Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act

"No dancing" sign in a bar in Tokyo

The Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law (風俗営業等の規制及び業務の適正化等に関する法律), also known as 風俗営業取締法 (Fūzoku Eigyō Torishimari Hō) or fueiho,^[1] is a law that regulates entertainment places in Japan.

History

1948: Creation of the law.
April 1, 1959: Name change.
August 14, 1984: Extension to some businesses before midnight.
April 1998: Extension to some massage businesses and adult videos transmission by Internet.
November 2005: Penal regulation enforcement, various new rules.
January 2015: Proposition to relax the law is rejected.^[2]

Targets

Businesses offering food and entertainment

Category 1: Japanese cabaret.
Category 2: Kyabakura (hostess bar).
Category 3: Business where customers can eat and dance.
Category 4: Dance hall.
- At first this covered dance schools too. Dance schools were removed from this category in 1998 after the movie Shall We Dance? made ballroom dance popular.
Category 5: Bar.
Category 6: Mahjong and pachinko parlor.
Category 7: Amusement arcade.

Sex industry

Within a local
- Category 1: Soapland.
- Category 2: Fashion health.
- Category 3: Striptease theater, Adult movie theater.
- Category 4: Love hotel.
- Category 5: Sex shop, Adult video arcade.
- Category 6: Members-only bar for meeting persons of the opposite sex. This category was created on January 1, 2011.
Without a local
- Category 1: Delivery health (call girl).
- Category 2: Pornography mail order.
Others
- Pornography video by Internet, brothel selection websites.
- Telekura.
- Telekura operated from home, for instance using a cellular telephone.

Businesses selling alcohol after midnight

Selling alcohol after midnight requires a permission. Also, after 10pm family restaurants must refuse non-accompanied people under 18 year-old.

Authorization

Business in the "Businesses offering food and entertainment" class require an authorization from the prefecture's public safety commission.

Business in the "Sex industry" and "Businesses selling alcohol after midnight" classes do not require an authorization, but require a notification.

Consequence on nightclubs

Dance is forbidden in nightclubs with dancefloors smaller than 66 square meters,^[3] or nightclubs that operate after 1am (midnight in some areas).^[1] While this rule has been mostly ignored for 50 years, since 2011 it has started to be enforced by the police in Osaka, Fukuoka and Tokyo.^[3] This has led most nightclubs to display "No Dancing" signs, and some employ security personnel to actually prevent customers from dancing.^[4]

In 2013, organization Let's Dance submitted a petition signed by 155,879 people to the National Diet, demanding that the part of the law regulating dancing be updated.^[4] Let's Dance has a sub-group called Dance Lawyers, composed of lawyers.^[4]

According to vice.com, the cabinet agreed to lift the dance ban on dancing in October 2014, speculating it was in view of the 2020 Summer Olympics.^[5]

References

External links

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