A look at how the economy is impacting Japan’s hostess industry. Read more at Japan Today…

Ginza’s hostesses feel the economic pinch

“I’ve been in business in Ginza for 40 years and never have I seen things this bad,” says a club “mama” describing life these days in Tokyo’s most fashionable nightlife district. “Three days and not a single customer! The first two days we all drank away our blues, but now we’re ready to burst. What if nobody comes, ever?”

The 1990s collapse of the economic bubble hit Ginza hard; the “Lehman shock” of 2008, Shukan Shincho finds, hit it even harder. Some 20,000 of the world’s most elegant hostesses work in the district’s 4,000-odd bars, clubs and restaurants. What happens to them when times turn sour and elegance becomes dispensable?

There is no one answer, of course. Most tough it out, swallowing pay cuts for lack of a viable alternative. Others go home to their parents in the country. A growing number, says Shukan Shincho, are drifting downmarket to the trade known as “fuzoku”—ero-entertainment where the line between entertainment and prostitution is thinly drawn. No recession, it seems, can kill this industry. It thrives, and the pay is robust—so much so that even the debts (10 million yen on average, estimates one soapland owner) incurred in pursuit of the lifestyle Ginza once represented can be paid off in about a year.

“My base pay used to be 70,000-80,000 yen a night,” says “Shiori,” a Ginza hostess. “Now it’s 30,000 yen less, and there’s no use complaining. I’m not bringing in as many customers these days, and if I come on too strong, they’ll just say, ‘If you don’t like it, quit.’ Quit and go where? So I put up with it.”

Read more in the pages of The New York Post…

Naughty hottie beats lap rap
By LAURA ITALIANO

One lap dancer over the fence!

A Manhattan judge has dismissed the charges against one of two strippers embroiled in a salacious and wacky Manhattan prostitution trial, saying the DA failed to prove she sold anything more than a couple of jiggles and a dream.

That left her co-defendant and lesbian floor-show partner — buxom porn star Alexia Moore — alone to insist from the witness stand yesterday that the pair never, ever, offered a “threesome” to an undercover cop for $5,000.

All she did was flirt, the blonde testified.

“That’s what an entertainer does,” Moore said, her black tights and crocheted sweater straining to contain her professional assets. “To keep getting dances.”

As for her dance partner, Falynn Rodriguez, all charges were dismissed yesterday after her lawyer argued that when the undercover allegedly invited her to join the threesome, all she did was make an eyebrow-raising reference to a sex act.

Read more at The New York Post…

Dancers lapped it up at strip club: cop
By LAURA ITALIANO

It was just your typical nightclub.

OK, so there was a bed in the middle of the dance floor. And porno movies playing on a big screen — right above the buffet table.

Big Daddy Lou’s Lap Dance Club on W. 38th street was brought to life in vivid police jargon this afternoon, as an undercover vice cop took the stand in a wacky Manhattan prostitution trial where a pair of lesbian sex-act dancers are insisting they’re not that kind of stripper.

“There were also several females dressed in lingerie attire,” Undercover No. 0148 told the judge, describing the June night in 2008 when the two shapely defendants allegedly offered him a $5,000 threesome.

Porn star Alexia Moore and topless dancing partner Falynn Rodriguez say that while they do shake it — in a Thursday night sex show once highly touted on the club Web site — they don’t sell it. They’ve turned down a no-jail prostitution plea and are risking a 90-day jail sentence to clear their names.

Read more at WOAI.com…

Exotic dancers arrested during raid at strip clubs
by Demond Fernandez

Eight exotic dancers and four managers are under arrest after a raid at a couple of local strip clubs. Investigators say workers at those businesses were breaking the law by performing without any clothing.

One woman tried hiding her face from News 4 WOAI’s camera as police led her to a patrol car. Detectives say that dancer is under arrest now for what she wasn’t hiding from her customers.

“We came in to do our inspection and found some girls dancing in an all-nude state,” said San Antonio Police VICE squad Lieutenant Andy Rodriguez.

Full- and semi-nudity is illegal at strip clubs in San Antonio. That’s not stopping workers at some clubs from doing it according to Lt. Rodriguez and the City and District Attorney’s Offices.

News 4 WOAI was on the scene as undercover officers arrested four dancers at Paradise Gentlemen’s Club off I-35. Two managers were also arrested for allegedly allowing nudity to happen at the East side club.

