The Dark Reality of Japanese Host Clubs

so I was thinking about oron High School Host Club the other day and we all know that show isn't actually about a host club right in the first episode of oron we're presented with this beautiful finally kept lounge called The Host Club where quote The oron Host Club is where the school's handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands just think of it as oron Academy's elegant playground for the super rich and beautiful it's

a space where m 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 oron'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 a jumping off point for friendships and relationship drama that's the appeal of waran we get to see th

is group of Mis twinx and one androgynous heroine have fun and 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 game series formerly known as Yakuza features many games where you run Cabaret clubs and enjoy humanizing conversations with cast members girls RPG Cinderella life is a 3DS game that le

ts you play as a Hostess working in Neo Ginza is kakura is a comic about a cabaret Club transported into another world tells a story of a top earning cab Hostess we establishing her throne in another world is about a top earning host who gets transported into 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 n

o 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 piece 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 ey of

the Prime [Music] [Applause] Minister [Music] spee [Music] [Applause] [Music] foree this is AKO she's a college student who moved to Tokyo for University she has a part-time job at an isaka 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 that they visit a host club because as new customers they get all you can drink alcohol for a pretty low cost 3,000 yen per hou

r per guest in US dollar that that's less than 30 bucks but ao'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 volumous bleached hair ao'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 bui

lding 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 AO 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 the time and they'll sit with them for 7 to 10 minutes each and so ao'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 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 gudy and more clean and refreshing even the hosts that have a striking style are less spiky and more reminiscent of K-pop Idols visual K Japanese genderless style or just just jifi okay pause here I couldn't find another place to put this but I

need to talk about some of 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's 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 eight entries in their waterfall host photo shoot 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 DND players's cosplay but then I saw this one with a dude in cyber street w

ear with a toy rabbit in front of the waterfall he has another stuffed animal in a different photo and it's what even is that then there are these photo shoots 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 they are weird bugs everywhere my favorite one hands down though is the seemingly average photograph of a man in a suit posing with a double barrel shot

in a way I've never seen before he has a resting on his shoulder without his hand on the trigger sir you are going to shoot your own 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 what their jobs are a lot of them will describe it as selling dreams their goal is to create a space experience and image that is dreamlike so they can take their clients out of their day-to-day reality everything from the Neo

n 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 particular 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 Al understand that not any random man ca

n pull off cyber street wear that charm is often what attracts women who go to host clubs anyway let's return to AO as AO meets the hosts she recognizes that they don't just look different from each other their personalities vary too some are these stereotypical priny 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 acho such as by touching needs and others AR to add subtle about making a move but she doesn't hate it AO 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 grin his Slender face medium length hair long fingers there's a masculine charm to him that draws her in but the

re's also an effeminate quality that makes her feel safe after talking to about seven guys the staff member from the beginning comes to the table he asks whether 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 ao's friend who is already drunk and wants to stay drunk suggests that they stay $8,000 Yen or about $55 per person for all you can drink with the company o

f handsome boys is still pretty cheap and AO would also like to talk to Ren a little longer so AO officially nominates Ren as her host for round two since she chose Ren to be her designated host AO signs a formal document to confirm this and now she is not allowed to ask for any other hosts in the club other than Ren and ren is delighted he sits even closer to AO gets connected with her through a messaging app and they have a fantastic night together an hour later the two ladies are guided out t

o the elevator for a final goodbye and in a dreamy drunken days they return to their homes when AO gets back to her small apartment she notices that Ren 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 Ren saying she'll go again soon maybe next week and so AO returns to the club a week later this time alone she requests 1 hour with Ren immediately there's an entrance

fee of 3,000 yen a table charge of 2,000 Yen and a nomination fee of 3,000 yen she is already spending as much as she did on the first visit even before ordering a drink well okay AO thinks to herself I mean I I expected it to be pricier than the first time so her surprise at the starting cost is blown away when R 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 can

ned 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 but really it's fine because that money is for Ren Ren is a player a host intensely competing against the other hosts in the club for the title of top earner every Yenni she uses at the club counts towards its sales this is how she can thank him for his company and acho sees how much Ren appreciates the

support that's why she shouldn't feel too bad about ordering a bottle of Shu for 20,000 yen or about $135 she stays for two more hours at the club that's 2,000 Yen for every additional hour totaling 37,000 Yen or $250 before tax that's an additional 35% to her tab totaling 49,95 Yen or about $338 wait isn't Japan's tax supposed to be 10% oh yeah so this tax here refers to the establishment's service fee so an additional 10% for the whe consumption tax is added to this taxed Bill totaling $ 54945

