Buyers of Prostitution Could Face Punishment Too — 5ch: “Crack Down and It’ll Just Go Underground”

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The story

As a countermeasure against “tachinbo” (streetwalkers soliciting customers), a proposal to make buyers punishable too was a hot topic on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (Live News) board. Under the current Anti-Prostitution Law, licensed sex establishments are regulated separately as “managed prostitution,” while only street soliciting and waiting for customers are punishable — leaving little in the way of penalties for buyers. In the thread, opinions split between those who said tightening regulation would just push things underground, and those who said it would at least reduce the problem on the streets, with some also explaining that brothels/parlors aren’t the subject of this particular debate.

What people said

1AnonymousAug 31, 2026 10:39
Buyers start getting arrested too

Overall demand drops & the "safe" customers vanish
2AnonymousAug 31, 2026 10:43
Crack down on what's already regulated under the entertainment business law and it'll just go underground.
8AnonymousAug 31, 2026 10:58
Re: #2
Nothing changes regulation-wise for managed prostitution, so brothels/parlors aren't affected.
What gets wiped out is street soliciting (tachinbo).
131AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:27
Re: #2
Fine if it goes underground.
Posting about it on X (Twitter) is the weird part.
7AnonymousAug 31, 2026 10:56
Nah, it basically means "just get a normal job."
13AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:03
Re: #7
That's probably not even on the table for them 😅
20AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:06
It's already hell to begin with.
Just go get welfare already, right?
28AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:12
Re: #20
Can't happen.
They want spending money for fun, and they also tend to refuse welfare.
22AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:07
Guess it paid off — the feminists lobbying to bring in the Nordic model 😤
24AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:08
Re: #22
The Nordic model doesn't punish sellers at all, only buyers.
Punishing both sides is just the standard — that's not the Nordic model.
26AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:09
If a prostitute gets arrested, does it stay on her credit record?
30AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:14
Re: #26
It sticks if she's indicted and ends up with a criminal record.
Prostitution cases are mostly not prosecuted, so an arrest alone won't leave a mark.
34AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:16
Re: #33
The girls work as independent contractors, so it's a "surely they're filing taxes properly" kind of thing.
38AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:23
Re: #34
There was a book, written by someone who supposedly worked at the National Tax Agency, saying there's a tendency not to crack down on sex workers.
At least the author said they'd never heard of a case where a sex worker got nailed for tax evasion.
57AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:35
I've been agonizing over my first-ever trip to a brothel, really looking forward to it,
but I never worked up the courage to actually go — am I done for now?

Is there any relief for guys like me? Is the ban only on street soliciting?
63AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:38
Re: #57
Just go to a regular soapland, you'll be fine.
65AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:38
Re: #57
Brothels have nothing to do with this.
This is an attempt to punish certain acts on the seller's side, to balance out the fact that street soliciting and touting by buyers is already punishable. Managed prostitution only punishes the managers (the ones running the operation) in the first place — sellers themselves aren't punished, and there's no incentive to touch the buyer side there.
61AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:36
This policy's aim is probably to help the women involved in prostitution,
but fundamentally, women who already make their living off it never actually get saved by this — it doesn't help anyone.
66AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:39
Re: #61
The real goal is grant money, dressed up as a "relief measure" by making both selling and buying illegal.
NPOs are mixed up in it, so the answer's already obvious.
That was the goal from the start — what actually happens to the women is beside the point.
70AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:41
Re: #61
Street soliciting will definitely go down though, so it's good for local residents at least.
69AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:40
Going forward, you could get sued by the woman after hooking up with a street prostitute, so nothing good's gonna come of this.
71AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:41
Re: #69
I'd like to call this a "solo honey-trap scam" (badger game).
73AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:41
Re: #69
More like blackmail than getting sued.
Seriously, it's just a badger game (honey-trap scam).
87AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:49
Guys will just go abroad.
89AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:50
Re: #87
Developed countries are increasingly turning people away at entry for this.
There are apparently still lax countries though.
93AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:51
Re: #87
Anti-prostitution-buying laws came from overseas in the first place.
90AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:50
Making it state-run and turning it into one big theme park would be safer for the sellers too.
STDs have apparently spread to a point of no return, right? They need protecting.
94AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:51
Re: #90
No way the women's groups would ever allow that.
There's no money in it for them.
100AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:56
Re: #90
Making it state-run would force strictness both substantively and procedurally, which would only make the underground scene flourish even more.
Overall it's better to have things dominated by the current loose-but-registered brothel system that still maintains some order.
They should turn a blind eye to brothels that operate quietly and let them prosper, while stamping out street soliciting and the like one by one.
119AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:14
By the way, is street soliciting actually illegal in some way?
124AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:18
Re: #119
The Anti-Prostitution Law doesn't criminalize prostitution itself,
but soliciting or waiting for customers in a way visible to the public is punishable.
126AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:19
Re: #119
Prostitution is a crime 🥺

Background and key points of this topic

The current Anti-Prostitution Law doesn’t criminalize the act of prostitution itself, but soliciting or waiting for customers in a way visible to the public is punishable. Managed prostitution is structured so that only the operator side is punished, and licensed brothels/parlors aren’t the subject of this particular debate. The term “Nordic model” came up in the thread, but that model properly refers to a system that punishes only buyers and not sellers at all — an easy point of confusion, since it differs from this proposal, which assumes punishment on both sides. Opinions split between the view that tightening regulation will just push things underground, and the view that it will at least reduce street soliciting, and it’s worth noting that the claim that NPOs are involved for the sake of grant money remains unsubstantiated speculation.

※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Recurring] Punishing buyers of prostitution too — looks like the start of hell for bottom-tier prostitutes.”

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