The Dark Reality of Japanese Host Clubs

The Dark Reality of Japanese Host Clubs

So I was thinking about Ouran High School Host  Club the other day and… We all know that that  show isn’t actually about a host club, right? In the first episode of Ouran, we’re presented with this beautiful, finely kept lounge called the Host Club where, quote,

“the school’s most handsome boys with too much time on  their hands entertain young ladies who also have   way too much time on their hands. It is an elegant  playground for the super-rich and beautiful.”   It’s a space where male students entertain  female students through flirtatious gestures,  

And that practice resembles real-life host clubs…  but that’s where the similarities start and end.   Functionally Ouran’s host club is more like an  after-school lounge and a school spirit committee combined: it provides a hangout place for peers  and occasionally hosts fun events for the whole school.

As a plot device, it’s the jumping-off  point for friendships and relationship drama.   That’s the appeal of Ouran; we see this group of misfit twinks and one androgynous heroine have funand grow with each other. It’s a very wholesome, feel-good show, despite the fact that its premise is based on a mainstay of nightlife culture.

Not that this is surprising – Japanese pop media isn’t shy about depicting the adult entertainment industry. The video games series formerly known as Yakuza features mini-games where you run cabaret clubs and enjoy humanizing conversations with cast members.

Girls RPG: Cinderella Life is a 3DS game that lets you play as a hostess working in Neo Ginza. Isekai Kyabakura is a comic about a cabaret club transported into another world. Kabuki-cho no Jouou Aina, Kyuukyoku  no Sekkyaku Sukiru de Isekai no Ou ni naru 

Tells the story of a top-earning cabaret  hostess re-establishing her throne in another world. Isekai toka Yoku Wakanne  kedo Shanpan Hairimashitaaaa is about a   top-earning host who gets transported to  another world – I think you get my point.  Companionship work is not always vilified and is  instead often glamorized in Japan.

Even extremely intimate lines of work are fairly accessible  both for workers and customers, largely because there are no penalties built into the country’s  anti-prostitution legislation. While there is a  stigma around companionship work, most Japanese people do not find the industry scandalizing in the same way that many people in the west do. 

I wouldn’t say entering this line of work is often encouraged, but it is legally and socially  permitted as long as it doesn’t disrupt the peace.  So it makes you wonder why the Japanese  police force recently cracked down on host clubs. What the heck did they do  to draw the ire of the prime minister? 

This is A-Ko. She’s a college student who moved  to Tokyo for university, she has a part-time job at an izakaya bar and lives alone. One weekend she  spends the day with her friend at Shinjuku and by evening they stumble into Kabukicho, the infamous red-light district of Japan.

Her friend suggests they visit a host club because, as new customers, they get all-you-can-drink alcohol for a pretty low cost – 3000 yen per hour per guest. In dollars that’s less than thirty bucks. But A-Ko’s a little reluctant. Her perception of a host hasn’t been  updated since 2010.

She’s not into assertively flirtatious men in suits with voluminous bleached hair. A-Ko’s friend assures her that it’s not that sleazy, she’s gone to multiple host clubs as a new  customer and it’s a great way to drink for cheap.

You don’t have to commit to a host, and it really  isn’t that scary if you go in with a friend.  The two walk down to the lower floor of a  building, show their IDs to prove that they are adults,

And then are greeted by all the hosts  in the establishment as they are guided to their table. At the table, a staff member explains  the system to A-Ko; she and her friend will get to choose a few hosts from the catalog to talk  to, in addition to whoever else may be working at that time,

And they’ll sit with them for 7 to 10 minutes each. And so A-Ko’s carousel of handsome boys begins and her perception of hosts gradually shifts. First of all, they’re dressed a lot more casually than she  imagined. Long gone is the uniform of slick suits. Many wear a plain t-shirt or button-down  (although notably, they’re expensive brands)

And a good chunk of the boys are wearing hoodies  and street-style clothing. Hair and makeup are less gaudy and more clean and refreshing. Even the hosts that have a striking style are less spikey and more reminiscent of K-Pop idols, visual-kei,  Japanese Genderless style, or… just Yassified. 

Okay, pause here. I couldn’t find another place  to put this, but I need to talk about some of the   photos of hosts I found during my research.  For the privacy of these people, I’ve drawn   stylized impressions of them rather than show  the original photos. What’s important is that  

You get the kinds of feelings they inspire anyway. So the website “Hos-Hos” is the go-to database for public host profiles and host club information  made for both clients and host recruitment. There’s a lot of stuff here from club hours,  location and costs, sales rankings of hosts,  

Event report blogs etc. There are also plenty of  photos and videos of these men on this website,   and, although I understand that a host’s  otherworldly quality makes him stand out, some of these photos feel so strange. Like, this website has not one, not two, 

But currently 8 entries in their “waterfall host” photoshoot series. The first one I saw with this guy posing with a sword caught my eye, but in retrospect, it’s not too different from a typical D&D player’s cosplay,

But then I saw this one with a dude in cyber street wear with a toy rabbit in front of the water fall!? He has another stuffed  animal in a different phot- what even is that?  Then there are these photoshoots at abandoned  theme parks that don’t look too bad but I  

Can’t help but imagine how uncomfortable the  filming site must have been. Those abandoned   sites are overgrown with grass and you  know there are weird bugs everywhere.  My favorite one hands down though is this  seemingly average photograph of a man in  

A suit posing with a barrel shotgun in  a way I’ve never seen before. He has it resting on his shoulder without his hand on the  trigger. Sir, you are going to shoot your foot. Now, even though I’m poking fun at these specific images, let me clarify that this flamboyance does serve a purpose.

When hosts are asked about their jobs, a lot of them will describe it as “selling dreams.”  Their goal is to create a space, experience, and image that is dream-like so they can take  their clients out of their day-to-day reality.  

Everything from the neon lights of the club to the  cute champagne bottles shaped like teddy bears,   to the celebrity-level looks of the hosts turn  the club into a special and peculiar space that   gives clients a moment of escapism. And so it makes sense for these photos to look somewhat unnatural.

They are signifiers of unattainable  class and coolness, like K-Pop idols, bad boys in music videos, and even anime characters. I might think that these photos are a bit ridiculous,  but I also understand that not any random man  can pull off cyber streetwear. That charm is often what attracts women who go to host clubs.

Anyway, let’s return to A-Ko. As A-Ko meets the of hosts, she recognizes that they don’t just look different from each other, their personalities vary too. Some are the stereotypical princey,  caring type, some are more energetic and talkative   and use comedy to win their clients’ hearts,  some charm girls by acting cute and playful,  

And some are frankly a little awkward and you can  tell they’re a rookie, but that’s charming in its own way too. A lot of the men make subtle physical  contact with A-ko, such as touching knees,  and others aren’t as subtle about making a move. But she doesn’t hate it.

A-Ko never had a boyfriend  and is usually a bit nervous around guys, but she likes all the attention she’s getting. The alcohol is kicking in and she’s feeling a little  more happy and bold than usual. She especially likes Rin – his slender face, his medium-length hair, long fingers…

There’s a masculine charm to him that draws her in, but there’s also an effeminate quality that makes her feel safe.  After talking to about 7 guys the staff member  from the beginning comes to the table.

