Since sexual intercourse for money is officially prohibited, the sex industry in Japan has developed into a variety of forms. Soaplands are bath houses where customers are soaped up and serviced by staff. Fashion health shops and pink salons are notionally massage or esthetic treatment parlors; image clubs are themed versions of the same.
Call girls operate via delivery health services. Outcall call girl businesses distribute advertising handouts to home and apartment mailboxes, telephone booths , public toilets and the like in big cities in Japan.
There are also numerous websites to find these businesses or other similar businesses. Fashion-health clubs can be found in all large cities in Japan and are easy to spot because of their bright flashing lights and garish decor. Often advertised as "health clubs", they may confuse foreigners unfamiliar with the activities inside. These clubs usually post pictures of their so-called masseuses near the entrance; however, sometimes faces and eyes are censored with pixellation or black strips.
Some club entrances feature caricatured depictions of the services provided. They differ in that image clubs are themed along popular sexual fantasies such as an office, a doctor's surgery, a classroom, or a train carriage.
The workers themselves, whose activities are usually limited to oral sex, wear exaggerated costumes appropriate to the setting and the desire of the customer. Image clubs may offer itemized pricing for particular services such as taking instant photographs, removing a woman's underwear or taking it home. Pink salons skirt laws against prostitution by serving food, operating without showers or private rooms, and limiting the services provided to fellatio.
