"The Dragon of Kabukicho," a man who made a small fortune acting as a bodyguard for young girls selling their bodies, has had his talons clipped, according to Shukan Post (4/11).

Yoshiyuki Tsuchida was arrested for breaking the Child Welfare Law by allegedly performing indecent acts on a 17-year-old girl in a love hotel in the Kabukicho adult entertainment district of Tokyo.

"He used to approach young girls selling sex in (entertainment districts like) Kabukicho and Ikebukuro and tell them he'd look after them for a cut of their take," a police investigation insider tells Shukan Post. "In a good month, he was taking home anywhere from 2 million yen to 3 million yen."

An 18-year-old sex seller who worked under the self-professed "Dragon of Kabukicho" explains to the men's weekly how he went about his business.

"The Dragon wasn't the type of guy to talk much about himself, but I guess he must have been a host at one stage. He used to hang out with a woman in her early 20s and I met him through her after I had made contact with her over the Net," the girl says. "She told me I could make lots of money selling sex and encouraged me to come to Tokyo, saying she knew a guy who would look after me and make sure I could work safely. That woman used to go around the men's cabaret clubs (like host bars where good-looking men entertain female clients, only less exclusive) and recruit girls to work in the sex business."

The Dragon's associate would arrange jobs for the girls she had recruited and then look after their payments.

"We girls only got 10,000 yen per job, no matter whether the customer paid 30,000 yen or 50,000 yen. The Dragon would take the rest," the girl says. "Some of the girls like the Dragon for making sure they got at least some income, but I hated him."

A national daily's reporter covering the case says the Dragon wasn't beyond using some of the young women he was supposed to be looking after if he felt their financial performance wasn't up to scratch.

"I get the feeling the girl he was arrested for abusing may have secretly contacted the police and told them what was going on because the Dragon had forced her into having sex with him for not making enough money," the hack says.

Kabukicho has, since around 2005 or so, been the target of a heavy handed clean-up campaign that was supposed to eliminate behavior the Dragon and his associates are alleged to have been carrying out. But those who know the entertainment district well say that a system has emerged to take full advantage of the young women with a yen for fast money and prepared to sell themselves to get it.

"In Kabukicho alone there are at least 20 men's cabaret clubs these young girls like going to so much. There's no saying how many guys like the Dragon are around," another journalist tells Shukan Post. "Even though there's a clean-up going on, it's really only a temporary thing and the sex business remains as healthy as ever, even if it's driven deeper underground." (By Ryann Connell)