At the same time, additional officers were raiding XTC Cabaret. There, another four dancers and two managers were arrested for breaking ordinances against nudity, according to police. Detectives say some of the arrested workers claim they didn’t know dancing nude was against the law.

Read more at RGJ.com…

Angel in red: Reno woman helps sex workers
By Geralda Miller

Women who work in the sex industry are not invisible to Sharnel Silvey.

As founder of A Scarlet Covering, a nonprofit organization that provides counseling and resources to women in the sex industry, she continues to work with women who she feels are neglected.

“I embrace them as a human being and want them to know that they’re loved and that we’re here for them,” she said.

Silvey has been busy since the stories that ran two months ago in the Reno Gazette-Journal about her and her organization.

She served Thanksgiving dinner to 40 women who work at Diamond Dolls and Fantasy Girls strip clubs; served dinner, decorated a Christmas tree and delivered gifts to women at the Big 4 Ranch brothel in Ely with members of the Strip Church in Las Vegas. She also has been working two days a month with Judge James Van Winkel in Reno Municipal Court with women arrested for solicitation, a misdemeanor in Nevada.

“We want them to know that we’re here,” Silvey said. “This is an avenue for us to let them know that we support them, regardless of what they’re doing. Society has rejected them and considered them an outcast.”

Sandy McClelland, house mom at Fantasy Girls, said the women who work at the strip club were surprised that Silvey and her organization wanted to serve them dinner.

“I think it’s incredible, really, that there are people that want to go out and do good things for no monetary gain and they just want to do it out of the goodness of their heart,” McClelland said. “I think they like the idea of somebody giving back to them and actually caring.”

Read more at NJ.com…

Prostitution arrest made at Delilah’s Den adult entertainment club in Manville

A 27-year-old woman working as dancer at an adult entertainment club called Delilah’s Den in Manville was arrested at the club on Tuesday and charged with engaging in prostitution, a disorderly persons offense.

The woman was transported to the Manville Police Department, where she was processed and released on her own recognizance.

Her arrest at 1:15 p.m. on December 15 comes after a one-month long investigation conducted by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force and the Manville Police, according to the county prosecutor.

Read more at Local12.com…

Newport Strip Clubs Raided

Police and prosecutors will meet today to go over evidence collected during raids at two Newport strip clubs Tuesday night. Twelve people were arrested and more suspects are expected to be brought up on charges.

The Brass Mule and The Brass Bull sit across from one another on Monmouth Street near Sixth Street. Newport Police, wearing masks and bullet proof vests, raided both businesses late Tuesday night. Dancers, bartenders, and patrons were ordered to lay on the ground as police conducted the raid.

A dozen people were arrested on charges ranging from prostitution, to nude dancing, to drugs and identity theft. Police say the investigation centers around prostitution and the possible sale of marijuana and cocaine at the clubs.

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James Daley is the Campbell County Attorney. He says he expects to make more arrests after going through the clubs records. “I guess this goes back to the old days. When I was a trooper, we raided a lot of these places. These two were in existence at this time and if memory serves me correctly, we raided these two before. We’re looking to take these people as far as we can as far as prosecution and forfeitures to affect Newport’s environment.”

Read more at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel…

Key employees of Boynton strip club post bond after raid
Dozens charged with prostitution, drug sales and racketeering
By Brian Haas

Four key employees of a Boynton Beach strip club who were arrested Saturday were released from jail after posting bond.

Detectives said a four-month investigation had uncovered organized drug dealing and prostitution in Platinum Showgirls’ VIP rooms.

The club owner was arrested on charges of racketeering, felony public nuisance, using his property for drug sales and profiting from known prostitution occurring on his property. He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail on Sunday night

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The city’s last strip club was closed Saturday. City police, working with state and federal agencies, have charged at least 30 employees of Platinum Showgirls with more than 50 counts, including racketeering, trafficking in oxycodone, sale of cocaine and prostitution.

“This establishment has generated many complaints, not only from the residential neighborhoods nearby, but from citizens throughout the city,” said Boynton Beach Police Chief G. Matthew Immler.

Read more at Philly Burbs.com…

Six arrested in prostitution bust
by DAVID LEVINSKY

Six dancers from The Playhouse topless bar were charged with prostitution early Thursday morning.

The dancers were arrested after an eight-month investigation into activities at the Route 130 establishment, police said.

The investigation was conducted by the city police and Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

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Police said more arrests are pending but they did not name any other suspects or release additional details about the investigation.