Prostitution laws in Japan日本

Art. 2 defines 売春 (prostitution) as 'sexual intercourse with an unspecified partner in return for payment or a promise of payment' (対償を受け、又は受ける約束で、不特定の相手方と性交すること). Art. 3 reads 'no person shall engage in prostitution or be the other party to it' (何人も、売春をし、又はその相手方となつてはならない). The penal chapter (Arts. 5–16) contains no offence for the act of selling.

Until 31 March 2024 the Act also allowed a court to place a woman convicted of soliciting under 'guidance disposition' (補導処分) in a Women's Guidance Home. The Act on Support for Women with Difficult Problems (Act No. 52 of 2022) repealed that chapter and the chapter on protective rehabilitation with effect from 1 April 2024, moving support into a welfare framework.

The Justice Ministry study group's September 2026 report records that no member argued for making the sale itself punishable, because many people who sell sex need protection and support rather than punishment.

Art. 3 Prostitution Prevention Act prohibits 'being the other party' to prostitution, but the Act has no penalty for it. Art. 5 punishes soliciting only when done 'for the purpose of prostitution', i.e. by the seller, so a buyer who solicits on the street commits no offence under the Act.

The Act on Regulation and Punishment of Acts Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (Act No. 52 of 1999) defines 児童買春 as paying or promising payment to a child under 18, to the person who arranged it, or to the child's guardian or controller, and engaging in intercourse, acts similar to intercourse, or touching of genitals, anus or nipples. Art. 4 punishes it with up to five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥3 million.

In November 2025 the Prime Minister instructed the Justice Minister to review the regulation of prostitution. The Ministry's study group (売買春に係る規制の在り方検討会, nine meetings from March to September 2026) concluded in its report that the imbalance between punishing sellers' soliciting and not punishing buyers' soliciting should be corrected by a national statute rather than prefectural ordinances. Conduct discussed for a new offence included public soliciting and enticement through social media, searching for sellers or loitering for that purpose, and publicly asking for an introduction. Members noted it is hard to prove a buyer's purpose. On punishing the purchase itself, the report records that no member dissented from the view that it needs careful consideration: consent between adults is hard to override in theory, there is no social consensus that every buyer is an exploiter, and the market could be driven underground, raising risks for sellers.

Prostitution Prevention Act. Art. 11(1): knowingly providing a place where prostitution takes place, up to three years' imprisonment or a ¥100,000 fine; Art. 11(2): doing so as a business, up to seven years and a ¥300,000 fine. Art. 12: the business of making a person live in a place one occupies, manages or designates and making them engage in prostitution (管理売春), up to ten years and a ¥300,000 fine. Art. 13 punishes knowingly supplying funds, land or buildings for these businesses; Art. 14 extends the fines to the company.

Entertainment Business Act (風営法). Art. 2(6) defines 'store-type sex-related special businesses' (店舗型性風俗特殊営業), including (no. 1) private rooms in a public bathhouse where staff provide 'services involving contact' with customers of the opposite sex (the soapland category) and (no. 2) private rooms where staff provide services involving contact 'in response to the customer's sexual curiosity' (the shop-type fashion-health category). These need a notification (届出), not a licence, per premises (Art. 27). They may not operate within 200 metres of schools, libraries, child-welfare facilities and other facilities designated by the prefecture, or in areas the prefecture closes by ordinance (Art. 28(1)–(2)); premises already notified when a restriction takes effect are exempt (Art. 28(3)). Under-18s may neither work nor enter (Art. 28(12)). Operating in a prohibited zone carries up to five years' imprisonment and/or a ¥10 million fine (Art. 49).

The Entertainment Business Act regulates these venues without permitting intercourse in them. Where it occurs, the Prostitution Prevention Act applies: the National Police Agency's 2025 report cites operators of sex shops arrested for providing premises as a business after providing private rooms knowing that women sold sex there, and the 2026 study group noted cases in which notified businesses had made large sales by providing places for prostitution.

Art. 11(1) Prostitution Prevention Act punishes 'a person who, knowing the circumstances, provides a place where prostitution is carried out' (情を知つて、売春を行う場所を提供した者). It contains no exception for sex workers themselves. Under the Entertainment Business Act, a person who runs a store-type or outcall sex business must notify the Public Safety Commission (Arts. 27, 31-2); doing business without notification carries up to six months' imprisonment and/or a ¥1 million fine (Art. 53(5)).

Prostitution Prevention Act. Art. 6: arranging (周旋) prostitution, or soliciting or advertising in order to arrange it, up to two years' imprisonment or a ¥50,000 fine. Art. 7: causing a person to sell sex by deception, by causing them perplexity or through family influence, up to three years or ¥100,000; by threats or violence, up to three years with an optional ¥100,000 fine; attempts are punishable. Art. 8: receiving or demanding the earnings in those cases, up to five years and ¥200,000. Art. 9: giving money or other benefits, such as advance loans, in order to make a person sell sex, up to three years or ¥100,000. Art. 10: entering into a contract to make a person sell sex, up to three years or ¥100,000. Art. 12: running the business of keeping people on premises to make them sell sex, up to ten years and ¥300,000. Since 1 June 2025 the custodial penalty is 拘禁刑, the single form of imprisonment introduced by the Penal Code reform.

Employment Security Act. Art. 63(ii) punishes job placement, recruitment or labour supply 'for the purpose of placing a person in work harmful to public health or public morals' with 1–10 years' imprisonment or a ¥200,000–3 million fine. The National Police Agency reports 2025 cases in which the leaders of scouting groups that recruited women on social media and placed them in sex shops across Japan were arrested under this provision, and the shop operators for providing premises for prostitution as a business.

