Tokyo cops bust 'JK' for employing girl, 16, to provide sex

tokyoreporter.com -- Jul 06

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a specialty parlor in Taito Ward that is suspected of employing school girls for prostitution, reports Nikkan Sports.

Police arrested the 19-year-old male manager of GU Exploration Party of dispatching a girl, 16, to perform acts deemed obscene with a man, aged in his 20s, inside a room for short-term stays on June 23.

The manager denies the allegations.

GU Exploration Party operates out of an apartment near JR Okachimachi Station. According to the parlor's Twitter account, it employs 25 girls. As the name of the parlor implies, customers ostensibly take an osampo, or walk, with girls at rates that begin at 6,000 yen for the first 30 minutes.

The allegations surfaced when an employee revealed to police in May that the walks often end in the provision of honban, or full sex. An unofficial menu lists the option of full sex at 30,000 yen, police said.

At the time of the arrest of the manager on Tuesday, police found a manual in his possession that instructs the girls how to evade the eyes of law enforcement, according to the Asahi Shimbun (July 5). For example, a girl is to explain to police that she was merely accompanying a customer after he picked up on her should she be questioned.

Grouped under the designation "JK" (short for joshi kosei, or school girl), GU Exploration Party is one of many such operations in the capital that are feared to be a hotbed for child prostitution.

In an effort to prevent young persons from getting involved in criminal activities, a new Tokyo ordinance, which took effect on July 1, restricts the employment of persons under the age of 18 in certain service businesses. The ordinance is the first of its kind to be enacted across the nation.