JIN-429 -- What do you know about hostessing? Part one

[jin at mailman.japaninc.com]

The 'JIN' Japan Inc Newsletter
A weekly opinion piece on social, economic and political trends
in Japan.
Issue No. 429 Wednesday August 29, 2007 TOKYO

*****OUT NOW J at PAN INC MAGAZINE'S SUMMER ISSUE*****
Featuring our Real Estate Special, Web 2.0 Marketing and more!

This week's JIN comes from a young woman who worked in the
hostess trade in Japan. It chronicles some of her experiences
and wider observations about the industry. To be continued next
month.


What do you know about Hostessing? Part One

Whether you have read about them in Western media in relation to
the seedy side of Japanese nightlife, or whether you have
actually frequented a hostess bar yourself, it is striking how
difficult it is to find a decent account of the industry. I hope
my observation will provide a fuller and more realistic
perspective.

Hostesses are the girls of the night, part of the mizushobai "the
water business". They are the ones with their hair set, in flashy
high heels and evening gowns. Why is the mizushobai industry
such a money maker? Or is it equal in function and form to any
other section of the entertainment industry? Where do hostess
bars lie on the industry scale between brothel and regular bar?

I worked in Kitashinchi, a section of Osaka, close to Umeda, that
caters to the mizushobai industry, for a period of eight months
in 2005. For any outsider, to live and work in a community that
is previously unknown to them, except maybe in books, this new
society is a mysterious place. Japan's relative homogeneity
makes it even more difficult to penetrate but working in a
hostess bar allowed me to gain first-hand experience of what is
in many ways a 'hidden' side of society.

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What is a hostess bar?

There is a famous saying in advertising, 'sex sells', and the
mizushobai of Japan is made up of different ways sex is sold.
The broad category of water business, includes prostitution,
server, bartender, all the way up to paid companion, or hostess.
The range stretches from places where the waitresses do not wear
underwear while working, to girls who soap up a client's body
with their own ('Soapland'), and from low-level hostesses who
serve and make drinks but also have a price for just about
anything, to the higher ranking hostesses who only provide talk
and make drinks. Basically all 'water businesses' jobs involve
alcohol, and some sense of sexual connotation. However, the
degree to which the form of entertainment is designed to meet
sexual or purely social needs varies greatly.

There are many different ways to identify the level or quality
of the clubs. An easily identifiable marker is the existence of a
karaoke machine in the club. If there is karaoke machine then it
is a 'snack bar'—these are the cheaper clubs and the girls that
work there would not be called hostesses, but rather 'snack
girls' or 'kyabajou', which is short for a 'kyabakura jousei'
translated as, cabaret girl. Another way to gauge the level of a
hostess club is the prices for a house bottle and the cost for
sitting. At all hostess clubs it is the rule that in order to sit
down, a bottle will have to be purchased. If the bottle is not
emptied on the first night it will be kept in the club, for the
customer for the next time he comes in. The next time they will
not be required to buy a new bottle. The hostess may also be
offered a drink from this bottle. Whatever the hostess eats or
drinks, the customer will be charged. It is an unsaid rule that
the hostess must also drink. If the customer does not offer,
then the hostess will say that she is thirsty, and she might even
ask if she could have a drink, but only rarely. It is the point
of the hostess club to relax and have fun, so to exclude the
hostess in such a way usually never happens. In most snack places
you do not have to buy a bottle. Usually the house bottle will be
a whisky, Japanese Suntory whisky is one of the cheaper brands.
The price of the same Suntory bottle can differ from club to
club. The owner of the club, or 'mama-san' (literally honorable
mother) sets the price. The liquor store or distributor sells it
at the same price, but for example at the first hostess club I
worked at, which really could almost be called a snack bar,
sold their house bottle at JPY 8,000. And the cost of sitting
down per person was JPY6,000.

Who are the hostesses?

There are two basic types of girls who work at
hostess clubs, the first would be the part-time worker, and the
second would be the career worker. Mainly the type of girls that
would work part-time would be college students, who were at
school during the day and could only work at night. The draw of
hostessing for these girls would be the large amount of money
they could make in a short amount of time, leaving plenty of time
for studying and other activities. These girls had set times that
they would work until; around 12 o'clock when the last train home
was. The career girls would be the ones that would stay after 12
if there were still customers, and maybe go out drinking after
the club closed for the night. These career hostesses only worked
as hostesses. Some had children and worked to support them
because they had been divorced or they had children out of
wedlock. My sempai (senior), or Onesan (older sister) has two
children. She is also divorced. She started hostessing at the
club later than most girls. Previously she had owned a restaurant
in the Hiroshima area. Other girls were younger, generally in
their early twenties.