Yen or $372 at the end of her St tells AO that he had a great night and wants to see her again soon she also feels the same and can't wait to see Ren again and she thinks to herself I need to find a new job ao's second visit to a host club is still on the cheaper end even her 20,000 yen bottle of Shu isn't anywhere near the average cost of a host club's most expensive drink for example a bottle of Armand de bryac which at market price can range from 50,000 to2 200,000 Yen that's about $350 to $

1,350 it sold from $270,000 yen to 800,000 Yen at a host club that's anywhere from $1,800 to $5,400 B clay CES that can be bought from $6,000 to 25,000 Yen or sold from $40,000 up to 300,000 Yen Red Bulls that can be bought for 200 yen at the corner store are sold for for 2 to 3,000 yen you can expect a markup on these drinks ranging anywhere from three times to 10 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 an

d hearts for 30,000 up to 50,000 yen bottles with the host face on them 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 range from a million yen or $6,500 on the cheap end and about 3 million yen or $20,000 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 sorts of numbers we're dealing w

ith the average monthly salary of someone in their 20s in Japan is 250,000 Yen roughly a ,700 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 frequence a host club blowing a significant portion of the 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 o

pportunity to drink and social Iz with handsome men most often a specific handsome man these men are stylish clean and often covered in brand named clothing from headp 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 the client better the more money they spend in her article Silling intimacy under post-industrial capitalism an

d ethnography of Japanese host clubs Ruby Fitz Simmons categorizes Host Club work as effective labor this is a term political philosopher Michael hard 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 effective Services okoy is probably the one that's easiest to imagine that's where a host flirts with the 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 H or 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 host they act more like a drinking friend who cheers you on to chug one more shot of tequila the Oda Oda approach is when a host acts dominating and intimidates his client I know that 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 de

scribe the Persona the host takes on but in this approach they raise sales by having a lot of clients as if they're a pop Idol Gathering fans rather than relying on building intimate relationships with a small number of Big Spenders you know I 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 it Trends and practices but if I'm throwing all these vocabulary words at you we might as well take it into a [Music] classroom Tant

o t a Tanto 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 suban or a substitute Tanto at another club if the main Tanto isn't enough to satisfy them in the Kanai region a client's designated host may also be called kza meaning bank account the client of a host who spent the most money on him that mo

nth in other words the host's most lucrative customer at the end of the month there's 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 when a client and host hang out or have dinner before going to the Club depending on the club an additional fee for the service may be charged after much like Doan Afters are when a client and host hang out after the club closes this could be going o

ut to karaoke hanging out at a bar or going someplace where they can be truly Alone Together Mak directly translating to pillow this refers to sexual Services hosts May perform with clients in Hope 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 the club that's it they do however have a lot of freedom in how they conduct their business especiall

y 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 shumi maku or hobby pillows 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 his ranking Udi Kake may be negotiated however if

a host fails to receive money from the client the tab falls on the host making him in depth to the club so 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 hopefully I've laid out the basics of a host club 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 of 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 to meet their hosts and that's where t

hey go to pay their host through the purchase of drinks this EST 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 host Clips to K-pop idols and streamers occupations that often r

ely 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 g i pseudo romance and romance can only happen if there is a push and pull of affection and desire from both parties you may 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 Sea Dog VA video where he tries out the occupation for a day any the podcast episodes where he reflects on his experience it sounds like he's highkey 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 com coming one after another to throw in another vocabulary word bottles that are close to empty or bottles h

osts are dare to down in one go I'll call 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 conflicts between hosts and 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 th

em 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 hot shot 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 great at sales earns the last song where he gets to perform kar