He asks if they would like to choose their favorite host  to guide them out of the club for the night,   OR extend their first visit for an additional  5,000 yen and nominate a host of their choice.   A-Ko’s friend who is already drunk and wants to  stay drunk suggests that they stay-

8000 yen or about 55 dollars per person for all-you-can-drink  with the company of handsome boys is still pretty cheap. And A-Ko would also like to talk to Rin a little longer… So A-Ko officially nominates Rin as her host for round two. Since she chose Rin to be  her designated host, A-ko signs a formal document  

To confirm this, and now she is not allowed to ask  for any other hosts in this club other than Rin.   And Rin is delighted! He sits even closer to A-Ko,  gets connected with her through a messaging app,  

And they have a fantastic night together. An  hour later the two ladies are guided out to the   elevator for a final goodbye, and in a dreamy,  drunken daze, they return to their homes. When   A-Ko gets back to her small apartment, she notices  that Rin has sent her a message. Memories of the  

Night come back to her, and she’s already missing  the atmosphere of the dimly lit club and the   conversations she had with him. She responds to  Rin saying she’ll go again soon, maybe next week.  And so A-Ko returns to the club a week later,  this time alone. She requests one hour with  

Rin. Immediately there’s an entrance fee  of 3000 yen, a table charge of 2000 yen,   and a nomination fee of 3000 yen. She is already  spending as much as she did on the first visit   even before ordering a drink. “Well, okay…” A-Ko  thinks to herself. “I expected it to be pricier  

Than the first time…” Her surprise at the starting  costs is blown away when Rin greets her and wraps   his arm over her shoulders. He’s very happy to see  her again and asks her how her day was. She’s also  

Asked what she would like to drink. She spots on  the menu a canned cocktail she likes to get from   the convenience store and orders that. She tries  not to think about how they’re usually 200 yen  

Per can but here she has to order a set of two for  3,000 yen. But really it’s fine because that money   is for Rin! Rin is a PLAYER, a host intensely  competing against the other hosts in the club for  

The title of top earner. Every yenny she uses at  the club counts towards his sales. This is how she   can thank him for his company and A-Ko sees how  much Rin appreciates the support. That’s why she  

Shouldn’t feel too bad for ordering a bottle of  shochu for 20,000 yen, or about 135 dollars. She   stays for two more hours at the club, that’s 2,000  yen for every additional hour, totaling 37,000 yen   or 250 dollars… before TAX. That’s an additional  35% to her tab, totaling 49,950 yen or about  

338 dollars. “Wait, isn’t Japan’s tax supposed  to be 10%?” Oh, yeah! “TAX” here refers to the   establishment’s service fee, so an additional  10% for the real consumption tax is added to the   “TAX”ed bill, totaling… 54,945 yen or 372 dollars. At the end of her stay, Rin tells A-ko he had  

A great night and wants to see her  again soon. She also feels the same   and can’t wait to see Rin again. And then she thinks to herself,   I need to find a new job. A-Ko’s second visit to a host club  

Is still on the cheaper end. Even her 20,000 yen  bottle of shochu isn’t anywhere near the average   cost of the host club’s most expensive drink.  For example, a bottle of Armand de Brignac which   at market price can range from 50,000 to 200,000  yen, that’s about 350 dollars to 1350 dollars, is  

Sold from 270,000 to 800,000 yen at a host club –  that’s anywhere from 1800 dollars to 5400 dollars.   Veuve Clicquots that can be bought from 6 thousad  to 25 thousand yen are sold from 40 thousand up to  

300 thousand yen. Red bulls that can be bought  for 200 yen at the corner store are sold for   two to three thousand yen. You can expect a  markup on these drinks ranging anywhere from   three times to ten times that of market price. Let’s look at some more fun options. You can  

Get decorative bottles in shapes of teddy bears,  high heels, and hearts for 30,000 to 50,000 yen,   bottles with the host’s face for 50,000 to  150,000, and decorative mineral water can be   bought for 50,000 to 200,000 yen. And it’s not  a host club if they don’t do champagne towers,  

And usually, those can range from 1,000,000  yen or 6500 dollars on the cheap end and   about 3,000,000 yen or 20k dollars if you  really want to make a statement with it.  Look, before we dive into the performance of  being a host, I feel that I need to establish  

What sort of numbers we’re dealing with. The  average monthly salary of someone in their   20’s in Japan is 250,000 yen, roughly 1700  dollars, and that statistic probably doesn’t   include college students, who often only  take part-time jobs as waiters, shop staff,  

And tutors, or are supported by money sent  from their parents. It is very easy to imagine   someone who frequents a host club blowing a  significant portion of their budget on their   visits. It is a luxury pastime with luxury prices. What is being sold, of course, is not so much the  

Drinks but the opportunity to drink and socialize  with handsome men, most often a specific handsome   man. These men are stylish, clean, and often  covered in brand-name clothing from head to   toe to maintain that shiny image. The way they can  afford their image is by convincing their clients  

To spend hundreds of thousands of yen on marked-up  beverages, with the implicit promise being that   the host will treat a client better the more money  they spend. In her article, Selling Intimacy under   Post-Industrial Capitalism: An Ethnography  of Japanese Host Clubs, Ruby Fitzsimmons  

Categorizes host club work as “affective labor.”  This is a term political philosopher Michael   Hardt used to point to services that offer  intangible products; “[the] feeling of ease,  well-being, satisfaction, excitement,  passion – even a sense of connectedness   or community.” On paper, host clubs are  just selling drinks plus a table charge,  

But when a client orders a marked-up drink, she  isn’t just purchasing the material goods, she’s   purchasing the attention and affection of hosts. There are a few different approaches hosts can   take to offer affective services. “Irokoi” is  probably the one that’s easiest to imagine.  

That’s where a host flirts with their client;  they get physically close and intimate with them,   go on dates, and send sweet messages through  text. Take it up a notch and we get the “HonEi”   or “Honmei Eigyo” business style where the host  treats or sometimes truly considers their client  

As their real partner. They may tell the client  that they can’t live without their support,   or hint at wanting to get married. On the flip  side, the “Tomodachi” approach is when a host   has a friendly, platonic relationship with their  clients. They act more like a drinking friend who  

Cheers you to chug one more shot of tequila. The  “oraora” approach is when a host acts dominating   and intimidates his client. I know this isn’t  what’s usually considered customer service,   but this works when clients have a masochistic  streak in them. There’s also the “Idol” business  

Style – the name doesn’t always describe the  persona the host takes on, but in this approach   they raise sales by having a lot of clients  as if they are a pop idol gathering fans,   rather than relying on building intimate  relationships with a small number of big spenders. 

I apologize for all the weird jargon  I’ve been using. I think exploring the   words used in this industry is a good  way to see its trends and practices,   but if I’m throwing all this vocabulary at you,  we might as well take this into a classroom. 

“Hello, everyone! Let’s learn Host  Club vocabulary! Repeat after me!”  “Tantou!” A Tantou is a client’s designated host.   As mentioned earlier, once a client nominates  her host at a club, she cannot request to change   her designated host. This is done so hosts in the  same club do not fight over the same client. Some  

People, though, may have a “sub tan” or substitute  tantou at another club if their main tantou isn’t   enough to satisfy them. In the Kansai region,  a client’s designated host may also be called   “Kouza,” meaning “bank account.” “Ace!” 

The client of a host who spent the most money  on him that month. In other words, the host’s   most lucrative customer. At the end of the month,  there is an announcement of the top-earning hosts   at a club, and the ace is invited to sit with  their host during the celebration while his other  

Clients watch her enviously. “Douhan!”  When a client and host hang out or have  dinner together before going to the club.   Depending on the club, an additional  fee for this service may be charged.  “Afutaa!” Much like douhan,   “afters” are when a client and host hang out  after the club closes. This could be going  

Out to karaoke, hanging out at a bar, or going  someplace where they can be truly alone together.  “Makura!” Directly translating to “pillow,” this refers   to sexual services hosts may perform with clients  in hopes that it leads to their spending. It is  

Worth clarifying that the occupation of a host is  not based on the transaction of sex. The job of a   host on paper is to keep customers company during  their time at their club – that’s it. They do,   however, have a lot of freedom in how they conduct  their business, especially outside the club,  

And some more intimate practices are expected by  some clients who spend a lot of money. Hosts who   sleep with clients without financial motive  are called “Shumimaku” or “hobby pillows.”  “Urikake” This refers to   the “tab” system at a host club, the act of buying  drinks and promising to pay before a deadline. Not  

All clubs or hosts allow this, but if a client is  itching to be the ace this month, or in reverse,   a host is desperate for sales that’ll bump up  his ranking, urikake may be negotiated. However,   if a host fails to receive money from  the client, the tab falls on the host,  

Making him indebted to the club. “Sodate”  Coming from the word “to raise” or “to grow,” this  refers to the act of a host turning a low-spender   client into a high-spender. It may also be  used as a noun to point to a client being   “raised” into a high-spender. (I have a question! How is  

“sodate” different from “grooming”?) Hopefully, I’ve laid out the basics of host   clubs enough for you to get a sense of what their  appeal is and what kind of service is being sold.   But if you’re completely new to this topic and  still perplexed by this business, I don’t blame  

You. Escorting is probably the closest Western  concept I can tie it to, but that comparison   isn’t sufficient. Escorts are people you usually  take out to social events, but you have to go into   host clubs to meet hosts. While the role of both  escorts and hosts is to accompany clients, the  

Institution of a host club is the focal point of  the business. The club is the home base – that’s   where clients keep coming back to meet their  host, that’s where they go to pay their host   through the purchase of drinks. This establishment  is where the business and relationship rules are  

Laid out and where community and competition is  fostered. Hosts can offer to meet up with clients   outside the club, but those practices are treated  like extra efforts that the host individually   takes to maintain relationships rather than  a service the host club offers to customers. 