-----------------------------------------------------------

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I did not have many opportunities to talk to the girls about
their home lives, or what they did outside of work. That was
never discussed, and was treated as rude if it was brought up.
Boyfriend talk was strictly prohibited, and I learned the hard
way that you don't talk about your boyfriend, if you have one,
at work. You were always supposed to say that you did not have
one.    I had a lot of trouble with this, as I am not a very good
liar. I lost one of the best customers the high end club ever
had. He was a rich businessman who would come to the club for
about 1 hour and spend over JPY100,000, and then he would go to
another club. He would repeat this process several times a night
and frequent Kitashinchi every weekend. The first time I met him,
he took and instant liking to me, and I him. He is very robust
and outlandish, more so than most Japanese men I met at the
club. He was fun to be around, especially after talking to
lawyers all evening. He would take me on his Kitashinchi rounds
as well, showing me off to the other hostess clubs. He always
requested me. But then after drinking for 7 hours, and he was the
only customer in the club, I told him I needed to leave. He
couldn't understand why I would want to be anywhere else when we
were on our 4th bottle of Dom Perignon and having a great time.
My boyfriend was waiting for me in the car to drive me home. He
had been waiting for over 2 hours, and I thought he was going to
gut me. That's when I made a decision between being a hostess
and not being a hostess. I told the customer I had to meet my
boyfriend. Up until that moment I had never seen such a look of
disappointment and disgust. He told me that as a hostess I should
never say I have a boyfriend. I had broken the cardinal rule of
hostessing. He let me leave, but he never came back to the club
while I was there.  With him, although he may not have even had
any wish to move our relationship to a sexual level, once the
possibility was eliminated, so was the point.

Hostesses and snack girls are as a rule not prostitutes. They
do not sell anything other than their smile and their time.
However, the lines do blur at some point. It is interesting
that in Japan, men may tolerate their wives or girlfriends
working in the 'water business.' More still, that wives or
girlfriends tolerate their husbands or boyfriends going to
hostess clubs or snack bars. From my experiences of working in
the industry, I can say that I have a respect for my former co-
workers and that the social ritual of the hostess club should not
be judged without an understanding of the context in which it
exists. For some, hostessing is a career, for others is just a
part-time or temporary way of paying the billls and having some
fun. You never, know, one of your female colleagues at work in
Japan may have even been through this herself.

By 'June'

If you have a question or a comment to make, please visit
www.japaninc.com/jin429 and post it at the bottom of the web
version of this article.

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++EVENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------
Start a Company in Japan

Entrepreneur's Handbook Seminar 6th of October, 2007

If you have been considering setting up your own company,
find out what it takes to make it successful.
Terrie Lloyd, founder of over 13 start-up companies in Japan,
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This is an ideal opportunity to find out what is involved,
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All materials are in English and are Japan-focused.

For more details: http://japaninc.com/terrie_lloyd/
-----------------------------------------------------------
RidgeRunner Niseko
International Cricket Competition 15-17 September 2007

This is your invitation to three days of fun at an
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Cricketing legend Dennis Lillee will be attending the event
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includes two days of cricket, a golf match and charity
dinner dance and auction.

For more information, and the chance to win a
dinner with Dennis,
please visit www.ridgerunner.jp/cricket
or contact Simon Jackson
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-----------------------------------------------------------
Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo - Tuesday, September 4th

Speaker: Patrick Newell - Co-founder and Vision Navigator
of the Tokyo International School

September's seminar will take you to Tokyo International
school to witness first-hand the entrepreneurialism and
creativity to be found at one of Tokyo's and the world's
leading international schools.

Patrick will share how he has realized his dreams during
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and how the collaborative spirit of Wikinomics is changing
how corporations, industries and communities.

Date/Time: Tuesday, September 4th - 7:00 pm
Location: Tokyo International School
Language: English
Website: http://www.ea-tokyo.com
Email: info at ea-tokyo.com
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