A hostess club is a type of night club found primarily in Japan which employs mostly female staff and caters to men seeking drinks and attentive conversation. A host club is a similar establishment where mostly male staff attend to women. Host and hostess clubs are considered part of mizu shōbai (), the night-time entertainment business in Japan.
Hostess clubs Japan
There are a few types of hostess club-type establishments in Japan with the majority falling into one of two categories: , a portmanteau of , or the more exclusive . Kyabakura hostesses are known as (cabaret girl), and many use professional names, called . They light cigarettes, provide beverages, offer flirtatious conversation, and sing karaoke. The clubs also often employ a female bartender usually well-trained in mixology, and who may also be the manager or mamasan.
Hostesses often drink with customers each night, and alcohol-related behavior problems are fairly common.As Lucie Blackman murder verdict approaches, foreign hostesses remain vulnerable, Japan Today, 13 April 2007 Most bars use a commission system by which hostesses receive a percentage of sales.
Businesses may pay for tabs as company expenses to promote trust among male co-workers or clients. At one establishment, about 90% of all tabs were reportedly paid for by companies.Anne Allison. Interview: May 4, 2003
Patrons are generally greeted at the door and seated as far away from other customers as possible. In some instances, a customer can choose with whom he spends time, but most often that is decided by the house. In either case, the hostess will leave after a set amount of time or a set number of drinks.
Hostess clubs have a "no touching" policy, and patrons who try to initiate private or sexual conversation are removed. A red-light district version of the host/hostess club exists, called seku-kyabakura or ichya-kyabakura, where patrons are permitted to touch their host/hostess above the waist and engage in sexual conversation topics or kissing. Normal hostess clubs are classified as food and entertainment establishments and regulated by the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act, prohibiting any form of sexual contact between employees and customers. Hostess clubs also need a permit to allow dancing. Clubs are inspected often by the Public Safety Commission. Any club found to be violating its permitted activities may have its business license suspended.
Hostessing is a popular employment option among young foreign women in Japan. Most visa types do not allow this type of work, as hostessing falls under the category of , so many choose to work illegally. The clubs sometimes take advantage of the women's precarious legal situation., Asian Sex Gazette, 13 January 2005 The industry and its dangers were highlighted in 1992 when Carita Ridgway, an Australian hostess, was drugged and killed after a paid date, and in 2000 when Lucie Blackman, a British hostess, was abducted, raped and murdered, allegedly by the same customer, serial killer Joji Obara. The government promised to crack down on illegal employment of foreigners in hostess bars, but an undercover operation in 2006 found that several hostess bars were willing to employ a foreign woman illegally.Nightclub hostess world still seen as one where profit trumps visas, safety, The Japan Times, 3 July 2007
In December 2009, the Kyabakura Union was formed to represent hostess bar workers.
Snack bars
A , "snack" for short, refers to a kind of hostess bar. It is an alcohol-serving bar that employs female staff to serve and flirt with male customers. Although they do not charge an entry fee (and often have no set prices on their menus), they usually charge either an arbitrary fee or a set hourly fee plus a "bottle charge", by which customers purchase a bottle in their own name, which is kept for future visits.
Venues outside Japan Hostess bars are also found in other East Asian countries, as well as in Hawaii, Guam, California, and British Columbia. In Hawaii, approximately half of Oahu's 300 bars are licensed as hostess bars.
Some bars in Thailand label themselves as hostess bars; these are loosely related to the East Asian practice, although they are essentially go-go bars that do not feature dancing.
Host clubs Japan A has female customers pay for male company. Host clubs are typically found in more densely populated areas of Japan. They are numerous in Tokyo districts such as Kabukichō, and in Osaka's Umeda and Namba. Customers are typically wives of rich men, women working as hostesses in hostess clubs, or sex workers.Japan , The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality, 1997–2001
The first host club was opened in Tokyo in 1966. In 1996, the number of Tokyo host clubs was estimated to be 200, and a night of non-sexual entertainment could cost US$500–600. Professor Yoko Tajima of Hosei University explained the phenomenon by Japanese men's lack of true listening to the problems of women, and by women's desire to take care of a man and be loved back.Clubs Where, for a Price, Japanese Men Are Nice to Women The New York Times, 8 September 1996
Young women lured to "malicious" host clubs can rack up large debts; some of them turn to prostitution to pay them back. Habitually, the store also co-signs for the customer's debts with the host. These schemes have become a problem in Japan, and some stores have banned them. Host clubs are classified as food and entertainment establishments. They are regulated by the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act, which prohibits any form of sexual contact between employees and customers. Any club found violating its permitted activities can have its business license suspended. At some insufficiently monitored establishments, people unable to pay bar bills have been forced into coerced sex work and sex trafficking.
