Career: Sex Work

takes place in a brothel  and basically almost every character is a sex worker or sleeping with one

giggilos at a brothel  

Some of the characters, including one of the protagonists (Keito), are in-story referred to as "Scouts." I think they basically work as pimps? But the ways its described is they find people to become sex workers and hostesses. Keito's mother is a sex worker and there are several other sex workers who are given names with speaking roles. Keito also did sex work when he was a child. Chihiro's ex also casually mentions having gone to a brothel. There are also several other non-speaking characters who are implied to be sex workers kept against their will, and some sex workers in the very beginning who are given names and short dialogue but have no other role than to set the scene.

about a gigolo

this is about sex work

adult video industry. some people were being arrested on prostitution charges

one  of the guys is a sex worker, cruising style

This focuses on Chihiro, who used to be a sex worker. Very good slice of life.

this is about transactional relationships. It covers rental girlfriends, sex work, and host bars.

Two characters work/ed in porn.

one of the main characters is in love with a sex worker and we also get to know her colleague

A supporting character is a sex worker. She also has a love story with a minor character. There's also another character who has a private client into various play scenarios. And lastly, Makoto gets picked up for sex work when he is working in a host bar.

In episode 4 we meet Sutezo, who is a sex worker. He is quickly abducted for the Ooku. He does not seem to mind being a sex worker, and even enjoys it. This show takes place before Ooku (2010) and before The Castle of Crossed Destinies

Emonnosuke was a sex worker for noble ladies before he moved into the Ooku. He mentions that he considers himself like a rat and feels dirty because of the sex work. He didn't choose to be a sex worker. Instead, he did it to support his family, though we get a sense he somewhat resents them for it. This film takes place between Ooku (2010) and Ooku: The Inner Chamber.

FL used to be a baiqi, which I guess is a prostitute. I didn't fully understand, but I believe her father sold her to a the spy network who raised her in a brothel. It was there that she was trained to perform baiqi services as a spy and assassin. Her sex work isn't diminished in the show, and is brought up a few times throughout her romancing with the ML. Though in the first episode the story is set up so that she will be doing sex work, her plan is interrupted and after that she doesn't do so. Her history as a sex worker influences her characterization and how she develops as a character.

the protagonist was forced into a brothel before she was employed as a maid. There's also a minor character who is a gigolo at a brothel. She continues to use her flirtatious skills in order to seduce men for information while working as a guard/teacher to her prince. He, however, does not approve out of jealousy.

Several supporting characters work at a brothel. Also the FL's sister worked in one as well. 

The protagonist is a sex worker. She seems to do this for her own pleasure but she's also tortured by her sexuality? At least that's what I think I got from this. There's also a minor character who is implied to have been a sex worker and/or harassed by a previous employer with money in exchange for sexual favors. And then there's another minor character who is more clearly a sex worker in a red light district who gets pissed at her client and tells him to scram. The two leads end up being serial killers. 

Ichiko's friend mentions a massage parlor that has a special kind of session (for sex work). In the second episode, Ichiko goes to the massage parlor to meet a massage therapist/gigilo named Rei. The parlor is designed specifically for women I believe? And is made up of male massage therapists. While one of Ichiko's friends finds all of this very exciting, her husband is very uncomfortable with Ichiko seeing a giglo. When Rei stops working as a giglo, he keeps up a friendship with Ichiko, but Ichiko admits that she hasn't really felt comfortable getting to know Rei on a personal level. It seems like he is more of a fantasy to her than a real person, but Rei seems to want to overcome that distance between them. Rei ends up falling for Ichiko pretty hard, but she's determined to stay with her husband. 

The guys go to a brothel trying to meet up with an ex-girlfriend

during the human arch, one of the central characters (not the main) is a sex worker. Or as it's phrased she works at a pleasure house? Idk they phrased it in a way that I wasn't actually sure what she did with her customers.

Yuma tries to have sex with a sex worker. He's kind of rude. 

One story arch centers around an off-screen sex worker and her brothel. The story starts around episode 24. Some time around episode 60, not sure exactly when, Gu Tingye visits a brothel again several times and especially talks with the head of the brothel. Despite the overall dissent towards sex workers throughout the show, Gu Tingye seems to at least view them as people.

In episode 3 we meet Linlang, a debuting courtesan at Lingxiang Pleasure House.

In episode 15 we meet a sex worker. It's implied that she ended up in the work because of her family's debts. Her love was the FL's brother. 

We also meet Wulan, who appears to be a sex worker that has also studied martial arts and is a spy. 

The two work at the same brothel. 

The FL gets jealous when she see's the ML there and he then tries to explain in a few ways that he was not a patron there. 

A minor character and several characters without speaking roles are sex workers who are murdered by serial killers

I believe it starts off at a strip bar where some of the strippers are also sex workers

A minor character used to work at a brothel until she married the FL's brother. She ends up working at the health clinic and training under the FL to become a physician as well. This character disappears from the story after the first arch ends

In the second season, she comes back for an episode when the FL is forced to visit her hometown (iirc). 

one of the minor characters is a sex worker, or maybe it was the main character's neighbor sleeps with sex workers? i cant remember

The tenth Rakugo story is the "Shinagawa double suicide," which is about a geisha in the red light district who decides to kill herself after her old clients don't lend her money.

The ML is known to frequent brothels, but not to have sex. He just enjoys the company and music. I feel like this is a minor trope and I kind of want to track where I've seen it now....

One or two of the episodes takes place in I guess its a brothel for giggilos. It's about the FL trying to have sex outside of her relationship, which she ends up choosing not to 

Fan Xian uses the brothels as an alibi and meets several high class workers

One of the FLs is a courtesan, but based on the dialogue she might not be a sex worker.

There are a few sex workers throughout. 

AV Worker