1957: LDP reluctantly refuses membership to 100,000 whores
Jan. 7
The government, readying for the end of the akasen, opens women’s consultation centers for prostitutes seeking rehabilitation.
Feb. 7
The National Venereal Disease Prevention Association, an organization created by businesses operating in the sex trade, submits an application to the three highest—ranking members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party asking it to reconsider the date the Prostitution Prevention Law will come into effect (due on April 1, 1958), as well as re-think the details of the law.
July
By the end of July 1957, there are 16,800 “national special restaurants,” the name given to places where non-coital sexual services are performed.
Aug. 7
The Prostitution Countermeasure Council demands complete policing of the Prostitution Prevention Law.
Oct. 9
The head of the National Venereal Disease Prevention Association applies to the Ministry of Health and Welfare for funds to support until the end of the following March sex businesses that voluntarily cease trade and prostitutes looking to find new professions.
Oct. 14
Leading members of the Liberal Democratic Party are arrested for graft in connection with prostitution-related incidents.
Oct. 30
Diet member Kiju Manabe is arrested in connection with the prostitution corruption case.
Dec. 2
The Ministry of Health and Welfare instructs Japan’s 46 prefectural governors to allocate funds to be used to cover the costs of rehabilitating prostitutes about to be forced out of work when the world’s oldest profession is outlawed in four months time.
Dec. 18
Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office prosecutors take in for questioning Diet member Wataru Narahashi in connection with the prostitution corruption case.
Dec. 31
Akasen districts in the Tokai Region (Mie, Shizuoka, Gifu, Aichi prefectures) declare they will cease operations immediately, the first place in the country to do so and a full three months before red light districts across the entire country will be legally obligated to shut down.
- During 1957, there was an increase in Pink Cafes (hand job cafes), a soft alternative to the doomed full service provided in akasen areas.
