She had the look of a girl who didnвЂ™t want to go home that night. вЂњHi,вЂќ Tachibana said, approaching a girl crouching in a busy meeting place near the Shibuya train station exit, her shoulders hunched over, carrying two bags.

Tachibana and two colleagues were out on patrol on a recent night in the busy area around Shibuya, with its neon-filled streets lined with cheap restaurants and fast fashion, looking for girls who might be in trouble. One of the people trying to do something about it is Jun Tachibana, from the nonprofit Bond Project, which is trying to get girls off the streets and stop them from falling into the JK business.

вЂњThere are men who want to spend time with high school girls, and there are girls who want to make money,вЂќ he said. Yuki Aoyama, a photographer known for his вЂњschoolgirl complexвЂќ pictures, said the way he sees it, itвЂ™s just a business. Some efforts have been made in recent years to curtail the business, but they have amounted to little - partly because so few people consider it a problem. State Department noted concerns about the sexual exploitation of children in Japan, saying that вЂњcompensated datingвЂќ in particular facilitates the sex-trafficking of children.ДЄlthough the age of consent in Japan is technically 13, in most places local ordinances increase it to 18. In its most recent report on international human rights practices, theВ U.S. вЂњJapan is a patriarchal society, and it has this mentality that the young and seemingly innocent are valuable and more alluring,вЂќ she said. Kazue Muta, a professor of sociology and gender studies at Osaka University, said the element of taboo makes girls in school uniforms sexually attractive to men.

There is also вЂњtour guiding,вЂќ when girls go for a walk with men, a walk that often ends with some kind of sexual service, and the straightforward вЂњcompensated datingвЂќ - being paid for sex.ДЄ mobile carrier store in Tokyo uses a high school girlвЂ™s uniform as part of its advertising. There are various levels of high school dating, starting with cafes staffed by underage girls and peep shows where high school girls sit behind a one-way mirror in their school uniforms, posing according to customersвЂ™ requests. (вЂњJoshi koseiвЂќ means вЂњhigh school girlвЂќ in Japanese, and the English initials JK are universally used here to describe the practice.)ДЄlthough some cafes like this are relatively innocent - those that employ high school girls must close by 10 p.m., which means the men arenвЂ™t too late getting home to their wives - there is a large part of this world that is not. This is JapanвЂ™s shady вЂњJKвЂќ or вЂњhigh school datingвЂќ business. вЂњThe uniforms make them lookВ one and a half times cuter than they actually are.вЂќ вЂњThey look so cute,вЂќ said his friend, in his 40s. They admitted that the uniforms are a big part of the attraction. вЂњI got tired of regular bars with old women.вЂќ вЂњWe actually find regular bars uninteresting these days,вЂќ he said. A 17-year-old girl in a school uniform brought the man and his colleague, both of whom declined to give their names, beers and chitchat. вЂњItвЂ™s easy to talk to these girls,вЂќ said one man in his 30s who was sitting at a wooden school desk in AKB High School, a cafe inВ Akihabara, a part of Tokyo known for its subcultures. More often, it involves sex - child prostitution by another name. Sometimes this involves a walk around the block or a drink in a bar. Here, вЂњhigh school datingвЂќ matches girls in uniforms with men in their 40s and 50s and beyond. TOKYO -В High school dating? No big deal in many parts of the world - but in Japan, it means something quite different. Although Airi, 18, is not a high school student, she wears her school uniform at a cafe in Tokyo because, she says, it makes her more popular with customers than when she wears her regular clothes.

Tokyo school life h scene