Shibuya cracks up at government's crackdown on
sleaze
Authorities have in recent months boasted about how their crackdown
on vice in Shibuya has made the trendy Tokyo district pristine
clean, but those in the know say that when the lights go out, it's
a totally different story.
"Shibuya has this image of being a youth-centered, bright part of
town, but from the middle of the night to the early hours of the
morning, it's a real Sodom and Gomorrah. Photos I've taken show
stuff like the streets being filled with kids coming home from
all-night jaunts at nightclubs, girls sprawled on sidewalks not
caring at all that they're showing off their panties for all the
world to see and kids beaten to a pulp over the tiniest
disagreement" Ikko Kagari, a photojournalist who has covered
Shibuya for over 30 years.
A few years ago, things were hairy in the entertainment district.
The weekly says foreign drug dealers were everywhere and gangs
roamed the Shibuya streets. A harder line taken by authorities was
supposed to have wiped out these less appealing elements.
"Shibuya has definitely lost the risky types that used to be
around. It's definitely a much safer place," a streetside talent
scout says.
Nonetheless, Shibuya remains a magnet for runaway schoolgirls and
the streets have junior high school girl runaways selling their
bodies off, high school girls regularly indulging in hard drugs and
other teens using fake IDs to find jobs working in the sex
business.
Police efforts to crack down on enjo kosai -- the euphemistic
expression translated as "compensated dating" that is used to
describe mostly teenage prostitution -- were supposed to have
worked, but the girls on the streets of Shibuya tell a different
story.
"If the cops in Shibuya are giving us a hard time, we just go
somewhere else," a first-year high school girl engaging in enjo
kosai. "We can go to places like (other Tokyo districts) Ikebukuro
or Uguisudani, where the cops aren't so strict and there're still
lots of love hotels around to do business in. It's not a problem at
all."
Drugs were largely unknown among Japanese youth as recently as a
decade ago. Now, they're becoming more prevalent, with marijuana,
cocaine and ecstasy regularly shared around amongst groups of young
friends, some of who admit to having some concern about cops or
probation officers.
"Not so long ago, you could go to clubs and share drugs around with
complete strangers and not worry about trouble," the street side
talent scout says. "Now, people make sure they only get drugs off
people they know, or people they've been introduced to by somebody
they trust."
Finding a friend to trust in Shibuya is not as hard as it seems,
according to one schoolgirl.
"Every time I come to Shibuya I always run into at least one
friend. It's really easy to find the type of friend who can get you
things like fake IDs or drugs," she says.
But the weekly notes that a lot of these "friends" are also
introducing young girls into the world of enjo kosai, getting them
to go into the flesh trade to fund lifestyles filled with drug
taking and carousing at host clubs.
"There are lots of girls around me who do nothing but have a good
time. Their senses become kinda paralyzed and they have no idea
what they're doing is gonna hurt them," another schoolgirl says.
"Personally, I don't think it's a real good idea."
Casting a creepy presence on the sidelines of Shibuya's sleaze are
the
yakuza.
"At first, you can get all sorts of drugs for free. But, once
you're hooked and can't live without them, they make you go into
enjo kosai or hostessing to make money for them. There's heaps of
girls who can't give up the life of selling their bodies," a
17-year-old girl working in Shibuya tells Friday. "Most of the
drugs are given out by guys aged around 20 or so. But the yakuza
are behind these guys for sure."