"Age-fraud" in Soapland in Yoshiwara!?

It is not rare in sexual industry girls have fake ages written in their profiles to protect their privacy and safety. However, in Yoshiwara, the most famous soapland district in Tokyo with a long history, there is a unique system called "Yoshiwara age" that is in particular special yet not widely known even among Japanese.

It is said that "Yoshiwara age" was first originated during the Edo period when Yoshiwara was still a yukaku or hanamachi, the habit of using Yoshiwara age remains until now in the soaplands. The rule is like this: when a girl starts working in a shop at her early 20s, her profile shows 20 as her age. From there on for each single increment of age in the profile, that corresponds to an increase of 4 or 5 years in the girl's age which varies from shop to shop. For instance if a girl is 25 years old written in her profile, this may mean she entered the shop in her late 30s or even 40s. Furthermore the age in one's profile would remain the same as long as the companion keeps working for the same shop, a girl can keep claiming to be 21 years old for more than 10 years!

You may wonder why the companions do not show their actual ages. Not only the privacy reason that helps them being not recognized by anyone knowing them in the real life, customers are mostly attracted by young girls but the ages can only be judged by the numbers in the profiles. No one is going to play with a lady honestly saying she is exactly 30 when everyone else in the industry claims herself below 25. Also the majority of customers in soaplands are middle-aged or older men who are not as sensitive to the difference between 20s and 30s as young men.

Despite providing an unreal information, the age written in a profile also gives incentive to the companion to act if she was younger, she can be dieting, participating in sports to keep her body fit and sometimes with the aid of all kinds of cosmetic treatments, a companion can look apparently prettier and younger than girls in the same age. The companions who are actually more mature and experienced could even do better in talking and reacting to the customers than the girls in the early 20s.

Unless you are too picky you must meet a young girl in her early 20s, Yoshiwara is a place you can have fun without caring too much about the age of your companion.