Former In-House Attorney's Book Explores Japan's Sex Clubs

Marie-Anne Hogarth
The Recorder
November 8, 2005

When Joan Sinclair was working as an English teacher in Japan, she asked a friend to take her on a tour of Tokyo's red-light sex district.

That was before Sinclair got a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law and later worked as an in-house counsel.

But through her years practicing law, Sinclair says she couldn't forget Kabuki-cho, a neighborhood literally filled with thousands of sex stores stacked up to 10 levels high.

Inside the tiny establishments, men and sometimes couples played out elaborate fantasies. The tiniest of clubs were outfitted with one-way mirrors and elaborate sets designed to resemble commuter trains, elevators and even outdoor parks.

"Aesthetically, [the Japanese sex clubs] are very creative and very different from what we have in the states," she said in a recent interview.

Sinclair's fascination with the sex clubs translated into a year photographing the inside of clubs in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan. The fruits of her efforts, some 170 images, are now being made into a book, "Pink Box: Inside Japanese Sex Clubs," to be published by publisher Harry N. Abrams Inc. A regular and deluxe version should be available next fall, with editions planned in English and Japanese.

The book is titled after a famous sex club in Japan, but also because pink is the color used to refer to the so-called red-light districts.

The color also evokes what Sinclair describes as the semi-legal status under which many of the clubs operate. Many of the sex clubs operate under standard restaurant, liquor or massage licenses. There are also exemptions made for soaplands, or bathhouses, which have been operating in the Yoshiwara district of Tokyo since the 1600s, due to their historic nature.

Currently, Sinclair is writing the book's text, which will explore some of the clubs' legal challenges.

Now that she's back in San Francisco, Sinclair is hoping law firm managers will view her project in a positive light. She's looking for a job, hopefully with an international practice group, as a bilingual negotiator, a skill that she had to use to gain access to clubs in Japan.

It took time for Sinclair to develop relationships with the club owners. She dressed in a suit and came bearing gifts and a business card. Sometimes, she was accompanied by a Japanese businessman. Often, she drew up contracts exchanging the access they gave her for limited use of her photographs in their catalogues and industry publications.

"It took a lot of extra work," she said. "A lot of karaoke."