I’m also tempted to compare hosts to k-pop  idols and streamers, occupations that often   rely on parasocial relationships for profit, but  that’s not accurate either because host-client   relationships are far too intimate to confidently  call “parasocial” from my perspective. The term   most often used to describe the appeal of hosts  in Japanese is 疑似恋愛（Giji-renai), pseudo-romance,  

And romance can only happen if there is a push and  pull of affection and desire from both parties.  You may be quick to think that as long as  a guy has the looks, can talk to women,  

And can convincingly pull off the boyfriend act,  being a host would be an easy job, but I don’t   think it’s that simple. If you’ve seen the CDawgVA  video where he tries out the occupation for a day   and the podcast episodes where he reflects on his  experience, it sounds like he’s high-key hazed by  

The other hosts into chugging drink after drink.  And, well, that’s the name of the game. To get   clients to spend more money, hosts have to keep  the drinks coming one after another. To throw   in another vocabulary word, bottles that are  close to empty or bottles hosts are dared to  

Down in one go, are called “chance bottles”  because finishing them gives hosts a chance   to get another, possibly more expensive order in. What I’m getting at is that being a host is not a   healthy job, physically or emotionally. Although  there are systems like the designated host rule  

To avoid conflict between hosts in a club, the  industry is built on competition. First of all,   host club managers, many of whom used to  be hosts themselves or still have clients,   really push the hosts under them to work hard and  earn money for the club. A lot of that is because  

The charisma of a host, how appealing they are  to clients, is strongly tied to their pride. It’s   embarrassing to act like a hotshot without having  the sales numbers to back it up. Then there’s the   club’s environment. Whenever a host gets a very  expensive order in, the whole club gathers around  

Him and his princess for the champagne call.  Every night, the host that has the greatest sales   earns the “last song” where he gets to perform  karaoke before closing. The monthly sales ranking   celebration is the rowdiest night every month,  and the “numbers,” the hosts who rank highest  

In the club, all get to make bombastic speeches.  Take a step out of the club to get some fresh air,   and you’re reminded that Kabukicho is covered in  giant posters with the area’s top-earning hosts,   boasting not just sales numbers but their  rankings within a club or even the whole  

District. Ceremonies and hierarchies are put  in place to pressure these young men. So it   makes sense that hosts pull risky moves like  Urikake debts to either bring their ranking   numbers up so they can stand on stage, or just  push themselves past the minimum sales goal  

So they don’t get scolded by the club manager. This job is especially taxing for rookie hosts.   When a host is starting from zero clients all they  have to rely on is a measly salary – if they have  

One at all. A lot of clubs actually treat their  hosts as independent contractors. A majority of a   host’s earnings, if not all, comes from nomination  and drink sales commissions. But if they are an   employee at a club, rookies who don’t have a  client base spend more of their time cleaning  

The club rather than entertaining clients.  Many can’t afford a place of their own so they   either live in dorms or sleep at a friend’s place.  Clubs treat their hosts according to their sales,   so if a host doesn’t bring in money, even  if they have been working at the club for  

Years or used to be a big money maker in the  past, they are often treated like a burden.  The grind of a host isn’t restricted within  the club either. If a host has a particular   client they want to win over, they’ll have to  hang out with them before or after club hours.  

They’re also constantly on their phones texting  clients to either keep up the boyfriend act   or just blatantly tell clients to come to the  club and order drinks. It’s apparently common   for hosts and clients who get close to go to  Disneyland, especially as a reward for their  

Large spendings. And you can imagine what kind of  relationship drama can happen between hosts and   clients and other clients when the business model  is pseudo-romantic, right? Whether it be throwing   up every night or hosts and clients getting  into fights or clients fighting each other,  

Host club work can get very messy very easily. Why do men become hosts then? Well, obviously,   for the money. Based on the numbers we discussed,  if you do succeed you rake in a lot of cash. That   nomination fee and drink sales commission I  mentioned start at around 10%~20% percent, but  

It gets higher the more sales you make, usually  going up as high as a 60% commission. That means   if a client orders a 1,000,000 yen champagne  tower for a host, the host gets 600,000 yen.   That’s like 4000 US dollars in one night-  good God is the yen cheap right now. – STILL,  

That’s like 4000 dollars in one night. But what makes this occupation stand   out is how almost any man can become a host,  especially if they’re young. This industry is   one of the few ways in Japan for a young man  to quickly make massive amounts of money. You  

Don’t need an education to become a host. A lot of  hosts actually started right after graduating high   school, and – while this is illegal – some started  at ages 16 or 17. Now, there is a drawback to this   because once you’re past your mid-twenties,  you can’t use youth as a weapon anymore,  

So sales may become harder. A host will be called  an old man by the time they’re in their thirties.   But most men don’t stay hosts for that long.  While there are hosts who have a lot of pride in  

Their job and plan to stay for the long run, most  successful hosts stick with the job during their   twenties and then switch to host club management  in their thirties, or take the money they earned   and invest it into other business ventures. In  one interview I watched with a veteran host,  

He advised that someone should only become a host  if they have a goal beyond working at a host club,   not just because the job is so tough that it  necessitates hosts to have a grand goal to   work towards, but because it is not a long-term  occupation. According to him, the scene has only  

Become more competitive and sales records continue  to keep getting broken. While not impossible to   survive as an older host, year by year, the cards  keep getting stacked against you. Eventually,   clients leave and it gets harder to find new ones,  your liver gives out, and your face starts to age. 

Veteran hosts say that due to changes in  legislation related to cracking down on yakuza   and the effects of the Businesses Affecting Public  Morals Regulation Act in the past two decades,   the host club industry is more transparent than it  has ever been. Social media has also become a big  

Strategy for hosts to promote their business, so  they don’t hesitate to post about their earnings   on X or make mini-documentaries about their work  for YouTube. Clients are also able to praise and   criticize establishments, as well as boast or rant  about their personal relationships with individual  

Hosts. What I’m saying is, that all the info I’ve  laid out so far, everything from the prices of   the drinks to the methods hosts use to get close  to clients are not secrets. Anyone interested in   going to host clubs can find this information  through a quick search on Google, the platform  

Formerly known as Twitter, or YouTube. I have a  list of sources in the description box if you’d   like to check them out. So the next question  is, what kinds of people go to host clubs?  Hey, this is Intermission Nilgiree here to tell  you to smash that like and subscribe button! If  

You like what you’ve seen so far I would  really appreciate it if you could interact   with this video. I also have a Patreon now  where I’ll be posting progress updates and   hold discussions about my works. But thank  you for making it this far into the video,  

And I hope you enjoy the rest of it! Let’s start by breaking down some host   club client stereotypes based on occupation. The host clubs that we have now are a business   that branched off from ballroom dance clubs  of the mid 60’s, so first, let’s talk about  

The older lady clients. These are older women  who either make good money through their own   businesses or are playing with their husbands’  or family’s money. Historically, these were the   first types of women host clubs advertised  to. Ballrooms in the past would have male  

Dance instructors or dance partners available for  the women to partner with and they would get paid   in tips. This style of club attracted women whose  husbands were away at work, female business owners   who wanted to blow off some steam, or just ladies  who wanted to dance. In the 70’s “Club Ai,” the  

First host club that focused on providing women  with a male drinking partner was established.   With less of a focus on dancing, this was where  women who were bored and alone could talk, smoke,   and drink. Oh my God, the President of Club  Ai had champagne towers at his funeral. This  

Type of mature client certainly still exists, but  they aren’t the main target demographic anymore.  Even fewer of the clientele are “day-time  workers.” These include the average office worker,   nurses, people who work in the beauty industry,  etc. I would say it’s fine to throw in the average  

