OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 58-year-old man and 15 of his employees for allegedly operating a highly lucrative network of sex parlors that provided illicit services in plain sight, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 21).
Kazuhisa Kato, the de facto owner of three parlors including one named JanJan, and 15 men and women working at the establishments face charges of public indecency, police announced on Wednesday.
According to police, the three parlors were housed inside the same multi-tenant building near JR Kyobashi Station in Miyakojima Ward. Inside, the shops featured six to seven service areas separated by partitions only one meter high.
Because the booths lacked doors, male customers had their lower bodies exposed while receiving sexual services in a state that could easily be seen by third parties, prompting police to pursue public indecency charges. The alleged offenses took place between July and October of this year.
All 16 suspects have admitted to the allegations.
During questioning, Kato and his associates revealed the staggering scale of the operation. “Each shop had about 100 to 150 customers a day, and we made around 500 million yen in sales in a single year,” they told investigators. The parlors advertised their cheap rates online, offering 20-minute sessions for just 3,500 yen.
The syndicate went to great lengths to avoid a police raid. Investigators discovered multiple security cameras installed at the entrances and an anti-police manual distributed to staff. If authorities were spotted, staff were instructed to flick the room lights off and on twice — a secret signal for the female workers to immediately halt the sexual services.
The illicit operation was finally uncovered after the Miyakojima Police Station received a tip-off in December of last year regarding a shop offering illegal sexual services. Authorities are continuing to investigate the full extent of the organization’s finances and operations.