aoke 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 outside the club to get some fresh air and you're reminded that Kabuki show is covered in Gian 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 udy kadets to either bring their ranking numbers up so they can stand on stage or just push themselves past the minimum sales goals so they don't get scolded by the club manager this job is especially taxing for rookie host 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 the hosts as independent contractors a majority of a host's earning 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've been working at the club for years or used to be a big money maker in the past they are often treated like a bur

den 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 Disney Disneyland especially as a reward for their large spendings and you can imagine wha

t kinds 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 numberers as we discussed if you do succeed you rake in a lot of cash that nomination fee and drink sales commission I mentioned start at a

round 10 to 20% but it gets higher the more sales you make usually going up as high as 60% commission that means if a client orders a 1 million yen champagne tower for a host the host gets 600,000 Yen that's like $4,000 in one night good God is Yen cheap right now still that's $4,000 in one 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 amo

unts of money you don't need an education to become a host a lot of hosts actually start right after graduating high school and while this is illegal some started at age 16 or 17 now there is a drawback to this because once you're past your mid2 20s 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 30s 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 st

ay for the long run most successful hosts stick with the job during their 20s and then switch to host club Management in their 30s 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 acc

ording to him the scene is only becoming more competitive and sales records continue to keep getting broken while not impossible to survive as an older host year after year the CTS 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 the changes in legislation related to cracking down on the Yakuza and the effects of the businesses affecting public Ms 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 businesses so they don't hesitate to to post about their earnings on X or make many 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 pri

ces 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 nilg 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 holding discussions about my videos but thank you for making it this far into the video and I hope you enjoy the rest 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-60s 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 adverti to ballrooms in the past would have male dance instructors or dance Partners available for women to partner with and they will get paid in tips this style of Club attracted women whose husbands were a away at work female business owners who wanted to blow off some steam or just ladies who wanted to dance in th

e' 70s Club I 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 the president of Kai had champagne Towers is funeral oh my God this type of mature client certainly still exists but they aren't the main Target demographic anymore even fewer of the clientele are daytime workers these include the average office worker nurses people who work in the b

eauty industry Etc I would say it's fine to throw in the average college student with a part-time job in the service industry into this group as well this group is small because their work doesn't pay enough to support the lifestyle they may be a Shang arashi someone who abuses the new guest price and hops from one cloth to another just to get some cheap drinks that's what ao's friend is but otherwise hosts are lucky if they can get a daytime worker to spend around $1,000 or 100,000 yen to 200,0

00 Yen a month which leaves us with the night workers they make up the majority of the clientele of host clothes 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 daytime 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 I wonder

how ao's been doing it looks like she's texting Ren on her phone they're talking about Ren's sales M he's saying that he would really appreciate it if she came over and bought some champagne for 600 ,000 Yen AO doesn't have that kind of money uh Hey AO what are you searching oh um you you're looking for work in Kabuki show uh I mean I I guess you're free to do so oh wow that's like triple what you make at your ezekiah 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 these Styles and personalities of 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 host host website and finding this one hosts 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 high schooler have read that book too anyway even during research I wa

sn't very interested in the videos heavily focused on the hosts they there are a couple of channels on YouTube run by hosts 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 talk to girls better or techniques on 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 story ends when their purchases are confirmed these videos restrict The Narrative to ins

ide 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 hosi and hosi focuses on relationships between hosts and clients often giving us a close look into the conversations and negotiations they have Buu is a one's personal channel that now focuses on women who frequent kabukicho this account features a lot of Street interviews with peopl

e 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 client 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 get of here what happened these mother [ __ ] let's go hji 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 uplo

ading 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 host'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 Su for defamation she has n

o intention of paying the compensation she's being demanded and asks how do I get this [ __ ] 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 muc

h money she spends on her Tanto 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 Tanto 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 borish attitude throwing a giant fit she buys her designator host a champagne Tower one of the most expensive purchases you can make for a host and m

akes him promise to meet up with her after Club hours but when he says they'll only hang out for 2 hours she loses it these two videos are over the top and probably exaggerated but they serve as good examples of cringe clients oraku 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 cring

