Women who have been prohibited from carrying on business as prostitutes, or giving up the life, have their name obliterated from the Police Registers. In the case of voluntary retirement, the applicant is, as a general rule, required to attend personally and prefer her request either in writing or orally, but the Police have discretion to dispense with personal attendance if they deem such attendance to be unnecessary under certain circumstances. No person can object to the cancellation of a registration, and any person proved guilty of causing entries to be made in the registers against the will of a woman is punishable with fine or imprisonment.
Once enrolled on the register of prostitutes, the woman’s freedom of action is naturally much circumscribed, as she is neither allowed to exercise her calling except in a licensed brothel, nor to reside outside the district assigned to houses of ill-fame by the various Prefectural Governments. Moreover, she cannot leave the appointed precincts for any purpose other than that of attending at a Police Station, unless, indeed, she has received permission from the police, or is acting in accordance with some law or regulation, or in conformity with some official order. When, however, the local laws allow her freedom within certain fixed limits, the above restrictions are varied mutatis mutandis.
To prevent coercion and unwarranted interference with the private concerns of women inhabiting brothels, Article 12 of the Notification provides that it is unlawful for any person to prevent them from enjoying the rights of free communication and interviews with friends, freely receiving and perusing letters and papers, owning and possessing articles, making purchases, and other rights of personal liberty. Persons infringing these provisions are liable to major imprisonment for a term not exceeding 25 days, or a fine of not exceeding Yen 25 (say U. S. $12.50 or £2 10/- sterling).
All women whose names are inscribed on the Police Registers are obliged to submit to periodical physical inspection, and if found suffering from any contagious disease, or any sickness incapacitating them, they are suspended, under pain of fine or imprisonment, from continuing their business pending treatment and the obtaining of a certificate of complete recovery.
As previously stated, the Police Authorities have discretion in the matter of granting or withholding licenses. Prefectural Governors may either suspend or prohibit the trade of prostitution, and the various Prefectural Governments are empowered to issue further detailed regulations within the scope of the Notification.
Women who were actually engaged in public prostitution when the new regulations came into effect in 1900, were registered without being required to make any of the formal applications hereinbefore mentioned.
There are several penal clauses in the Notification, imposing fines or major imprisonment on persons infringing the various regulations.
Brothels (kashi-zashiki), introducing-tea-houses (hikite-jaya) and prostitutes (sh�gi) are further governed in the T�ky� Urban Prefecture by Notification No. 37 issued on the 6th September, 1900, by the T�ky� Metropolitan Police Board, under the signature of Mr. Ōura Kanetake, Commissary of Police. This Notification, which superseded Notification No. 40 issued in July 1896, provides (inter alia) that brothel-keeping, the keeping of introducing-tea-houses, and public prostitution can only be carried on within the limits of certain quarters (yūkwaku) determined by the Metropolitan Police Board; but an exception to this rule is made in favour of persons who up to the time of the promulgation of the Notification had carried on business outside such quarters, and of the successors (s�zoku-nin) of such persons.
Persons desirous of engaging in the businesses of brothel-keeping or “tea-house-keeping� are required to submit plans and all details of the buildings to the Police, and to obtain a license. The same applies when any change is made in the buildings. As a precaution against accidents, staircases of a certain width have to be provided, and for every 1080 (30 tsubos) feet increase in the superficial area an extra staircase is required. The legal maximum width of these staircases is four feet, and the minimum three feet.