“For the first time, I actually enjoyed sex!” Lesbian escort agencies are becoming a form of care and well-being in Japan.
In Japanese society, prostitution is often framed as a necessary evil – a way to maintain social harmony by providing men with an outlet for their repressed sexual desires.
While there are a number of problems with this view, it also has a critical flaw: it frames prostitution as something only men want or need.
In Japan, female sexuality is often viewed through the narrow lens of heterosexual romance and motherhood. “Rezu fūzoku” changes this view.
Rezu fūzoku, which translated gives something like “lesbian sexual entertainment”refers to agencies where sex workers provide services to women. In Japan, this is totally legal.
Lucia Caballero says it began investigating female-to-female commercial sex and escort services in 2023.
Explore a niche market
Unlike many countries that have historically criminalized homosexual acts, Japan only banned them for a brief period in the 1870s, during an era of rapid, Western-inspired legal reforms.
After this period, the country did not reintroduce laws criminalizing homosexuality, allowing same-sex relationships to exist largely without legal interference. Furthermore, homosexual prostitution has never been illegal.
Lucía Caballero interviewed a man named Vaginathe founder of Lesbian Girls Club, an agency with branches in Osaka and Tokyo that provides sex workers to female clients.
Having noticed that the market was flooded with services for men, Obō opened the Lesbian Girls Club in 2007, an agency that organizes meetings between prostitutes and female clients.
Diverse clientele
Initially a niche market, rezu fūzoku gained greater attention when the artist Nagata Kabi He used Obō’s agency and later recounted his experience in his work “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness”.
Despite the term “rezu” – lesbian – in the name, Obō’s agency welcomes women of all sexual orientations.
“Some of our clients are lesbians. But many are heterosexual and also married. The majority are between 26 and 35 years old, although we also have customers in their 60s and 70s,” said the businessman.
Many Japanese women continue to have difficulty exploring their sexuality and expressing their sexual desires, even with their partners. This often leads to unsatisfactory sexual experiences, which can pave the way for sexless relationships – something that is increasingly common in Japan and a situation that many users of rezu fūzoku services have shared with me.
As Yuriko, a 35-year-old heterosexual customer at rezu fūzoku, explained: “For the first time, I actually enjoyed sex. Rezu fūzoku gave me the opportunity to try new things and feel good.”
Sex is healing and well-being
In Lucía’s interviews, the term “yashi” came up frequently. Means “treatment” and refers to activities or services that provide relief from daily stress and negative feelings.
Just as yoga classes or massages are seen as forms of iyashi, sex – especially commercial sex – is also seen this way in Japan.
“Men don’t understand women and their bodies”says Yuriko. “But sexuality is a fundamental part of life, and ignoring it only leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. Sex is iyashi.”
The use of this word shows how prostitution in Japan is not always seen as something to be ashamed of, but can also be seen as a form of self care.
For example, the practice of sending a sex worker to a hotel where she meets her client is called in Japanese “deriheru”or “delivery health”highlighting the connection with the iyashi kingdom.
Furthermore, a 90-minute session with a sex worker for women is often referred to as “wellbeing course”which associates sex with physical and psychological well-being.
Happy sex workers
Despite the widespread stigma against sex workers in Japanese society, the legal status of rezu fūzoku services offers workers a greater protection and ensures clear working conditions.
And as a marker of the industry’s growth, in Tokyo alone there are currently more than 10 rezu fūzoku agencies, according to my research.
In a country that has seen declining marriage and marriage rates, listening to women and understanding their needs has become increasingly important.
This legal form of sex work clearly fills a need, offering women a safe place to try new things and entrust their sexual pleasure to an expert – who happens to be another woman.
Many women simply want intimacy – to be held, caressed and cared for in a way that is lacking not only in the lives of single women, but also in the lives of women in relationships.
“I use this service to comfort and heal myself,” says Sachi, a 42-year-old woman married to a man. “It’s a kind of refuge for the heart that offers emotional richness.”
