Bars, Salons Employing Underage Girls

Written By: guyjin on September 16, 2009 5 Comments

I saw a distressing story today at Japan Today, taken from the Sept 8 issue of Spa! According to the article, legal loopholes in the Law Regulating Businesses Affecting Public Morals, are allowing establishments such as ‘ear-cleaning salons’ and ‘thigh massage’ to employ underage girls in situations that can lead to the provision of ’sexual services’.

It seems that this seedy underside of the culture will always find ways to get around, under, and through the laws. These ’salons’ don’t serve alcohol, and are not expressly sexual in nature, which allows them to hire young high school girls. But in practice, patrons bring their own alcohol, and the girls are in a position to easily be pressured for ’sexual services’, for which they receive tips. One girl in the article even blamed the recession for needing to take the job in order to replace her cut off allowance…

The question has to be asked I suppose – where are the parents…? Its a question that often gets avoided in discussions on topics such as this in Japan. There are endless discussions about the lack of morals of ‘today’s youth’, but rarely do I hear the ‘Wide Show’ ‘commentators’ discuss in much depth what kind of family structure and parental training may have led to such a lack of morals. Of course, a vast amount of blame also needs to rest on the heads of the creeps that employ these young girls, and the even bigger creeps that paw at them… A must read article…