IN THE 17th century Yoshiwara, in northeastern Tokyo (then known as Edo), was one of a number of red-light districts. Both female and male prostitutes walked the streets, offering a full range of services. Four hundred years later Yoshiwara remains a centre of the sex trade, but customers' desires are becoming less explicit. Scores of "soaplands" such as "Female Emperor" offer men a scrub by a lingerie-clad woman, for around ¥10,000 yen ($94).
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