Some of these places may accept you if can communicate well in Japanese, but a great number don't care about your skills, just your face. That said, there are some places around that see the potential and are beginning to care only about the color of your yen and not your skin. When it comes to While brothels are still technically illegal, the ones there still survive because of a grandfather clause loophole in said law. To get there, you have to walk about a mile north of the Asakusa area to an area that's about 2 blocks long.
Word to the wise, though - foreigner-friendly places expect foreigners to not understand Japanese, so there will be some light scamming. Also, the pictures used to select the person you want to see is generally airbrushed, but the more high-quality read: expensive the place, the less likely this will happen. The Yakuza runs by a different set of rules than many gangs in other countries.
They generally don't mess with foreigners unless the foreigner does something particularly nasty to them. There is a standard printed placard saying no dogs and no foreigners. Sometimes a senior businessman wants to treat people to a night on the town. When I have been included in these outings, even as someone fluent in Japanese language and culture to the degree that I can hang with people who speak nothing but Japanese, we as a group have been denied entrance to more clubs than we were allowed due to this standard no foreigners policy.
They will not budge on this. Occasionally, a man at the door will allow a foreigner in unwittingly, not thinking there is any reason to ban foreigners, but they will catch hell for it from their management if they do that. The most reasonable explanation for this I have ever heard is that the Japanese customers feel uncomfortable if a foreigner is there.
You can reasonably be allowed into some kind of hostess club or even a strip club, but soapland I doubt any of them would let you in. So there are literally zero places offering adult entertainment beyond a hostess clubβI like places that offer a reasonably priced beer set with standard pleasant conversationβbut a soapland, I would be surprised if you were allowed in a soapland unless the staff is Chinese or Korean.
