Japan's Prostitution Prevention Act (1956) prohibits selling and buying sex, where prostitution means paid intercourse with an unspecified partner, but does not punish either act. It punishes the seller's public soliciting or advertising, and procuring, arranging, providing premises and running prostitution businesses. Sexual services other than intercourse are a legal, police-notified industry under the Entertainment Business Act: about 21,000 'delivery health' outcall businesses and some 1,800 soapland and fashion-health venues were on record in 2025. A 2025 amendment targeted host clubs that push indebted women into sex work. A Justice Ministry study group reported in September 2026 that buyers' soliciting should also become an offence and that fines should rise, while punishing the purchase itself needs more care. As of 3 November 2026 no bill had been submitted to the Diet. Source: Prostitution Laws (prostitutionlaws.org), https://prostitutionlaws.org/countries/japan/, reviewed 2026-11-04, CC BY 4.0.