Tokyo

Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Shibuya and the rest of Tokyo

Tokyo consists of 23 special wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages. Shinjuku Station is served by all JR lines, the Keio and Odakyu lines, the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line and the Toei Shinjuku and Oedo lines. GO TOKYO, the city's official tourism site, describes Kabukicho, north of the station, as a neon-lit maze of hotels and spots for nighttime revelry.

Ikebukuro Station is served by the JR Shonan-Shinjuku, Yamanote and Saikyo lines, the Tobu Tojo and Seibu Ikebukuro lines and the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi, Yurakucho and Fukutoshin lines, eight minutes from Shinjuku on the Yamanote Line. In Shibuya, Udagawacho and Maruyamacho are named as the streets for record shops, live music venues and clubs; Shinjuku is about seven minutes away on the Yamanote Line.

Where the ordinance allows business

Article 28 of the national Adult Entertainment Business Act bans store-based sex businesses within 200 metres of schools, libraries, child welfare facilities and similar sites, and lets each prefecture add prohibited areas by ordinance. Article 10 of Tokyo's implementing ordinance (Ordinance No. 128 of 1984) bans soaplands, store-based fashion health and reception offices everywhere except Senzoku 4-chome in Taito ward, blocks 16 to 32 and 41 to 48.

Article 9 of the same ordinance adds hospitals and clinics to the sites covered by the 200-metre rule. Under Article 11, store-based businesses and reception offices may not operate anywhere in Tokyo from midnight to 6 a.m. Nowhere else in Tokyo, including Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, can a soapland legally open under the ordinance.

Walk-in formats such as soaplands can only operate where the ordinance allows them. Delivery health is an outcall format used at a hotel or another place you choose. For outcall venues the area marks the reception or base, and the service range differs by venue.

Getting there

Haneda Airport connects directly to the Keikyu Line and the Tokyo Monorail: about 15 minutes to Shinagawa, 30 to Tokyo Station, 45 to Shibuya and 50 to Shinjuku. From Narita, the Narita Express runs to Tokyo, Shinagawa, Shibuya and Shinjuku and the Keisei Skyliner to Nippori and Keisei Ueno; Shinjuku is 1 hour 35 minutes away by train.

From Osaka, the Tokaido Shinkansen Nozomi takes about 2 hours 30 minutes from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo (2 hours 21 minutes at the fastest), and about 1 hour 40 minutes from Nagoya. Tokyo Station to Shinjuku is 14 minutes on the JR Chuo Line Rapid.

How RED LIGHT JAPAN divides Tokyo

This site splits Tokyo into 30 areas. Fifteen of them are Shibuya/Ebisu Area, Shinjuku Area, Roppongi Area, Ginza/Shinbashi Area, Akasaka Area, Ikebukuro Area, Ueno/Asakusa/Nippori, Akihabara/Kanda, Omotesando Area, Tokyo/Nihonbashi Area, Meguro / Shirokane / Gotanda, Kichijoji / Mitaka / Musashi-Sakai, Nakano/Nishi-Ogikubo Area, Yotsuya / Ichigaya / Iidabashi and Kinshicho / Koiwa / Ryogoku.

The other fifteen are Hamamatsucho / Tamachi / Shinagawa, Otsuka/Sugamo/Komagome/Akabane, Itabashi / Tobu Line Area, Keio/Odakyu Line Area, Kasai/Koto Ward Area, Tokyu Line, Seibu Line, Ohi/Kamata, Nishitokyo City Area, Chofu/Fuchu, Machida/Tama, Tachikawa City/Hachioji City Area, Koganei/Kokubunji/Kunitachi, Senju/Ayase/Katsushika and Fussa/Ome Area.

Each area is divided again by station, for example Shinjuku/Kabukicho, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Roppongi, Ginza, Ueno/Okachimachi/Yushima, Kinshicho, Gotanda, Kamata, Kichijoji, Tachikawa and Machida. Both store-based and outcall venues are listed in the area where the shop or its reception is.