Japanese Police Arrest Korean Man for Overseas Prostitution Mediation Involving Local Woman

Arrested for Arranging Sex Trafficking Trips to the U.S.
Korean Man in His 40s Targeted Japanese Women

A Korean man in his 40s who arranged sex trafficking trips to the United States targeting Japanese women was arrested in Japan.

Promotional photo by the Japanese National Police Agency, unrelated to the article content. Japanese National Police Agency

According to a report by Japanese media Fuji News Network (FNN) on the 13th, a Korean national named Mr. A (40), who works at a recruitment company, was arrested by the police on charges of introducing prostitution in the U.S. to a Japanese woman in her 20s, Ms. B.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Mr. A approached Ms. B on a street in Shinsaibashi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, in 2023, saying, "You are pretty," and proposed, "What kind of work do you do? I can introduce you to a job where you can make money overseas."

Ms. B accepted the offer and went to Washington DC, the U.S. capital, where she reportedly served up to 13 clients a day and earned 9.6 million yen (approximately 90 million KRW) in one month, FNN reported. However, during the police investigation, Mr. A denied the charges, reportedly saying, "I don't understand what you are talking about."

Meanwhile, there have been claims recently that Japan is emerging as Asia's new center for 'sex tourism.' In November last year, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) published an article titled "Tokyo, Asia's New Sex Tourism Capital," reporting that due to the recent yen depreciation and increasing poverty in Japan, many foreigners are engaging in sex tourism in Japan.

Mr. Yoshihide Tanaka, Secretary-General of the Japanese "Parents' Liaison Council to Protect Youth" (Seiboren), told SCMP, "Japan has become a poor country," adding, "Foreign men who come to Japan for sex tourism are diverse, including white, Asian, and black men, but most are Chinese." Seiboren is an organization that has supported sex workers in Kabukicho, Tokyo's largest entertainment district, for the past decade.