College student with a part-time job in the  service industry in this group as well. This   group is small because their work doesn’t pay  enough to support the lifestyle. They may be a   “Shoken Arashi,” someone who abuses the new-guest  price and hops from one club to another just to  

Get cheap drinks (that’s what A-ko’s friend is),  but otherwise hosts are lucky if they can get   day-time workers to spend around a thousand  dollars or 100,000 to 200,000 yen a month.  Which leaves us with the “night workers.” They  make up the majority of the clientele of host  

Clubs. Night work here refers to companionship  jobs like cabaret clubs and girls bars, and sex   work, such as call girl services, soap land, etc.  These businesses easily pay triple or quadruple   the salary of day-time jobs. People say that once  money goes into Kabukicho, it stays in Kabukicho  

Because the workers of the place tend to pass  it between the businesses within the district.  …Oh, hey, I wonder how A-Ko’s been doing. It looks like she’s texting with Rin on her   phone. They’re talking about Rin’s sales. Hmm…  He’s saying he would really appreciate it if she  

Came over and bought some champagne for… 600,000  yen!? A-Ko doesn’t have that kind of money! Hey,   A-ko… what are you searching? Oh, uh, you’re  looking for work? In Kabuki-cho? I mean… I guess   you’re free to do so… Oh, wow. That’s like  triple what you make with your izakaya job. 

So the inspiration for this video was that I  somehow fell into the rabbit hole of Japanese   Host Club YouTube. I don’t know how I got here.  Frankly, the styles and personalities of the   hosts do not appeal to me. I’m into old anime men  with depression, so the closest I got to my type  

Was through browsing the hos-hos websites and  finding this one host’s promo video which has   an oh-so-edgy scene of him dropping a copy  of No Longer Human. Oh wow Bro, you must   be so smart and well-read. I, as well as every  Japanese highschooler, have read that book too! 

Anyway, even during research I wasn’t very  interested in the videos heavily focused   on the hosts. There are a couple of channels on  YouTube run by host clubs where the hosts either   do casual vlog content or interview and edit  footage of themselves working documentary style,  

But the journey of climbing to the top of the  host world or advice on how to better talk to   girls or techniques for managing relationships  with multiple women… This stuff I couldn’t get   emotionally invested in. There’s a limit to my  curiosity when it comes to how hosts can sell  

Their service or what makes them so cool.  My real question is “why,” and “why at this   price?” When hosts and managers are depicted  as entrepreneurs chasing fame and riches,   it presents the clients as simply business  opportunities or obstacles. The clients  

Are not completely depersonalized in these  contexts – they are spoken about as people   with unique motives for seeking hosts- but  their role in the host’s story ends when   their purchases are confirmed. These videos  restrict the narrative to inside the club,  

But I’m interested in how the host club lifestyle  seeps out of the club and into people’s lives.  That’s why my real fascination lies within  the videos about host clients. The two main   channels I watch are Hosuroji and Boo-Channel.  Hosuroji focuses on relationships between hosts  

And clients, often giving us a close look into  the conversations and negotiations they have.   Boo-channel is a once-personal channel that now  focuses on the women who frequent Kabukicho. This   account features a lot of street interviews  with people, many of whom are host clients,  

But notably, they get the opportunity to speak  without the presence of hosts. These two channels,   at the end of the day, promote the host  club industry but have a more blunt,   raw feel to them. They aren’t full-out selling  “the dark side of host clubs” because they usually  

End on a positive note, but they get deep  into the messy life and relationship drama.  What attracts me to this kind of host content  is how it positions the hosts and clients on a   more equal footing. They are more aware of the  foundational role relationships play in this  

Line of work and understand that people are  only willing to give up tens of thousands of   yen if there are strong emotions and desires  behind these transactions… And those emotions   make good content. [Real housewives audio  overlapped with host client freaking out] 

Hosuroji has a lot of videos that give  me the impression that the fights and   arguments are partially scripted  based on the way they’re filmed,   but hey, if this is what these creators are  uploading, how they choose to present themselves,  

Let’s take it at face value. Because I think  these videos provide a hint to my why question.  Hosuroji’s most popular video is an episode of  an advice show where women who partake in host   clubs come up with a question or concern for  a group of hosts to resolve. In this episode,  

A woman explains that after she posted an  unsolicited photo of a rival client and wrote   insults about her on a popular host club-related  message board she got sued for defamation. She   has no intention of paying the compensation she’s  being demanded, and asks, how do I get this bitch  

Away from my host? The hosts avoid answering her  main question and instead ask her why she did   what she did, if she’s paying taxes on the money  she earned through sugaring, and express that,   no matter how much money a client spends on a  host, the host would probably want to cut ties  

With a client that causes trouble with other  clients. The woman then starts speaking rudely   to the hosts, and brags about how much money  she spends on her tantou. The men retaliate,   telling her that her attitude is not cute, and as  hosts themselves, they think she needs to change  

Her attitude so her tantou can like her more.  After some back and forth, the moderator of the   advice show asks for the woman to leave. The second most popular video follows a   client with a lot of pride and a boorish  attitude throwing a giant fit. She buys  

Her designated host a champagne tower, one of the  most expensive purchases you can make for a host,   and makes him promise to meet up with her  after club hours, but when he says they’ll   only hang out for two hours, she loses it. These two videos are over the top and probably  

Exaggerated, but they serve as good examples  of “cringe clients” or “ita-kyaku,” clients   that are hard to deal with due to their sense  of entitlement and disrespectful attitude.   They’re characterized by a greedy obsession with  a host, selfish hostility towards other clients,  

And extreme mood swings. I sympathize with hosts  who have to work with cringe clients to a degree,   as I do with any service worker who has to  deal with upset, possibly drunk customers.   But it’s also important to consider  what may have led to a cringe client’s  

Obsession and attitude in the first place. Not all of Hosuroji’s video’s are this spicy   but I think they cover a wide range of highs and  lows in a host-client relationship. Most clients   who have a positive relationship with their  hosts say that supporting a host motivates  

Them to work. They describe their hosts as shining  beacons in their lives that give them joy and club   visits as something they look forward to after  a stressful week. Some of the more bittersweet   videos feature clients who are very attracted  to or in love with their host and wish to take  

Their relationship to the next level, but rarely  do they get a straight-forward answer about their   future other than “I would really appreciate  it if you could continue supporting me.”  When you take a close look at host-client  interactions, it’s clear that these women  

Understand the transactional nature of their  relationship. Romantic attraction is often a   driving force of their patronage, but they are  aware of their position as customers and expect   the hospitality to match their spending. Their  pride is a powerful mix of romantic love and  

Spending power, and when hosts fail to match their  expectations, it’s not that surprising to see a   few tables flip. Imagine – if your boyfriend of  seven months forgets your birthday, that’s pretty   upsetting. Now, imagine that you’ve been giving  him a couple-thousand dollars specifically to buy  

His attention and he forgot your birthday. Now  it’s insulting. Hosts oftentimes describe their   occupation as simply “selling dreams” but neglect  to mention that once you sell a dream of romance,   frequent dates, and even marriage, they need to  provide aftercare. They’re constantly walking  

The thin line between being realistic and  setting boundaries, and continuing to let   their clients dream. And when these dreams are  broken, usually a host has to deal with one less   regular customer and a dip in sales, possibly a  slap on the face, but what about the other side…? 

Boo-chanel is where things get a bit too  real. This channel features many videos   of street-interviews with host clients, often  asking them to share experiences they had with   hosts or what they do to maintain their host  club lifestyle. I believe these interviews  

Can give us insight on the emotional profile of  clients and just how committed they are to hosts.  In the video where the interviewer goes around  asking for the interviewee’s “dark past,” she   gets stories like “I dated a host who said he was  going to quit, but when he did, he said he wanted  

To break up with me to forget about his host club  past. Then a month after I broke up with him,   I saw him working as a host in Kabukicho again.”  “I was living with my host boyfriend for two years  

And he cheated on me.” “I was almost stabbed by my  mother.” –Wait, that has nothing to do with hosts.  In the video where the interviewer asks  for “secrets they can’t tell anyone,” she   gets statements such as, “I’m pregnant with  a host’s child.” “I made an urikake debt and  

Borrowed money from a loan shark.” “I  XXXX with a host outside.” “I haven’t   taken emergency contraception even though my  SW client did it inside me.” UH NEXT VIDEO.  The interviewer asks, what’s your rent? “I  live with my parents but I give 100,000 yen to  

The house.” “60,000 yen, I get welfare money and  sometimes go to host clubs.” “I don’t have a home,   I go on business trips all the time and spend  all the money on hosts.” “I don’t go home,   I just spent 5,000,000 yen on a host, got  depressed, and now I can barely walk ‘cause  

I just took a bunch of sleeping pills.” Ummmm… I know that these videos intend to sensationalize   the host club lifestyle for YouTube views,  but I don’t think these stories are made   up. In the original videos, a majority of the  interviewee’s faces are censored. At least for me,  

Their desire for anonymity lends more credibility  to their frankly unflattering accounts. And these   dark stories come up over and over across  interview videos with varying degrees of   severity. I’m detecting a concerning pattern  here… I think we should check up on A-ko. 

