| The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
| They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
| In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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1998,03,22
Student card goes a long way with foreign hookers
Shukan Hoseki 3/26 By Mark Schreiber
“They look like they're 14 or 15,” says “A,” a journalist who covers the “pink” trade in Shinjuku.
“They couldn't be anything but junior high school students.
Now here they are picking up gaijin hookers off the street in Okubo.
I don't know what scares me more; the ones waving the knives, or the ones who come here to screw around.”
Leave it to those naughty junior high school boys to dominate this year's news headlines.
When they're not stabbing teachers, policemen or each other with knives, they're cruising for ladies of the night along the dimly lit back alleys of Tokyo's Shin-Okubo - a notorious streetwalker hangout - for a quick romp in the sack.
According to Shukan Hoseki's source, this has been going on for a couple of years already.
“I began hearing stories that kids were patronizing foreign hookers about six months ago,” said a “pink”industry insider.
“They're at the age where they want to do it; but ‘soaplands’ or fashion health emporiums won't let in customers that young.
I suppose foreign hookers are a practical outlet.
Still, this never would have occurred to me.”
The going rate for a quickie, writes Hoseki, is 20,000 yen.
“Sometimes you can talk them down to 15,000 yen,” “A” says.
“A room in a nearby hotel runs about 5,000 yen; the customer pays for that.”
He adds that although hotels on the street display discouraging patrons from escorting streetwalkers onto the premises, others are tied up with the gangs who run the girls.
They not only turn a blind eye to such business, but even allow short-time room rentals throughout the night.
An insider says a successful girl on the street might service between seven to 10 “Johns” per day.
At 20,000 yen a pop and working 25 days out of the month, this can earn her as much as 5 million yen.
But more than half of those earnings are said to be paid out for “protection” or to their pimps.
The question inevitably arises as to where kids this age get their hands on so much money.
Shukan Hoseki says some flash their student ID to the girls and request gakuwari(student discount): This ploy is usually successful.
“So far this year, I've serviced two of them,” a 25-year old Thai prostitute tells Hoseki's reporter.
“They were both 15 years old. I'll discount for high school and junior high boys.
Once, one didn't even have 10,000 yen on him, so we did it for 8,000 yen.”
The boys,who range in age from 14 to 17, are said to prowl Shin-Okubo in small groups.
Although they wisely refrain from wearing school uniforms, some reportedly attend the prestigious school identified only as the “K” academy, located nearby.
“By the time we walk into the hotel, they've already got a hard-on,” says one hooker from China.
“Actually, I like doing business with young guys. They come a lot quicker.”
She also notes that they are usually satisfied with straight intercourse.
Since condoms are always used, avoiding kissing or oral-genital contact makes VD less of a concern.
Well, concludes Shukan Hoseki, high school girls selling their bodies to older men is already an established fact.
And now the sons of these men are paying for sex with foreign prostitutes.
What possible explanation can you give for such a bewildering course of events, except to ascribe it all to the end of the millennium. (MS)
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