women were arrested for prostitution in that area.

When asked about their reasons for engaging in prostitution, 44 women said they wanted to make money to visit host clubs, with many trying to pay off debts from earlier visits.

According to the police, 15 women cited their desire to meet underground male idols, while one mentioned visiting “men’s concept cafes”--in which men pretend to be butlers, princes, idols or other specific personas, and provide services that match each theme.

Since September, police have conducted on-site inspections of host clubs in the Kabukicho district twice, to ensure compliance with the Adult Entertainment Business Law.

During the inspection on Dec. 15, they entered 176 establishments and found pricing violations in 132 of them, including charges for champagne towers.

Some host club workers have been found to impose significant debts on female customers and have coerced customers into working in the sex industry to pay off these debts.

“In addition to taking measures against women soliciting customers for prostitution, we will continue to crack down on illegal activities related to such debts and to encouraging prostitution,” police said.

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