Police in Tokyo have arrested the manager of an adult entertainment shop in Saitama Prefecture on suspicion of paying illegal cash kickbacks to a street recruiter.
The 37-year-old, identified as Makoto Honda, runs a fuzoku (commercial sex) business in Tsurugashima City. He’s accused of handing over 153,000 yen in cash to a male scout back in January. The payment was apparently a reward for introducing a female worker to the shop—something known in the industry as a “scout back.”
When police questioned him, Honda didn’t have much to say. He reportedly told investigators he didn’t want to comment right now.
The recruiter involved has also been referred to prosecutors. Investigators believe he had an ongoing deal to take 10 percent of the recruited woman’s total sales at the shop.
It’s a pretty straightforward case on the surface: shops in the fuzoku world sometimes rely on scouts to bring in workers, and those introductions don’t always stay within the rules. This time, the cash handoff got the manager’s attention from the authorities.
