Sorry to disagree, but such hyperperbole, based solely on one article from the Asian Times, ( not a prominent Japanese news source) does not a well-rounded article make.

Of course dens of depravity are evident in Kabukicho, or areas of Ikebukuro, and Shimbashi, but the painting you portray, for the clickbait of your title, is as if Japan, the entire country, has gone to hell in a hand basket. Nothing is further from the truth. I live here and though like any country there are elements of sex and depravity raging in select quarters, it is not as rampant as your article portrays. The brush you yield is too broad and misguided.

The sex trade is and has been prevalent in societies across the globe since the very existence of our species.

Yes, the currency is often deplorable, but it is no different than hookers selling sex for a fentanyl fix in San Francisco or turning tricks for a fiver. I have no issue with the slivers of truth that can support your article in some of the less desirable quarters, but please for the sake of journalism tame the hyperbole. Japan is not a cess pit of depravity.

The misfortune of those fallen into having to sustain themselves through the sale of sex, be they male, female or any pronoun, or of any local whether it be a city in the US, the back pews of some church, or the the bedroom of a vile husband in France, should be treated with more respect than to furnish a misleading clickbait article to finance, what I see as a shallow supported article.

Sorry to be harsh, but living here I take affront to the hyperbole in your article. K