Since we last saw her, A-ko had a fight with Rin  and hasn’t gone to the club in a week. She said   he was acting kind of cold to her lately and then  he shot back by saying she hadn’t been spending  

Enough money at the club, that snowballed  into insults at each other… Arguments like   this are a dime a dozen in Kabukicho. She hasn’t  responded to any of his texts and is determined   to break things off with him. With Rin out  of the picture, she reconsiders her job at  

The cabaret club. She’s able to bear with it,  but she doesn’t enjoy flirting with older men   and pressuring them for drinks… But did she enjoy  her job at the izakaya bar either? Does she want  

To go back to running around a bar for 1,200 yen  an hour, or keep working at a cabaret that offers   an hourly wage double that plus commission? “Maybe I can keep this job…” A-ko thinks to   herself. But she’s tired. Even though she hasn’t  been attending university classes regularly these  

Days, night work has been keeping her busy. She  wants a drink. She wants someone to talk to,   to listen to her. As she’s walking through  Kabukicho after a short shift, she sees a   poster with handsome men. One man in particular,  with his slender face, medium-length hair,  

And long fingers, catches her eye. Below the  poster is the price for new customers – 3,000   yen for unlimited drinks for one hour. Up to this point, I have been trying to be   as detached as possible, other than injecting some  snarky remarks here and there. I understand that  

Host clubs are an unfamiliar topic to most of the  world and wanted to first present it without too   much bias. I’m not an authority on this topic,  I just speak Japanese and wanted to share this   subculture with an English-speaking  audience. But, as you have noticed,  

This topic can get dark and controversial fast.  If you feel that I’m misrepresenting this industry   and its participants, I implore you to do some  digging yourself. I’m not trying to talk for   hosts or their clients. They can and have put  out their own stories through social media,  

Including YouTube. While most of the videos are  in Japanese and do not include English subtitles,   I suggest searching ホスト on YouTube to find the  channels I’ve referenced. Some English-speaking   anime and Japanese culture YouTubers have talked  about host clubs or talked to hosts as well. 

One video personally recommend is cybr.gl’s  discussion video, “The Dark Side of Jiraikei.”   It focuses on Jirai Kei fashion, a style that  is strongly associated with host club clients,   and the women in the video discuss  the stereotypes that come with it. 

I also recommend reading that Ruby Fitzsimmons  article I briefly mentioned for a more academic   perspective that analyzes the industry from  the lens of post-industrial capitalism… with   some caveats that I’ll cover later. However, I am not making this video  

Uncritically just because my goal is to  be informative. I am not trying to be a   replacement for a Wikipedia article here. … Actually, that’s partially a lie. When   I looked up the English page  for host clubs on Wikipedia,  

I found out that information about host clubs  is condensed to the same page as hostess clubs,   and while I get that they are similar businesses,  their business strategies are distinct. Hostess   clubs usually have a no-touching policy to prevent  male clients from getting physical with women,  

While host clubs don’t have that rule. Host  clubs have a permanent nomination system,   while clients of hostess bars have the freedom to  nominate whoever they like each time they visit.   Host club drink prices are often about three  times that of hostess bars. Host clubs allow  

Urikake tabs, but hostess clubs do not. Now, the  Wikipedia article does mention this information,   but it’s not laid out comparatively as I have  here. I think it’s misleading to treat these   businesses as gender-flipped versions of each  other because the difference in practices greatly  

Influences the clientele and what motivates them  to spend money. We’ll touch on this again later.  So, what have I learned through  my exploration of host clubs?  My first observation is that YouTube videos by  hosts or promoting host clubs feel hypocritical.  

Not blatantly, provably hypocritical because hosts  are rather careful with their words, but their   words and actions aren’t making sense to me. For  example, there’s one video of a woman hanging out   with hosts after she went on a “business trip” or  “dekasegi.” Usually, this implies that they went  

To do SW outside their prefecture, but this was an  overseas business trip that paid especially well.   The woman states that she chose to take this job  of her own free will and that her host did express  

Concern about her going on this trip. When the  woman comes back and meets up with the host, the   host says he missed her, was worried about her,  and praises how strong she was for not texting   him about her anxieties because she thought it  would only cause more unnecessary worry. When the  

Woman says that she’ll be taking another overseas  business trip, the host says things like” Are you   serious?” and “They have guns there and stuff, you  know?” but doesn’t actually tell her not to go.  Quite often there is a frustrating tension  between hosts trying to preserve morale to  

Look like a decent guy and the indisputable  value and priority of high-spenders. The   host must act like a concerned boyfriend to  make the client feel loved and appreciated,   but he has to conduct business so he can  incentivize, or in this case, not disincentivize  

The client to continue making money. This ties into my second observation,   or rather, internal reflection. The process of  writing this essay made me think about my attitude   towards SW. I like to consider myself a generally  sex-positive person. I don’t judge people based  

On what they do in the bedroom, and I believe SW  is work. It is labor, and, like any other person   providing a service, I think S workers deserve  payment, respect, and protection. That’s what   “sex work is work” implies, right? But watching  these hosts talk about their clients doing SW,  

I realized I have a bias. I still think of SW  as a means to an end, an occupation people take   to get out of the rut, or a career for the short  term used to build the capital needed for their  

Future. I know people who enjoy SW exist, I’m  not the kind of person who thinks it’s self-harm,   oh no. It can be a genuinely fun, fulfilling,  self-expressive occupation, and those very   passionate about it can make it a long-term  career. But often, there’s a part of me judging,  

“You’re not planning to do this forever, are you?” And so seeing these hosts being nonjudgemental   about sex work was…oddly refreshing? A lot  of hosts choose not to dig into what jobs   their clients have, but a lot of clients are  comfortable being open about SW with them.  

When hosts know that their client does SW, they  never treat their payment as dirty money. Quite   the opposite – they praise the women for  their hard work. As I mentioned earlier,   a lot of clients seem to rely on hosts for  motivation to work at all, that they’re able  

To continue living and working in hopes of making  their hosts happy. They receive genuine happiness   from their hosts. Seeing how hosts recognize the  effort these women put into an occupation that is   looked down by the rest of society, treat their  money as legitimate as any other kind of income,  

Made me reconsider S workers’ agency in not  just how they earn money but how they spend it.  BUT AREN’T HOSTS JUST SAYING THAT  BECAUSE THEY WANT THAT MONEY?  Whether it be Wikipedia or English podcasts  talking about hosts, when I first looked into  

English discussions on host clubs that mentioned  that a majority of the clientele are sex workers   or companionship workers themselves, they did  not mention that a good chunk of those people   only started this line of work after visiting  host clubs. Whereas the narrative of a young  

Woman deciding to go into SW to support their  host or the host club lifestyle came up over   and over and over in these host club YouTube  videos. I want to respect these women’s choices   to do whatever work they’re comfortable with. I  want to accept that hosts and clients are humans  

Who are free to live messy lives. But this  is so hard to do when reality shows me how   predictably unsafe and unhealthy it often can be. And this is where that government crackdown I   mentioned at the beginning comes in. Host clubs  were a hot topic in Japan in 2023 because news  

Stories and social media made it glaringly obvious  that some shady stuff was going on. For example,   on November 5th, 2023, a 25-year-old woman stabbed  a host in the streets of Shinjuku. November 19th,   2023, Itadaki Joshi Riri-chan a sugar baby, and  her host who was complicit in her sugaring scams  