e clients to a degree as I do with any service worker who has to deal with upset possibly drunk customers but it's important to consider what may have led to a cringe client's Obsession and attitude in the first place not all of host doji's videos are this spicy but I think they cover a wide range of highs and lows in the 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 shiny bea

cons in their lives that give them joy and club visits at something they look forward to after a stressful week some of the more Bitter Sweet videos feature clients who are very attracted to or are in love with their hosts and wish to take their relationship to the next level but rarely do they get a straightforward 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 wom

en 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 your boyfriend of 7 months forgets your birthday that's pretty upsetting now imagine that you've been

giving him a couple th000 specifically to buy his attention and he forgets your birthday now it's insulting hosts often times 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 after care 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 on

e less regular customer in a dip in sales possibly a slap in the face but what about the other side Banu 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 Health in the video where the interviewer goes around as

king for interview's dark pasts she gets stories like I dided a host who said he was going to quit but when he did he said that 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 2 years and he cheated did on me I was almost stabbed by my mother wait that that has nothing to do with host uh in the video where the interviewer asks for a Secrets they can't tel

l anyone she gets statements such as I'm pregnant with a host's child I made a udy Cadet and borrowed money from a loone shark 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 that should be a safe question I live with my parents but I give a 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 my money on hos

ts I don't go home I just spent 5 million yen on a host got depressed and now I can barely walk cuz I just took a bunch of sleeping pills uh 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 majority of the interviewees 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 ac

ross interview videos with varying degrees of severity and detecting a concerning pattern here I think we should check up on AO since we last saw her AO had a fight with Ren and hasn't gone to the club in a week she said he was acting kind of cool to her lately and then he shot back by saying that she hasn't been spending enough money at the club that snowballed into insults at each other arguments like this are a dime of dozen in Kabuki show she hasn't responded to any of his texts and is deter

mined to break things off with him with Ren 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 drinks but did she enjoy her job at the isaka bar either does she want to go back to running around a bar for a,2 200 yen an hour or keep working at a cabaret that offers an hourly wage double that plus commission maybe I can keep this job AO 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 to listen to her as she's walking through Kabuki Cho after a short shift she sees a poster with handsome men one man in particular with a 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 1 hour up to this point I've been trying to be as detached as possible o

ther than interjecting some snarky remarks here and there I understand that host clubs are an unfamiliar topic to most of the world and wanted to present it without too much bias I am not an authority on this topic I just speak Japanese and wanted to share the subculture with an English-speaking audience but as you have noticed this topic can get dark and controversial fast if you feel like I'm misrepresenting this industry and its participants I implore you to do some digging yourself I'm not t

rying 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 don't include English subtitles I suggest searching hosle on YouTube to find the channels I referen some English-speaking anime and Japanese culture YouTubers have also talked about host clubs or talk to hosts directly as well one video I personally recommend is cybergirls discussion video The Dark Side of J it focuses on J Fashi

on a style that is strongly associated with Host Club clients and the woman in the video discussed the stereotypes that come with it I also recommend reading that Ruby Fitz Simmons 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'm not making this video uncritically just because my goal is to be informative I'm not trying to be a replacement for a Wikipedia article

here actually that's that's partially a lie when I looked up the English page for host clubs on Wikipedia I found out that the information about host clubs are condensed to the same page as Hostess clubs and why do I get that they are similar businesses the business strategies are distinct Hostess clubs usually have a Noe 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 ho

stess bars have the freedom to nominate whomever they like each time they visit Host Club drink prizes are often three times of that of host dis bars host clubs allow Udi Kaka tabs while 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 flip virgins of each other because the differences in practices greatly influence the clientele and what motivates them to sp

end 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 proably 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 de usually this implies that they went to do s 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 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 and 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 over there and stuff you know but doesn't actually tell her not to go quite often there is a frustrating tension between host trying to preserve morale to look like a decent guy in 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 s 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 s 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 but watching the

se hosts talk about their clients doing s SW I realize that I have a bias I still think OFW 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 s SW exist I'm not the kind of person person who thinks it's self harm or anything like that no no no it can be a genuinely fun fulfilling self-expressive occupation and those very passionate about it can make it a long-term career bu

