TOKYO -- "Are you dealing with something difficult on your own?"

       A short distance from the center of the Kabukicho district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward lies Okubo Park, seen here on Aug. 20, 2021. (Mainichi/Atsushi Matsumoto)

       A Metropolitan Police Department officer (left) accompanies a woman thought to be seeking customers for sex in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on July 29, 2021. (Mainichi/Kentaro Ikushima)

       A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigator is speaking with a woman in the Kabukicho district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, his voice soft and friendly. She is there hoping to find a customer, someone wanting to buy sex.

       Until recently, police have simply tried to clamp down on activities violating Japan's anti-prostitution law. Now, things are different. Officers instead try to be good listeners, to be people the women can talk to, so they can find ways to get help and living support. The Mainichi Shimbun went along with the officers, sticking close to see the reality of prostitution in Japan's capital.

       It is just past 7 p.m. on a night in late July, near Okubo Park in Shinjuku Ward. By the edges of the park are three women, all absorbed in their smartphones. They look like they're waiting for someone, leaning on the guardrail along the road or sitting on the pavement. Men come and go, looking like they're doing laps of the area as they snatch furtive glances at the women's faces.

       An MPD officer whispers to this 36-year-old Mainichi Shimbun reporter, "The men walking around and around are the customers, looking to choose a woman to pay for sex. The women are probably prostitutes. There are fewer now than before."

       The neighborhood around the park is dotted with cheap love hotels, and the area is known on social media as a "streetwalker spot."

       The MPD investigator, in shorts and a T-shirt, speaks to one of the women. She looks like she's in her 40s, and is dressed in a skirt and a pink T-shirt. I had to watch the scene from a distance, but I could see the woman smile. After about five minutes in conversation, the officer confirmed that she was looking for customers for sex, and took her into protective custody.

       The woman in protective custody was taken to a room leased by the MPD in a building nearby. I was not permitted to go along, but apparently there was a female officer waiting in the room, and then the woman was asked not just about her history in sex work, but also about where she's living, whether she has a job, and other details of her life.

       The questions probe whether the women are in poverty. If the officers find that they are, the investigator will, with their permission, introduce ward and other support services, and recommend they apply for help like welfare benefits or a place at a women's shelter. The MPD says that investigating officers often accompany women to the service counters.

       The metro police began this approach, including connecting women with municipal support services, in earnest last autumn. As to why, one senior officer explained, "Even if you expose prostitution under the Anti-Prostitution Act, many people reoffend, and that's just a fact. There are a lot of cases where people have turned to prostitution for economic reasons, and just cracking down on them did nothing to address the root of the problem. So along with uncovering cases, we are now working with government bodies and emphasizing social support."

       Metropolitan Police Department investigators give this paper with contact information for advice and support services to women they take into protective custody. (Mainichi/Makoto Kakizaki)

       A Metropolitan Police Department investigator, standing, speaks to a woman thought to be seeking customers for sex on a street in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, on July 29, 2021. (Mainichi/Kentaro Ikushima)

       According to the MPD, of the 226 people arrested in Japan on suspicion of anti-prostitution law violations including solicitation in 2019, 61 were repeat offenders.

       In December 2020, based on the Anti-Prostitution Act, the MPD rounded up 22 women in the Okubo Park area, aged 18 to 53, and took them into protective custody. Thirty-six percent of them were unemployed, and some said they had begun hooking because they couldn't earn enough money during the coronavirus crisis. Seven of the women expressed interest in support provided by municipal governments and other bodies.

       "It's difficult for government organs and private groups alone to get a handle on exactly who and how many women need assistance," said Hiroyuki Fujikake, head of Shinjuku Ward's social welfare section. "Working with the police, who are responsible for enforcement, is productive and we'd like to continue that cooperation."

       When I went to the Okubo Park area on a different day, I tried talking to the women there. One woman, perhaps in her early 20s and wearing a white one-piece dress, asked me, "How about 15?" meaning 15,000 yen (about $136). "The hotel is on the customer," she went on. "At the high end, a girl can run you in the range of 20,000-30,000 yen (around $182-$273)."

       The woman in the white dress told me she had been working the park area for about a year. In the daytime she said she does "a medical-related job," adding, "This is to earn a little spending money." She went on to say that she had worked nights at an establishment offering sexual services, but "I had some trouble with the management, so I quit. I can do this alone, so it's a lot better," she said with a laugh.

       I pointed out that what she was doing was illegal, and that she could be attacked by one of her customers. But she said that she wasn't worried. When I said that I wasn't there to buy sex, she replied, "Okay, bye-bye, then," and returned to leaning on the guardrail.

       The Anti-Prostitution Act, which bans both the sale and purchase of sex, was enacted in 1956 to "protect and rehabilitate women." However, there is no penalty for buying sex, so police now just let collared customers off with a warning.

       Kazuna Kanajiri, head of the nonprofit women's support organization PAPS, told me, "There are a lot of women in poverty who have no choice but to sell sex, and those are the women who need to be reached out to," instead of being cracked down on. I give high marks to what the police are doing now, with their connections to social welfare. However, the people buying sex are getting off scot-free. We need to boost awareness of these buyers across all of society, including in legislation."

       (Japanese original by Makoto Kakizaki, Tokyo City News Department)

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