Got arrested. The number of arrests made of women  doing “tachinbo” street hookups in Ookubo park in   Shinjuku almost tripled from 51 arrests in 2022  to 140 arrests in 2023. According to a survey   conducted by the police, about 40% of women who do  street hookups do it to finance their host club,  

Men’s concept cafe, or men’s underground idol  hobby. Then there’s the subject of “To-Yoko   Kids”. In Kabukicho there’s an area called  “To-Yoko”, an abbreviation of “beside Toho   Cinema.” It’s become a hub for homeless youth  and runaways to gather. Many of them have to  

Rely on certain kinds of work to survive, but  some hosts and men’s concept cafe staff invite   them into their businesses in hopes of getting  hooked and “raising” them into high-spenders.   As media coverage of malicious host practices  reached its peak, on Nov. 20th, Prime Minister  

Kishida announced a plan for the crackdown on  host clubs. In December, police investigated   multiple host clubs in the entertainment districts  of several prefectures, including Tokyo, Hokkaido,   Osaka, and Aichi. Reports read, “Officers  uncovered breaches of regulations such as  

Failure to display a price list and lack of any  notice that minors under age 18 are banned from   entry.” Some host clubs were found giving  receipts that listed only the total price   of a customer’s stay without an itemized list of  purchases. Welcome to the host club, where the  

Prices are made up and your wallet doesn’t matter. Now, although there is a societal concern about   women being coerced into SW through hosts, the  police have been pretty clear that their goal in   these crackdowns is less to specifically  stop women from going to host clubs or  

Taking up SW, but to get a lead on and then crush  “toku-ryuu” crime organizers. I won’t get into the   nitty-gritty of it, but in recent years there’s  been an increase in “anonymous” and “malleable”   crime organizations. Compared to, let’s say, the  yakuza, who operate in hierarchical groups that  

Tend to have goals or areas they’re in charge of,  toku-ryuu crimes are planned anonymously on social   networking platforms and teams are malleable  – participants are unlikely to work with the   same people across missions. This has made it  difficult for the police to capture those at  

The top of organized crime because the people  who carry out their plans and are caught by the   police oftentimes cannot identify who was giving  them orders. Police have reasonably suspected   that host clubs are a hotbed for toku-ryuu  crime. When clients are in debt to hosts,  

Or hosts are in debt to clubs, people may  be inclined to reach out for shady money.   For example, a host could make a deal with a SW  agency connected to toku-ryuu to introduce his   clients to work for the agency. Women who do  not want to take up SW but still need money,  

May borrow money from loan sharks, or participate  in “yami baito” – illegal part-time jobs such as   smuggling drugs or bank transfer scams. I believe  this crackdown is a good thing that’ll improve   the safety of the industry overall, but I also  recognize that the approach is not intended to  

Crush the host-client-to-sex-worker pipeline. The thing is, host clubs are the most extreme   example of this heavily transaction-based  relationship, but they’re not the only one   of their kind. When you watch Boo-channel’s  street interviews, sometimes you get women who   are into men’s underground idols and men’s concept  cafes because they have very similar experiences.  

These other businesses don’t have the exact same  practices or prices, but they are still businesses   that are founded on women getting emotionally  invested in men to get them to spend money.  Actually, let’s talk about concept cafes for  a minute. Host clubs and cabaret clubs are  

Deemed “fuuzoku,” establishments that offer drinks  alongside entertaining guests, so they fall under   the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation  Act, which has gotten stricter in recent years.   Under this act, these clubs are prohibited from  serving alcohol between the times of 12AM to  

6AM. Although a lot of businesses simply turn off  their entrance lights to look closed but continue   to run their business… Concept cafes and bars are  interesting because they operate like a cheaper,   looser version of cabaret clubs, but are  registered as regular dining establishments  

Because, supposedly, their staff or cast are only  allowed to stop and talk with their customers over   a counter for three minutes at a time. There  are no nomination systems like the clubs,   but most “casts” have their shift schedules  posted on their social media so their fans  

Can plan to visit them. And, of course, they sell  decorative, overpriced alcohol. They also offer   more idol-culture adjacent services, the big one  being Polaroid pictures. These establishments are   much more accessible due to their lower price  and novelty, and they don’t have the stigma  

Host clubs developed over the years. However,  they can become as addictive as host clubs.  Menchika or men’s underground idols are men’s idol  groups that are formed and operated independently   or through small talent agencies. These men  perform on stage by dancing and singing as  

The word idol implies, but live show tickets are  not what gets them money. It’s merch sales. If   you know how K-Pop idols and AKB48 operate,  you probably know the direction I’m heading,   and we’re going to stomp on the gas. Unlike  mainstream idols, underground idol fans are  

Not paying for a chance to see their idol, they  are guaranteed to speak and hold hands with them.   Often the way it works is that the more money a  fan spends on merchandise after live shows, the   more time they get during the handshake session.  There can be way more than handshakes going on  

Though. MenChika meet-and-greets can become much  more intimate than mainstream boys’ groups or   even female underground idol greetings. There’s  a bunch of hugging, getting held princess-style,   and sometimes kissing through masks. Some idols  offer spending goals, like the opportunity to  

Go on a dates. In the guise of “supporting an  idol,” fans can purchase intimacy with these men.  The best way I can make sense of this phenomenon  of young women getting extremely attached to   the courtship of men and businesses that are  structured to take advantage of that is that  

It seems to psychologically reflect a gambling  addiction. Hosts and men in similar jobs tease   new developments in their relationships with  clients and fans to get them to spend more money,   and those women get hooked on spending money to  either advance or maintain these relationships.  

But this discussion is more difficult than talking  about gambling because we’re not working with slot   machines. Watching several Japanese debate shows  on this topic, “agency” and “victimization” are   always what the host defenders and host critics  argue about. Is it correct to use the word  

“mind control” when women are aware that their  relationships are transactional? Aren’t the hosts   who end up shouldering urikake debt because their  client failed to pay them back victims as well? Do   parents of people who get wrapped up in host clubs  have the right to get involved in the lives and  

Choices of their adult children? I think one of  the reasons why host clubs have become such a hot   topic is because it clashes with our preconception  of women’s agency and the victim narrative we   often assign to S workers. In the opening section  of her article, Ruby Fitzsimmons has this to say… 

“The overarching narrative of host club  patronization, that women are helpless victims,   does nothing to credit the agency of women, and is  a testament to how entrenched the black-and-white   rhetoric of victimization/exploitation  versus free choice is in discussions of   sex and sex-related work.” -Ruby Fitzsimmons As she says, we can’t just scorn or pity  

Clients because that discredits their agency and  simplifies this phenomenon. This conversation   about host clubs is captivating to me because  of its controversial nature. Our default liberal   responses to sex work and women’s empowerment  aren’t sufficient enough to address this issue’s  

Many layers. Hosts clubs make us recognize how  powerful affective labor is and how it can be   used and abused. It forces us to consider  how human emotions, business transactions,   and gender dynamics are all intertwined. It  makes us grapple with the concept of agency  

And empowerment for woman under post-industrial  capitalism. We cannot have this conversation   without an intersectional approach, because if we  treat spending power as the only relevant power   or assume all S workers are victims, we lose  sight of the driving forces of this industry. 

