Korea has the infamy of “the nation of prostitution” and it gets even stronger as it exports its biggest asset (and no, we don’t mean Samsung).
Along highways you used to find lines of sex shops with open windows like the chon no ma you get in Ueno, Kawasaki or in Osaka.
In the old days Korean sex shops used to be a hair salon but in the back room there would be “extra” services. However, since 2004 these kinds of places have disappeared. Likewise there used to be places that on the surface appear to be tea rooms that “delivered” things but with more on the menu that just coffee.
What’s big now are apartments rented out for prostitutes, who advertise with large B5-size signs in phone boxes.
There was a survey in 2010 on the state of the industry. Its results were not made public but a scoop in late 2011 revealed that the scale of prostitution in Korea stretches to 8.71 trillion won (over $8 billion), some 5% of the nation’s GDP. There are said to be some 4605 0 000 cases of prostitution yearly, with 14,2000 customers.
Many of the cheaper prostitutes in Japan are “exports” from Japan and likewise, sex tourism is big, men from Japan heading to the peninsular for cheaper thrills.
