Filipina hostess Jun panicked when she heard British bar worker Lucie Blackman had been killed and mutilated in a horrific attack that sent shockwaves through famously safe Tokyo's bar industry.
But Blackman's death did not stop the 32-year-old Jun from working as a hostess, a job that has provided a lucrative income ever since she first came to Japan 17 years ago.
Blackman, 21, disappeared in July 2000 while working as a hostess in Tokyo's seedy Roppongi district, hoping to earn quick money to fund a trip to Australia.
After seven months of searching, with her photos pinned up on poles across Tokyo, her dismembered body was found buried in a seaside cave in Misaki, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Tokyo.
Obara was sentenced to a life in prison last week for the assaults on five Japanese and four foreigners -- from Australia, Britain, Canada and Ukraine.
Japan issued nearly 135,000 "entertainer" visas, long a convenient shield to bring in girls to work as bar hostesses, at the peak in 2004, of which 61.3 percent went to people from the Philippines.
The number shot down by more than 26 percent in the following year, triggering protests in the Philippines where critics said innocent workers would lose their livelihoods.
But observers said a significant number of foreign women, particularly those from Asia, had already settled in Japan as bar hostesses, slipping through the control of immigration authorities.
"Westerners used to work on their tourist visas casually as they backpacked the world," said Ryuji Demachi, a 51-year-old former freelance writer who specializes in Japanese nightlife.
Filipinas, Asians and Eastern Europeans are the most determined to make money and send it back to their parents or buy a house back home, he said.
Filipina hostess Jun is overstaying her entertainer visa, while her friend Gina, 35, is only on temporary release from immigration authorities, a status that could lead to her detention at any time.
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