t often there's a part of me judging you not planning to do this forever are you and so seeing these hosts being so non-judgmental about sex work was oddly refreshing a lot of hosts choose not to dig into the jobs their clients have but a lot of the clients are comfortable being open about s SW with them when hosts know that their client does s SW they never treat their payment as Dirty Money quite the opposite they praise the woman for their hard work as I mentioned earlier a lot of clients see

m 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 efforts 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 are host just saying that because they want th

at money whether it be Wikipedia or English podcast 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 these women 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 host club lifestyle came up over and over and over in these Host Club Y

ouTube 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 predictively unsafe and unhealthy it can often 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 wa

s going on for example on November 5th 2023 a 25 year-old woman stabbed a host in the streets of Shinjuku November 19th 2023 a sugar baby and her host who was complicit in her sugaring scams got arrested the number of arrests made of woman doing taimo Street hookups in ubo park in Shinjuku almost tripled from 51 arrests in 2022 to 140 arrests in 2023 according to the survey conducted by the police about 40% of women who do Street hookups do it to finance a host club men's concept cafe or men's u

nderground Idol hobby then there's subject of toyoko kids in kabukicho there's an area called toyoko an abbreviation of beside too Cinema it's become a hub for homeless Youth and runaways together 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 them hooked and raising them into high Spenders as media coverage of malicious host practices reached its peak on November 20th prime minister

kishida announced a plan for the cracked down on host clubs in December police investigated multiple host clubs in the entertainment districts of several pre fixures including Tokyo Hokkaido Osaka and iig reports read officers uncover breaches of regulations such as failure to display a price list and lack of any notice that miners 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 purcha

ses 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 woman being coerced into s SW through host the police have been fairly clear that their goal in these crackdowns is less to specifically stop women from going to host clubs or taking upw but to get a lead on and then Crush toku crime organizations I won't get into the nitty-gritty of it but in recent years there's been an increase in Anonymous and malleable crim

e organizations compared to let's say the Yakuza who operate in hierarchical groups that tend to have goals and areas they're in charge of toku crimes are often planned anonymously on social networking platforms and teams are malleable participants are unlikely to work with these 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 often times cannot identify

who was giving them orders police have reasonably suspected that host clubes are a hot bit for toku 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 aw agency connected to toku to introduce his clients to work for the agency women who do not want to take upw but still need money may borrow money from lone sharks or participate in Yami illegal part-time jobs such as smuggling drugs o

r 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 this approach is not intended to crush the host client to sex worker Pipeline and 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 bu chanet 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 cavaret clubs are deemed foku establishments that offer drinks alongside entertaining guests so they fall under the businesses affecting public Ms regulation act which has gotten stricter in recent years unde

r this act these clubs are prohibited from serving alcohol between the times of 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. although a lot of businesses simply turn off their entrance lights to look clothes but continue to run their businesses 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 and cast are only allowed to stop and talk with customers over a counter for 3 minutes

at a time there are no nomination systems like the clubs but most casts have their shift schedules posted on social media so their fans can plan to visit them and of course they sell decorative or overpriced alcohol they also offer more idle culture adjacent Services the big one being polaroid pictures these establishments are much more accessible due to their low price and Novelty and they don't have these stigma host clubs developed over the years however they can become as addictive as host

clubs menka 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 AKB operate you probably know the direction I'm heading but 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 Mena meeting 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 o

pportunity to go on 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 woman getting extremely attached to the court ship 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 and their relationships with clients and fans to get them to spend more money and those women get hook

ed 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 of their relationships as transactional aren't the hosts who end up shouldering Udi Kaka de 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 clap es with our perception of women's agency in the victim narrative we often assign to S workers in the opening section of her article Ruby Fitz Simmons has this to say The overarching Narrative of host club patronization that women are h

elpless 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 choices in discussions of sex and sex related work 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 s

ufficient enough to address this issues many layers host clubs make us recognize how powerful effective 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 women 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 a

ll s workers as 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 Industries misery on people making bad personal choices that is what frustrates me about these conversations 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 vio

