“Excuse me, how much?” A conversation between a man and a woman takes place on a dark street. When the negotiation is finalized, they went to a nearby love hotel. At first glance, this may seem like a foreign prostitution zone, but this is a scene that is now becoming normal in Okubo Park, Tokyo. For foreign tourists, Okubo Park is becoming increasingly popular as a night spot where they can buy a “‘Tachinbo (Hooker).”
According to JNTO or Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of foreign visitors to Japan in May 2024 was approximately 3.04 million, a 60.1% increase compared to the same month last year. This is almost 300,000 more than the approximately 2.77 million in May 2019 before the pandemic, and the third consecutive month that the number exceeded 3 million.
One of the night spots attracting the attention of foreign tourists in Okubo Park, known as a “‘Tachinbo Center.”
In the past, the number of foreigners who came to the to buy a prostitute was small, and if there were any, they were mostly Asian men living in Japan. However, since around last summer, the figure of foreigners has increased. On weekend nights, more than 100 men crowd into the park, and foreigners now account for about 10%. There is a wide range of nationalities, from Western to Asian, and many tourists just look around without buying a woman, but the recent bustle can be said to be at its peak.
Among foreigners visiting the park, it’s not uncommon to find men who cannot speak a single word of Japanese. In such cases, some speak English to the women or use translation apps to negotiate with them.
YouTubers are probably the biggest reason for the increase in foreigners visiting Okubo Park. Since around spring last year, it has been common to see foreigners walking around taking videos with their smartphones, and if you search “OKUBO PARK”‘ on YouTube, you will find many videos of them.
One day in Okubo Park, many women were standing in a row. Many of them seemed to be young. And there were many men walking around, as if they were trying to check out the women. Most of them were middle-aged businessmen or group of young people, but there were also foreigners, and an Asian group of three men approached the women and asked them “Excuse me, how much?” Westerners also laugh at the sight of Japanese men negotiating with the women with a can of Chu-Hai in hand.
Meanwhile, a South-East Asian man approaches one of the women and says “look, look”, pointing to his smartphone screen. The woman then showed the man her smartphone screen. After a while, the two walked towards the love hotel area, as if a negotiation had been settled.
A woman stated: “Maybe since last year or so? There are more foreign tourists who obviously don’t speak Japanese, so they started negotiating with us using translation apps and speaking to us in English, like “How much?”‘ In fact, I can speak a little English now that I have more opportunities to interact with them. But the Westerners are just browsing for fun, and most of the people who really buy us are Chinese, Filipinos and Indians.”
She added that foreigners feel safer touting because there’s less possibility of undercover police officers, and it’s easier because we don’t have to talk at the hotel because of the language barrier. Before the pandemic, we had an image of foreigners as stingy and dangerous, like people with pink eyes from drugs, and those who would bargain down to 5,000 yen. But nowadays there’s almost no such people, and there are many kind people who say in broken Japanese “‘Towel, irimasuka?” It’ a lot nicer than annoying Japanese guys.
However, several Chinese visitors to Japan have reported the following.
In mid-June, I went to a hotel with a tachinbo girl in Okubo Park for 20,000 yen, but after taking a shower, she suddenly showed me a translation app on her phone, saying “You have to pay an additional 10,000 yen to proceed.” I had no choice but to give her 10,000 yen and tried to insert, but she just lay on the bed and deliberately said “‘ouch!” turned her body away and used harsh words. After repeating this five or six times, the woman pointed to her watch and said, “we don’t have time,” and left.
Other girls also take money out of their wallets while guys are in the shower and run away.
Even if such problems occur, foreign tourists cannot deal with them because they don’t speak Japanese. They say that foreigners are sometimes a target for them because when they go to the police, they cannot report in Japanese.
