JK business

The JK business is a form of commercial activity in Japan centered on providing simulated dating experiences with high school girls. The abbreviation JK stands for 女子高生 (joshi kōsei, ja:女子高生), a female high school student. According to the definition used in statistics compiled by the National Police Agency, the term refers to businesses that offer customer service while employing advertising that explicitly states or implies that minors are engaged in serving customers, using expressions such as "JK," "high school student," or "school uniform," regardless of whether actual high school girls are in fact involved in customer-facing roles. According to a survey conducted by Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Shun Otokita, as of 2017, cases in which actual high school girls, that is, individuals under the age of 18, were engaged in JK businesses were rare.

A typical JK encounter entails a girl distributing leaflets offering a JKお散歩 (jēkē o-sanpo, “a JK walk” or “a walking date”). It grew significantly around 2006 after the maid café boom in Akihabara, Tokyo had died down. Earlier, the service offered was known as a "refresh business". When police began investigations, the "sanpo business" arose in which a girl is paid for social activities such as walking and talking, and is also sometimes referred to as "fortune telling". Another activity is reflexology (Japanese: リフレ, rifure, ja:リフレ). Around 2015 to 2016, Akihabara was regarded as the center of this business.

The U.S. State Department reported in 2017 that the Government of Japan "does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking", and "continues to facilitate the prostitution of Japanese children".

According to a survey conducted by the National Police Agency at the end of December 2024, there were 91 establishments operating JK businesses that conducted their activities in a manner suggestive of high school girls providing customer service, regardless of whether actual high school girls were in fact serving customers. Of these establishments, 63 offered massages to customers, 11 operated as bars, 10 were restaurants, 6 provided viewing or photography services, and 1 offered conversation or fortune-telling games. Seventy percent of the establishments were located in Tokyo and 18 percent in Osaka. Within Tokyo, 31 percent were situated in Ikebukuro, 19 percent in Akihabara, and 16 percent in Shinjuku.