My position is that I don’t want to blame all of  the host industry’s misery on people making bad   personal choices. That is what frustrates  me about these conversions about the host   industry led by hosts. When people talk about  the issues of hosts and obsessive host clients,  

They try to pinpoint one individualistic thing  that’s the root of the problem. If a client has   an abusive relationship with a host, it’s the  host’s violent personality that’s the problem.   When a host has a client who keeps pressuring him  to sleep with them, it’s the client’s fault for  

Having the misconception that all hosts sleep with  their clients. On the topic of police crackdowns,   I’ve read so many hosts complain that they should  not be interrogated just because the industry has   some bad apples. Even though these issues are so  common across Kabukicho and other entertainment  

Districts in Japan, everyone seems to be pointing  fingers at each other to blame one person or one   action, and it almost feels like it’s done  on purpose. Because if they stop doing that,   they have to consider the issues of the host club  industry as a whole, and that could mean EVERYONE  

Has to change how they do business. Judging  by the attitudes of hosts and their clients   that I’ve seen in YouTube videos, I think a lot of  hosts want to continue making exorbitant amounts   of money to get their name on flashy boards and  understand what that entails about their client  

Base. On the other hand, clients understand that  they are being exploited but believe it’s worth   it if they can continue to feel high from the  affection they get for their insane spending.  Some people argue in favor of the host club  industry by pointing out this complacency – that  

There is mutual agreement between host and client,  and they have the freedom to maintain their   relationship. Also people ask, “Why are host clubs  bad when you don’t have a problem with hostess   clubs huh???” BECAUSE HOST CLUBS AND HOSTESS CLUBS  HAVE DIFFERENT BUSINESS MODELS. Let’s bring back  

That comparison chart again. Hostess clubs  with female workers don’t offer urikake tabs,   their menus are not as expensive as host clubs,  and they don’t have permanent nominations. Many   hostess and cabaret clubs outright deny the entry  of people who look like they can’t afford their  

Business. Their target demographic is men  who already have money to spend. Host clubs,   in contrast, allows clients to make debts, have  a permanent nomination system, and sell drinks   for much higher prices. It is so much easier for  a woman to find themselves stuck in a difficult  

Situation with a host. Finally, throw in the  biased view that women, especially young women,   can always lean back on certain kinds of jobs.  A good host client isn’t always someone with   money – it’s someone who can promise to  have money ready by the end of the month. 

I cannot unsee how host clubs are seemingly  designed to be addictive and to captivate certain   kinds of people. Going back to Boo-channels’  street interviews, honestly, a lot of the women   in Kabukicho don’t seem to be okay. Host clients  include homeless and/or mentally ill women and  

Run-away youth – people who already struggle to  make ends meet without the additional burden of   paying for time with hosts. Even the people who  are seemingly put together share experiences of   domestic abuse or bullying. In one way or another,  many of these clients seem hurt. If you surround a  

Young, lonely woman with pretty men and alcohol  for a cheap price, it’s easy to get them to buy   into host clubs. Then you have them visit the club  more frequently and promise a deeper relationship   the more they spend, and make them feel the limit  of what they can afford with their current salary.  

And if they choose to go into sex work or they’re  already doing sex work, hosts can motivate them   to earn more money until the host decides to quit.  Because on the host’s end, it’s a job, and people  

Can quit jobs. Just as clients can choose to  stop seeing a host when they’re bored with him,   hosts can also discard clients and their real  feelings and dependencies because it’s all just   business to them. A client puts both their wallet  and their heart on the table when they go to host  

Clubs. I don’t think hosts do the same. I don’t believe all hosts are bad or that   all clients are victims. Not all women have  terrible experiences with hosts, not all hosts   are manipulative or use physically or emotionally  violent tactics to drive sales. I won’t even say  

Only women with issues go to host clubs. But it’s  not hard to see that this business has a track for   certain types of vulnerable women to fall into.  It may be based on personal choices and offer   genuine satisfaction, but for an absurd price tag  that nudges people into acquiring money in ways  

They would have otherwise steered away from. We’re at the last stretch of this video but   I haven’t gotten deep into why women start going  to host clubs yet. I saved this question because   I want to discuss it beyond host clubs. I think  I’ve said all I wanted to about hosts. Honestly,  

I believe that the public reputation of host  clubs was thoroughly tarnished last year, and   predict a decline in new clientele in the coming  years. In fact, it seems that there are already   changes in this industry happening that hopefully  make the darker portions of this video obsolete.  

Kabukicho has established an industry group with  notable host club management leaders to make the   industry safer, such as by enforcing tighter age  restrictions starting in 2024. You think a store   that primarily serves alcohol wouldn’t allow  people under the drinking age to begin with,  

But better late than never, I guess. A brief  article on Asa-Gei Plus from January this   year quotes a host club manager saying that he’s  instructing newer hosts not to bother with clients   with dubious income. He also states seeing more  women from the 30~40-year-old day-worker group  

Come in as new clients, instead of 20-year-olds  who typically shouldn’t have the money to spend   on host clubs. However, while the host club may  change to become a healthier environment for hosts   and clients, I don’t think it addresses the demand  for affective labor this industry represents. 

Let’s bring back Fitzsimmons’s article again  because I appreciate the way she illustrates the   journey of her research. She clearly states that  she assumed in the beginning “that Japanese women,   sex workers or otherwise, desperately need  respite from the subjugation and chauvinism of  

Their male partners[… That] women’s interactions  with hosts acted as an escape from the emotional   and physical tolls of their jobs as hostesses  and sex workers.” She believed that Japanese   women went to host clubs mainly to unwind, and  while that certainly could be the case for some  

Clients or eventually become a motive for clients,  her research corrected that this is often not the   starting point. One of her interviewees said… “No you’ve got it wrong, women don’t go to host   clubs because their boyfriend doesn’t treat  them nicely. They go to a host club and get  

Really wrapped up in it, so turn to sex work so  they can earn more money for their host. [… ]They   go because the host is like their boyfriend.” Contrary to Fitzsimmons’ initial hypothesis,   hosts are expected to be the whole boyfriend  experience, not just a temporary escape from  

Male business clients or a more ‘legitimate’ male  partner. Pseudo-romance is still romance. Even if   it’s performed in a business setting, whether that  be a club or a bar or a live venue’s merch table,   an exchange of romantic gestures takes place,  and real emotions are invoked. Many people feel  

That it is a sufficient replacement for romantic  relationships or consider it a “real” relationship   in itself. The underlying question then is why  people seek or stick with pseudo-romance instead   of more traditional forms of companionship. This is where my criticism of Fitzsimmons article  

Comes in. I think her writing is a great, detailed  account of the host club experience that is worth   reading. I like that she includes her research  journey and quotes from people she interviewed,   and I appreciate how she explains the way Japan’s  companionship industry feeds into itself… But I  

Only half agree with the “Consumption of the  “chivalrous” West” section. She frames Japanese   women’s dissatisfaction with Japanese men who  follow Japanese standards of masculinity as a   result of fetishizing imagined Western men and  their more overt gestures of romance. Hosts are  

Then a way for women to purchase said Western  gestures and aesthetics. I, as a half-Japanese,   half-American woman, certainly have qualms  with the sexism in Japan and even the style of   non-verbal communication common in Japan, but this  is too reductive. Like, of course, Japanese women  

Are influenced by the West, as is the rest of Asia  due to globalization. The way I see it is that, as   a more Western, liberal economic model was pushed  on Japan, Japanese women desired to or had to  

Adapt to a more individualistic approach to labor.  They realized they had to become part of the   workforce to support themselves or their family  because they could no longer solely rely on a   man’s paycheck, and also saw the freedoms offered  by having their own finances. So I don’t think  

Modern Japanese women dream of sensitive Western  gentlemen who share housework and give them words   of affirmation just ‘cause Japanese men won’t  or can’t do that. I think modern women in the   workforce simply want men who recognize the  necessity of shared effort and respect in both  

Partys’ careers and domestic lives. I think  it’s true that many Japanese men struggle to   meet this expectation due to Japanese cultural  factors, but this is not a problem exclusive   to Japan. This section of Fitzsimmons’s  article is not historically incorrect,  

But her take away feels rather outdated for  something published in 2021. To say Japanese   women have an occidentalist fantasy to seek refuge  in the West comes off as a bit of a leap to me.  I think the reason is more simple and human than  that. I think people overall are just lonely,  

Overworked, and feeling hopeless. So many  young people in Japan right now don’t see   a point in getting into a relationship. Based on  a survey conducted by Japan’s National Institute   of Population and Social Security Research in  2021, more than 70% of men ages 18 through 34  

Do not have a romantic or marital partner, and  over 60% of women in the same age range answered   the same. This survey also revealed that across  men and women, about a third of people who are not   in a relationship aren’t seeking a relationship. Marketing writer Megumi Ushikubo, who wrote the  

Book “恋愛しない若者たち” or “Youth Who Do Not Romance,”  in 2015, updated her research in a 2023 President   Online article by expanding on two possible  reasons why the current youth of Japan aren’t   seeking partners. First, people have more access  to information and the power to spread information  

These days, especially through the Internet.  Everyone is quick to point to the spread of   pornography as an example, but let’s remember that  this includes general discussions of romance too,   both good and bad. From typical romantic feuds  to revenge porn, young people are more aware of  

