Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan

A general view of the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. - AFP

TOKYO: Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo's west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists.

Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district.