Hosts
Male hosts pour drinks and will often flirt with their clients.
Hosts' ages usually range between 18 and the mid-20s. They will take a stage name that will often describe their character. Men who become hosts are often those who either cannot find a white-collar job or are enticed by the prospect of high earnings through commission.
While hostess bars in Tokyo often have designated staff who work on getting clients to come into their clubs, some hosts are sent out onto the streets to find customers, who are referred to as , usually the younger, less-experienced hosts. A common look for a host is a dark suit, a collared shirt, silver jewelry, a dark tan, and bleached hair.
Pay is usually determined by commission on drink sales, with hosts often drinking far past a healthy limit, usually while trying to hide their drunkenness. Because the base hourly wage is usually extremely low, almost any man can become a host regardless of looks or charisma (depending on the bar). Hosts who cannot increase their sales usually drop out very soon, because of the minimum wage. The environment at a host bar is usually competitive, with tens of thousands of dollars sometimes offered to the host who achieves the highest sales.
Drinks Many of the clientele who visit host bars are hostesses who finish work at around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., causing host bars to often begin business at around midnight and finish in the morning or midday, with hosts working to the point of exhaustion. Business times have changed in recent years, due to the order of the police, to address the increased incidence of illegal prostitution by host club customers who could not pay the host club debts they had accumulated. Most of these clubs open about 4:00 p.m. and have to be closed between midnight and 2:00 a.m.
Buying bottles of champagne usually means a . All the hosts of the club will gather around the table for a song, talk, or a mic performance of some kind. The champagne will be drunk straight from the bottle by the customer, then the host, and then the other hosts. Often, a wet towel is held under the chins of customers and hosts while they drink to prevent spills. The performance differs from club to club, and is believed to have originated at club Ryugujo in Kabukicho by the manager Yoritomo.
A can usually be done for special events. Champagne glasses are arranged in a pyramid, and champagne is poured onto the top glass until it trickles down the layers. These costs typically range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 yen (US$3,500-7,000) or more.
Etiquette On the first visit to a host club, the customer is presented with a menu of the hosts available, and decides which host to meet first. Over the course of the night, the customer will meet most of the hosts. The customer then decides which host they like most, and can make it their . This can be done by buying a "bottle keep" (a bottle of liquor to save for next time). The named host will receive a percentage of the future sales generated by that customer. Most clubs operate on a system: once the named host has been nominated, a customer cannot change hosts at that club.
Sometimes a host will go with a customer for a meal or karaoke after hours. This is called . Staying longer at the host club is considered proper treatment for a host. It is possible to go on day trips or travel with a host, but a host can only go with their own customer. A host who interacts with another host's customer may be fined or fired from the club. Drinks can be purchased on tab, but contact information is taken, and the customer must pay later. If the customer does not pay, the host must. It is considered rude to leave a customer alone, called . A customer who is abusive and troublesome is called a and may be expelled from a club.
Business strategy Usually, hosts try to make the clients feel loved and romanced without having sex with them though sex with clients is not unheard of or forbidden.Tokyo plays host to sexual shift, The Guardian, 18 September 2005 It is not uncommon for a host to act like a boyfriend, doing such things as calling their customers outside of the club and attempting to create emotional dependence. is the practice of a host emailing a customer regularly to ensure their return.
Host bars are increasingly seen as predatory or malicious businesses. A common business strategy for hosts to attract female clients to the host club is to pose as a normal man on a dating app, establish initial contact, and start a relationship. The host will then reveal that he is the host and ask the woman for a favor: to visit him at his club for an evening. There, she will be charged for drinks that the host commissions. The woman may be conned into ordering thousands of dollars of alcohol without being told the price, usually in a bid to help her 'boyfriend' achieve a top host or number one sales ranking, and then strongarmed into paying the bill using a predatory loan the next day, and promptly dropped by the host.Japan 'hosts' posing on dating apps to deceive, extort and indebt women", The Mainichi, Dec 6, 2024
In more nefarious cases, the host will continue inviting the woman, who believes they are in a relationship, and cause her to become increasingly indebted to the host club. When she is unable to pay, the host refers her to a hostess club, soapland, or similar sex industry establishment to earn money to pay off the debt. The host receives a kickback from the establishment for the referral and will encourage her to continue spending at the host club.Japan 'hosts' posing on dating apps to deceive, extort and indebt women", The Mainichi, Dec 6, 2024
New regulations