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Prostitution in Japan has existed through the country's history.
While the Anti-Prostitution Lawof 1956 states that: "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", various loopholes, liberal interpretations of the law and loose enforcement have allowed the sex industry to prosper and earn an estimated 2.5 trillion yen a year.
The Shinto faith does not regard sex as a taboo, while the impact of Buddhist teachings regarding sex has been limited.
Article 3 of the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", but no judicial penalty is defined for this act. Instead, the following are prohibited on pain of penalty: soliciting for purposes of prostitution, procuring a person for prostitution, coercing a person into prostitution, receiving compensation from the prostitution of others, inducing a person to be a prostitute by paying an "advance", concluding a contract for making a person a prostitute, furnishing a place for prostitution, engaging in the business of making a person a prostitute, and the furnishing of funds for prostitution.
However, the definition of prostitution is strictly limited to coitus. This means sale of numerous sex acts such as oral sex, anal sex, intercrural sex and other non-coital sex acts are all legal. The Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law of 1948, amended in 1985 and 1999, regulates these businesses.
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