News Sex workers relocate from Osaka alley following bright yellow paint makeover

More of a relocation than a solution:

A simple change in the environment has significantly reduced the number of prostitutes soliciting clients in a narrow alleyway in Osaka's Taiyujicho district, located about a 10-minute walk from JR Osaka Station. According to Masafumi Fujino, 79, who heads a local crime prevention group, the alley used to attract over ten women at a time. However, since the alley was painted yellow in December last year, local officials report that the number of sex workers has dropped by around 90%. The approach is based on "nudge theory," which suggests that subtle changes in surroundings can encourage voluntary shifts in behaviour. In this case, the yellow paint made the women feel exposed and less comfortable standing there. Meanwhile, police are also working on longer-term strategies, including supporting those who wish to leave the sex trade entirely.

The number of prostitutes there sharply increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. Fujino said that some residents grew so weary of the change in their neighbourhood that they moved out of the area. Since summer 2023, officers at the Sonezaki Police Station have sent papers to prosecutors on more than 30 women suspected of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law in the area. Despite the arrests, the women returned to the alley to solicit customers. "There was a limit when all we could do was to conduct crackdowns," Ryu Kitagawa, then chief of the community safety division at the police station, recalled. "It was like playing a cat-and-mouse game." The National Research Institute of Police Science suggested that the police station employ the nudge theory. Police officers and local residents painted a yellow 100-meter stretch of the alley in December. Illustrated stickers designed by students at a local vocational school also decorate the alley. Osaka prefectural police have surveyed the alley four times a day. The results showed an average of 7.43 women solicited customers in the week before the alley was painted yellow. The maximum number was 17.

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According to a survey carried out by Sonezaki Police Station involving 28 women suspected of engaging in prostitution, the average age of the respondents was 24.4 years, with over 60% reportedly burdened by debts owed to host clubs. One of the women explained that she was struggling financially and found that soliciting on the street provided a higher income than working in a sex parlour. Commenting on the alley painting initiative, Professor Takeshi Haraguchi of Kobe University's graduate school of social geography remarked that such efforts, which merely prompt women to relocate, amounted to temporary fixes. He emphasised the need to consider why women are compelled to stand in such areas.

I wonder where they got that idea?

More on Osaka's "nudge campaign:"

Road painting and artwork placement concluded in December 2024. To evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions, plainclothes officers from Sonezaki Police Station conducted patrols four times daily for a week. The average number of people lingering per patrol dropped substantially, from 7.43 in November 2024 to just 0.86 in February 2025. According to Shimada, using nudge theory to counter prostitution is unprecedented globally, making this initiative particularly groundbreaking. Masafumi Fujino, 79, who leads neighborhood crime prevention efforts, praised the interventions, saying, "The street has become brighter, and people in our community are talking about how much easier it feels to pass through now." Police plan to continue patrols and monitor whether the positive changes endure.

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The "nudge theory" is a concept from behavioural economics proposed by Nobel Prize-winning American economist Richard Thaler. "Nudge refers to lightly prompting or gently influencing someone's behaviour toward making better choices. It aims to shape people's decisions subtly, without forced compliance, by analysing and influencing behavioural motivations.