Entertainment Business Act, 2025 amendment. Arts. 28(13) and 31-3(1) forbid soapland, fashion-health and outcall operators to pay anyone a referral fee for introducing a person who will provide services to customers ('scout-back'), with up to six months' imprisonment and/or a ¥1 million fine (Art. 53(7)). Art. 22-2 forbids hosts and other hospitality businesses to demand, by intimidation or seduction, that a customer raise money to pay her bill by prostitution, paid sexual acts, work in soaplands, fashion health or outcall, appearing in adult videos, or prostitution abroad (also Art. 53).

The 2026 study group found the custodial maxima adequate but said the fines are inadequate as a deterrent and should be raised.

Art. 5(iii) Prostitution Prevention Act punishes, when done for the purpose of prostitution, 'waiting for customers in a manner visible to the public, or enticing a person to become a party to prostitution by advertising or other similar means'. Art. 6(2)(iii) punishes the same enticement by advertising when done in order to arrange prostitution. The National Police Agency counts 'internet-related' prostitution offences separately: 90 cases in 2025, 65 of them soliciting.

For notified sex businesses, the Entertainment Business Act restricts how they advertise. Only a notified operator may advertise a store-type or outcall sex business, and only for the type it notified (Arts. 27-2, 31-2-2). Signs may not be displayed within 200 metres of protected facilities or in zones set by prefectural ordinance; flyers may not be put through house doors, handed out in those zones or given to under-18s (Art. 28(5), applied to outcall by Art. 31-3). Advertising must not harm the 'clean moral environment' and must state that under-18s are not admitted or served (Art. 28(8)–(9)). Breaches of Arts. 27-2, 31-2-2 or 28(5) carry a fine of up to ¥1 million (Art. 54).

The ban on advertising a store-type or outcall sex business applies to persons other than the notified operator 'for the purpose of operating' that business (Arts. 27-2(2), 31-2-2(2) Entertainment Business Act). On its wording it targets unnotified operators rather than independent media that publish ads. Art. 6(2)(iii) Prostitution Prevention Act punishes enticing customers 'by advertising or similar means' in order to arrange prostitution.

Operators of 'internet opposite-sex introduction businesses' (dating sites) must notify the Public Safety Commission (Art. 7, Act No. 83 of 2003). Anyone using such a site to entice a child under 18 into sexual acts, or to offer payment for dating a child, commits an offence (Art. 6; fine up to ¥1 million, Art. 33). The operator must promptly make such posts unviewable once it learns of them (Art. 12).

'Video-transmission-type' sex businesses (online sexual video services) must also notify (Art. 31-7 Entertainment Business Act). A hosting provider that learns such a business has stored obscene or child-pornographic video on its server must endeavour to prevent transmission (Art. 31-8(5)).

Art. 5 Prostitution Prevention Act punishes, for the purpose of prostitution: (i) soliciting a person in a manner visible to the public; (ii) standing in a person's way or following them on a road or other public place in order to solicit; (iii) waiting for customers in a manner visible to the public, or enticing by advertising. Under Art. 16, the Penal Code's bar on a second suspended sentence does not apply when someone is sentenced to imprisonment for an Art. 5 offence alone.

The National Police Agency recorded 200 cleared cases and 198 persons in its 'soliciting etc.' category in 2025 (277 and 270 in 2023). The 2026 study group was set up because street soliciting had become a recognised social problem. Most members favoured keeping Art. 5, arguing that repeal would send the wrong message that prostitution is tolerated. They asked for a provision or practice ensuring that, in charging and sentencing, how a person came to sell sex, her finances and her need for support are taken into account. The report also recommends a new offence covering buyers' soliciting (see Buying).

Store-type businesses notify per premises (Art. 27); outcall and other non-store businesses notify the commission where their main office is (Art. 31-2), listing every trade name used in advertising, how bookings are taken, the booking phone numbers and any reception or waiting rooms. The commission issues a certificate that must be kept at the premises (Arts. 27(4)–(5), 31-2(4)–(5)). Outcall businesses must not employ under-18s or take them as customers (Art. 31-3(3)). Operating without notification, or with a false one, carries up to six months' imprisonment and/or a ¥1 million fine (Art. 53(5)–(6)). The police may issue instructions and suspend a business for up to eight months (Arts. 29–30, 31-4–31-5).

At the end of 2025 the police held notifications for 21,353 outcall ('dispatch-type fashion health') businesses, 1,180 soapland-type and 640 shop-type fashion-health premises. The statute contains no health-examination requirement for workers.

The National Tax Agency's basic circular on the Income Tax Act states, under Art. 36, that amounts to be included in income are included 'regardless of whether the act giving rise to the income is lawful' (その収入の基因となった行為が適法であるかどうかを問わない).

On 16 June 2025 the First Petty Bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of a Kansai outcall ('delivery health') operator that had been refused the sustainability grant (持続化給付金) and rent-support grant (家賃支援給付金) in 2020. The majority held that the state may set eligibility on policy grounds and that excluding the industry was not unreasonable, citing concerns about workers' dignity. Presiding Justice Miyakawa dissented, finding the exclusion unconstitutional.

Art. 5(1)(vii) Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act denies landing to anyone who has engaged in prostitution, arranging it, soliciting for it, providing premises for it or other work directly connected with it, unless they did so while under another's control through trafficking. Art. 24(iv)(nu) makes a person currently engaged in such work deportable, with the same trafficking exception.

The general permission to work outside one's status of residence (up to 28 hours a week, e.g. for students) excludes work at premises of hospitality businesses, store-type sex businesses or late-night entertainment venues, and work in outcall, online-video or telephone dating sex businesses (Art. 19(5)(i) Enforcement Regulations).