Prostitution: Exploitation of women or a tool of exploitation for women?

Dirty older man pays young innocent underage girl for sex. Statutory rape, right? Most of the time, it's not so simple in Japan. Case in point: yesterday, 4 minors were arrested for extorting money from a 27-year old opthamologist who paid a 17-year old girl 10,000 yen for a night of fun. After she collected her cash, the girl and her friends blackmailed the doctor into giving them 130,000 and his million-dollar watch. The doctor turned the kids in, getting himself in trouble for violating the Anti-Child Prostitution and Pornography Law but ending the cycle of violent exploitation that could have ensued. This type of blackmail is actually fairly common. This instance ended with just one extortion, but there have been previous cases where the blackmail went on for months, and for millions and millions of yen. I like this story because it reverses the conventional idea that prostitution is an exploitation of women. Story here.