The , also known as or , is a law that regulates entertainment places in Japan.

History

* 1948: Creation of the law. * April 1, 1959: Name change. * August 14, 1984: Extension to some businesses before midnight. * April 1998: Extension to some massage businesses and adult videos transmission by Internet. * November 2005: Penal regulation enforcement, various new rules. * January 2015: Proposition to relax the law is rejected. *Effective 2016 the law will be relaxed, allowing permits for exceptions as long as certain conditions are met including lighting and not operating near residential areas.

Targets

Businesses offering food and entertainment

* Category 1: Japanese cabaret. * Category 2: Kyabakura (hostess bar). * Category 3: Business where customers can eat and dance. * Category 4: Dance hall. ** At first this covered dance schools too. Dance schools were removed from this category in 1998 after the movie Shall We Dance? made

ballroom dance Ballroom dance is a set of European partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and te ...

popular. * Category 5: Bar. * Category 6:

Mahjong Mahjong (English pronunciation: ; also transliterated as mah jongg, mah-jongg, and mahjongg) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is played ...

and

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Gambling in Japan, Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of l ...

parlor. * Category 7:

Amusement arcade An amusement arcade, also known as a video arcade, amusements, arcade, or penny arcade (an older term), is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, mercha ...

Sex industry

* Within a local ** Category 1:

Soapland Prostitution, as defined under modern Japanese law, is the illegal practice of sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified' (unacquainted) person in exchange for monetary compensation, which was criminalised in 1956 by the introduction of article 3 o ...

. ** Category 2: Fashion health. ** Category 3:

Striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...

theater,

Adult movie theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the pat ...

. ** Category 4:

Love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sex. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, Japan. Although love hotels exist all over the world, the ...

. ** Category 5:

Sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in Par ...

Adult video arcade An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patr ...

. ** Category 6: Members-only bar for meeting persons of the opposite sex. This category was created on January 1, 2011. * Without a local ** Category 1: Delivery health (

call girl A call girl or female escort is a prostitute who (unlike a street prostitution, street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by ...

). ** Category 2:

Pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing an order by telephone call ...

. * Others ** Pornography video by Internet, brothel selection websites. ** Telekura. ** Telekura operated from home, for instance using a cellular telephone.

Businesses selling alcohol after midnight

Selling alcohol after midnight requires a permission. Also, after 10pm family restaurants must refuse non-accompanied people under 18 years old.

Authorization

Business in the "Businesses offering food and entertainment" class require an authorization from the prefecture's public safety commission. Business in the "Sex industry" and "Businesses selling alcohol after midnight" classes do not require an authorization, but require a notification.

Consequence on nightclubs

Dance is forbidden in nightclubs with dancefloors smaller than 66 square meters, or nightclubs that operate after 1am (midnight in some areas). While this rule has been mostly ignored for 50 years, around 2011 it started to be enforced by the police in Osaka,

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

and Tokyo. This led most nightclubs to display "No Dancing" signs, and some employed security personnel to actually prevent customers from dancing. In 2013, organization Let's Dance submitted a petition signed by 155,879 people to the

National Diet , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

, demanding that the part of the law regulating dancing be updated. Let's Dance has a sub-group called Dance Lawyers. The cabinet agreed to lift the ban on dancing in October 2014. Some have speculated this was in view of the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

References

{{Prostitution in Japan Japanese legislation Entertainment in Japan Prostitution in Japan