"A man grabbed my arm and took me by force to a hotel. He started filming and groping me. I was so scared. I ran away before he undressed me." With a lost gaze, adorned in a pink miniskirt sparkling with diamonds while perched on high heels the teenager hesitated to enter the Kabukicho police station in Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

Frail and barely 18, she is one of hundreds of teenage girls and young women who turn to prostitution in this red-light district of the Japanese capital, to pay off a debt, make ends meet or simply survive. Their presence has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, during which many lost their jobs or suffered domestic or family violence.

Lining up in the alleyway between the white facade of Okubo Hospital and the gates of the park of the same name, the young women wait for the kimoi ojisan ("uncles"), their clients, who pay between ¥5,000 and ¥20,000 (around €30 to €120) for an hour of paid sex in one of the nearby "love hotels." After 10 pm, some head for the theme bars, dressed as a nurse, lolita or soubrette. These girls usually live in cybercafés in the heart of Kabukicho, at ¥4,600 yen (€28) a night for a single cabin.

Police arrested 35 of these young women in September – 80 since the beginning of the year, compared with 51 in 2022. Of the 35 arrested, around 15 were in debt to "hosts," young men working in women-only clubs. Dressed in costumes, with makeup and grooming, they target their victims – typically solitary women, often from provincial areas – online, charm them, and then lure them to their club. They end up spending crazy amounts of money, up to ¥200,000 a night.

"The hosts use mind-control tactics. They are literally trained by the club management to do this," said Ayaka Shiomura of the Democratic Constitutional Party (PDC), who raised the issue in October in Parliament. To pay off her debts to the host, the victim prostitutes herself. In January, police arrested 27-year-old Takuya Akiba, a host who allegedly forced a woman to work in bars to pay back ¥10 million (€61,400). "I wanted to be number one in my club," he reportedly told investigators.

Another reason for female prostitution is poverty or family abuse, which rose by 1.8% in 2022 to a record 84,496 cases. Fleeing their homes, many of these young people end up in Kabukicho, a glitzy district that never sleeps. In its central Toyoko square, outside the brand-new Tokyu Kabukicho tower, boys with red, green or pink hair and black outfits, or girls in schoolgirl attire, wander, drink and heckle between cans of alcoholic beverages and empty cake wrappers. These "Toyoko Kids," as they are known here, often end up in drug addiction and prostitution.

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