"The Americans told the Japanese government that entertainment visas were being
used to foster prostitution and white slavery," a Filipina Pub promoter says.
"As a result, immigration has drastically reduced the number of entertainment
visas it issues to people who have applications along with documents from the
Philippine government saying that they are qualified entertainers."
Even those few who have managed to get into Japan have basically been made to
make hay while the sun shines.
"You used to be able to go home once every three to six months or so, renew
your visa and then come back again on another tour, but that's now been
outlawed," the promoter says.
The crackdown has had its effect on the once-thriving Filipina Pub business,
too. Strictly speaking, Filipinas on entertainment visas are prohibited from
working as nightclub hostesses. Many of the pubs that once employed them as
dancers are now turning to Japanese women to strut away on stage.
But the promoters who depended on being able to find jobs for the foreign women
are not giving up without a fight, even if it appears to be in vain.
"It's our livelihood," the promoter tells Shukan Shincho.
"We managed to find new jobs as hostesses for the girls the guy who killed
himself had been looking after, but then we were raided and the business was
shut down. We aren't treating these people as slaves. The Philippine women want
to work in Japan. We formed a group of promoters to apply pressure, but the pen
pushers from the Immigration Bureau don't even bother to talk to us, except to
say that we should find ourselves a new line of business."
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