A ‘vicious’ multibillion-yen system is pushing vulnerable young women who rack up extortionate bills into prostitution

Yuko’s 24-year-old daughter thought she had found the ideal partner when she matched with a man on a dating app three years ago. They were around the same age and both at university, where he was studying medicine.

The “match”, though, was the beginning of a nightmare that saw the young woman rack up debts of millions of yen at host clubs – money that she is paying back by dropping out of university and working in Japan’s commercial sex industry.