The costs and risks of romance and are turned off  by it. Interpersonal social networking platforms   like messaging apps have also made it easier  for people to spread rumors and talk behind   each other’s backs. Many Japanese people say that  they don’t want romance to disrupt whatever peace  

They have in their friend groups or workplaces.  If real relationships are messy, unpredictable,   and cause more trouble than they’re worth, why  bother? Especially when there are alternatives…  Reason two is parasocial relationships with  characters and talents. Ushikubo points out  

That the fan mindset has shifted from internal  to external in the last decade. “Fanatics” are   not a new phenomenon of course, but the 2000’s  was marked by Japanese fans saying that they   experience “moe,” a feeling of adoration that  is neither romantic nor sexual. Compare that  

To the present, where the word everyone is  using is “oshi,” which comes from the verb,   “to recommend” or “to push.” Fans are now  pushing their feelings onto their subjects,   supporting them by buying merchandise and going  to performances to push them into the spotlight,  

And posting about their subjects and pushing  themselves to show their dedication. Ushikubo   cites Kyoto University Physiology Professor Kisou  Kubota when explaining that mentally “oshi-katsu”   fan activities have a similar effect as being  in a romantic relationship. When someone is not   just thinking about their idol but working  towards something for that idol, such as  

Saving money for their live show or putting  on a display they’ll post on Instagram, the   dopamine they get is similar to having a crush. Hosts fit into these trends pretty well. The   barrier to entry to a host-client relationship  is a couple-thousand yen. You don’t have to go  

To university clubs or even open dating apps to  test the waters and see if guys are interested   in you. You don’t have time for that! Why spend  hours searching for a partner when you can go to a  

Club and just sit there with a wine glass in your  hand and pick whichever handsome boy you fancy?   The transactional nature of the relationship  that many may find alienating can instead be   an appeal to some people – “The more money I  give him, the more he climbs the club hierarchy,  

And the more he treats me like his princess.” Like  fan activities towards pop idols, expressions of   love towards a host are simple and actionable.  You know exactly what he wants from you (money),   you know exactly what you need to do (make  money), and you know exactly how you’ll be  

Rewarded (pampering and alcohol). But, as I  have discussed, the reality is that it is not   that simple, and the costs of making a host  your “oshi” can be financially and mentally   exhausting… But how much worse is it compared to  “normal” dating? I have to admit, it’s easier to  

Make SMART goals when you’re “dating” a host. This section is not me saying everyone in   Japan should stop being fans and get into  heteronormative relationships to be happy.   I know asexuals exist, and I’m glad that people  are not as heavily pressured to be in romantic  

Relationships these days compared to the past.  The IPSS survey from 2021 shows that increasingly   more single people report that they have a hobby  or passion that they can call their purpose or   motivation in life. It also shows the depressing  response of less people saying they have friends  

To hang out with and more people saying they feel  that they won’t be lonely living alone… Anyway,   I also don’t think single people uninterested  in dating is something only Japan is dealing   with. About 60% of American men ages 18-29  are single (compared to 34% of women who are  

Single – okay there’s probably some cultural  differences). 37% of single Americans ages   18-29 answered in a 2020 survey that they are  not interested in dating too. The motivations   for this mindset are going to vary a bit across  countries, but globally we’re seeing today’s  

Youth prioritize things like their career or  simply the ease that comes with being single.  If there is one thing that I think is uniquely  Japanese about this phenomenon though, it’s how   easily and readily accepted the commodification  of affective labor is, especially in regards to  

Women’s labor. It is so easy to run into ads for  companionship work in Japan. Trucks are running   down roads in Tokyo advertising “high-paying  part-time jobs for girls.” (Yes, they specifically   use the word “girl.”) Walk down just slightly  skeever parts of the city and they give out tissue  

Packets with help-wanted ads for the same kind  of businesses. Hell, I went on a trip to Japan   recently, and once Instagram registered that I  was in Japan, it would not stop showing me ads   to become a cam girl, or “chat lady” as they like  to call it. That’s what’s so disheartening about  

The host club problem. So many women get caught in  this loop of doing companionship work to purchase   time with hosts because it’s really not that hard  to enter the market. Part of me wants to believe   that the accessibility and abundance of sex work  makes the industry more transparent and safer,  

But another part of me is frustrated that  young women can so easily enter this legal   gray zone. And although I still believe that  emotionally hosts have more power over clients,   these men are exploited too. Often hosts are  young men who don’t come from the best economic  

Background or family life. I think a lot of these  men get wrapped up in a cycle of misogyny and   exploitation because they don’t know anything  else and they also struggle to get out of it.  What fascinates me about the host club phenomenon  is how it feels like a thought experiment come to  

Life. It answers the question, how would a  male sex market designed for women function?   And the results are interesting because  it’s not a simple 180 of a strip club   or lounge for straight men. Although it  is designed to be a place for escapism,  

Host clubs do not exist in a bubble separate from  the reality and expectations of Japanese society.   Women are able to escape patriarchy but only for a  brief moment and arguably it’s only surface level.   Even in a space where the roles are supposedly  reversed by women purchasing the company of men,  

Men still need to prove their masculinity  through wealth, and many women earn their   buying power by becoming replaceable gears  in the companionship industry themselves.  But when we talk about host clubs and their  clients, we have to be careful not to reduce the  

Conversation to a simple abuse victim narrative,  because the sense of agency these participants   feel through the work they do and how they show  off their earnings is the key to understanding how   this industry functions. We can debate whether  rookie hosts in a competitive club or a client  

Facing debt to a host actually have the power  to make choices, but we have to consider the   dynamics of gender, class, and even mental health  before starting that debate. I’m not vilifying the   companionship industry as a whole either – in a  time when people are feeling increasingly lonely,  

I think the ability to purchase company is better  than not having company at all. But it’s hard to   defend the host club in its current form because  it is a dangerous yet predictable mess of money,   romance, and alcohol. It’s hard to believe that  these establishments will every be a peaceful,  

Communal sanctuary, like how they are  depicted in Ouran High School Host Club.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nilgiree

Mentions of specific businesses and persons has been kept to a minimum to protect their privacy. However, you may search [ホスト] to Japanese YouTube channels created by hosts and host clubs.

Sources
The Dark Side of Jirai Kei 地雷系 (Landmine) Fashion & Culture

CDawgVA. (2020, February 1). I joined a Japanese host club (and failed). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV8OhAc3Zyc

Fitzsimmons, R. (2021). Selling intimacy under post-industrial capitalism: An ethnography of Japanese host clubs. International Institute for Asian Studies. https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/selling-intimacy-under-post-industrial-capitalism-ethnography-japanese-host#3ae35

Growing Indifference to Relationships and Sex in Japan. nippon.com. (2023, March 27). https://www.nippon.com/ja/japan-data/h01440/

Host and hostess clubs. (2024, February 24). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_and_hostess_clubs

Japan moves to strengthen crackdown on malicious host clubs. The Japan Times. (2023, November 29). https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/11/29/japan/crime-legal/government-crack-down-host-clubs/

Nippon TV News 24 Japan. (2023a, November 21). Japan to consider crackdown on male host clubs. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRWBJhhPyk

South China Morning Post. (2023b, December 26). Japan’s “host clubs” driving women into sex work. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKEtFLAelgI

The Mainichi, Host clubs in Tokyo nightlife district to stop running up huge customer tabs by next April https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231206/p2a/00m/0na/007000c

Japan Today, Woman arrested after man stabbed on Tokyo street https://japantoday.com/category/crime/woman-arrested-after-man-stabbed-on-tokyo-street

The Asahi Shimbun, Nagoya woman arrested for selling dating scam manuals, https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14989531

YAHOOニュース, 社会人2年目で手取りは19万円…これって「少ない」ですか？20代の平均年収はどれくらい？ https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1bb9df45ef90e1882ca4f9ebcf45a01e985dfda7

【2022年版】ホストクラブのお酒の値段｜価格設定の理由まで全解説！: 大阪ホストナビ-大阪のホストクラブ情報まとめサイト. 大阪ホストおすすめナビ｜ホストクラブ情報まとめサイト. (2022a, June 28). https://osaka-host.net/host-alcohol-price/

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