Japanese demand laws against Tokyo’s street prostitution – ‘internationally embarrassing’

The awareness raised has provoked a powerful response locally, including a degree of introspection on social media in a nation that detests losing face on the international stage.

Like dozens of other young women, Rua spends her evenings waiting for customers at the notorious Okubo Park in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district.

The Sankei newspaper ran a story two days later lamenting: “The reality of foreign men engaging in ‘sex tours’ in Kabukicho has been reported in some parts of Japan, but it is now spreading overseas as well.”

Kazunori Yamai, a politician with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told the Sankei: “This is a serious situation that is internationally embarrassing.