lent 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 t

o 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 on 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 from their insane spendings some people argue in favor of the host club industry by pointing out this complacency that there is a mutual agreement between host and cl Cent that they have the freedom to maintain their relationship also people ask why a host club's bad when you don't have a problem with hostess clubs huh because host clubs and Host

ess clubs have different business models let's bring back the comparison chart again Hostess clubs with female workers don't offer Udi kaket tabs the 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 allow clients make debts have a permanent nomination system and sell

drinks for much higher prices it is so much easier for women to find themselves stuck in difficult situations with a host finally throwing 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 BU chano's Stree

t 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 runaway youth people who already struggle to make ends meet without the additional burden of paying for time with hosts even the people who 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 eas

y 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 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 b

ored 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 and not all hosts are manipulative or use physically or emotionally violent tactics to drive sales I won't even say that only women with i

ssues 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 that they would have otherwise steered away from all right 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 wanted to discuss it Beyo

nd host clubs I think I've said all I wanted about host clubs 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 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 a

ge 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 asag plus from January this year quotes a host club manager saying that he's instructing newer hosts not 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 the 20-year-olds who typically shouldn't have

money to spend at 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 Effective labor this industry represents let's bring back Fitz Simmons's article again because I appreciate the way she illustrates the Journey of research she clearly states that she assumed in the beginning that Japanese women sex workers or otherwise desperately need respect from the subjugation and shavinism of their male partne

rs that woman's interactions with host acted as an escape from the emotional and physical tools 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 boyfriends don't treat them ni

cely they go to host clubs 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 Fitz Simmons's initial hypothesis hosts are expected to be the whole boyfriend experience not just a temporary escape from male business clients or 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 venues merch table an

exchange of romantic gestures take place and real emotions are involved 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 tradition forms of companionship this is where my criticism of Fitz Simmons's 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 in 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 shiver Us West Section she frames Japanese woman's dissatisfaction with Japanese men think modern Japanese women dream of sensitive Western gentlemen who share housework and give them words of affirmation just cuz Japanese men won't or can't do that I think modern women in the workforce per

iod simply want men who recognize the necessity of shared effort and respect in both parties 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 Fitz Simmons's article is not historically incorrect but her takeaway feels rather outdated for something published in 2021 to say Japanese women have an occidentalist fantasy to seek refuge in the west comes of

f 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 relationships 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 in over 60% of women in the same age range answer the same this surve

y 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 Uso who wrote the book Lang 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 qu

ick 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 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 back many Japanese people say that they don't want romance to disrupt what

ever piece they have in their friend groups or workplaces if real relationships are messy unpredictable and cause more trouble than their worth why bother especially when there are alternatives reason to its parasocial relationships with characters and talents USI kual 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 2000s was marked by Japanese fans saying that they experience Mo a feeling of adoration t

hat is neither romantic nor sexual compare that to the present where the word everyone is using is oi 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 USI kuo sites Kyoto University physiology Professor K KU when explaining that mentally oiu fan activities have a si

milar 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 by saving money for their live show or putting on a display they 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 gu

ys 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 glass of wine in your hand and pick whichever handsome boy you fancy the transactional nature of the relationship that many may find alienating can instead be the appeal to some people the more money I give him the more he climbs the club hierarchy and the more he treats me like a princess like fan activities towards pop Idols expressions of Love towar

ds a host or 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 oi 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 th

at 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 rather depressing response of less people saying that they have friends to han

g out with and more people saying 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 through 29 are single uh compare that to 34% of women who are single yeah there's probably some cultural differences there 37% of single Americans ages 18 through 29 answered in a 2020 survey that they are not interested in dating either the most motivations for this mindset are going to v

ary a bit across countries but globally we're seeing today's youth prioritize things like 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 effective 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 Road in Tokyo advertising high-paying part-time jobs for girls and

yes they specifically use the word girl walk down just slightly skier parts of the city and they give out tissue packets with help wanted ads for the same kinds 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 camir 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 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 woman 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 woles are supposedly reversed by woman purchasing the company of men men Stone need to prove their masculinity through wealth and any woman 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 th

e 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 establish ments will ever be a peaceful communal Sanctuary like how they are depicted in oron High School Host Club