You can't invest in love...

...but you can invest in hour-long stays in themed rooms with vibrating beds. Japanese love hotels, one of my favorite Japanese things, will soon be available for the discerning investor.

The articles focuses a lot on the aspect of organized crime in the Japanese love hotel business, but unlike "by-the-hour" hotels and motels in the U.S. (which are beyond sleazy -- I know, I stayed in one with a Journalism team as a joke in college. I still can't get the image of the pink, heart-shaped bed and the red carpet out of my mind) Japanese love hotels are frequented by regular people, primarily because of the culture of large, extended families living together combined with the tradition of paper dividers between rooms.

I have a little money left to invest, so I am waiting to see what the IPO looks like, and if Americans can invest too. An eight percent dividend is pretty sweet...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's secretive love hotels are opening up to European investors as one player in the sector prepares for a debut on London's stock market this month.

Japan Leisure Hotels, which owns five love hotels worth some 21 million pounds ($43.68 million) in Japan, hopes to lure investors to its IPO with an 8 percent dividend and promises of fast growth -- shedding light on a sector that is often associated with sleaze and organized crime.