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."