Slow news day at CNN?
CNN.com/Asia has a report claiming that business women in Japan are paying up to $50,000 a night to spend time with hosts that CNN referst to as “geisha guys.”
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs.
Businesswomen in Japan pay up to $50,000 a night for male companionship from “hosts” like Yunosuke.
This isn’t a date, though. It’s business.
The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship.
5 million yen per night for male companionship?
I guess it must be true. . . CNN wouldn’t post a report that is a load of BS, would it?
Thanks to John Serdy.
Elliot Spitzer will be arriving on the next incoming flight.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pmThe impression I got from watching ‘Tales of an Osaka Lovethief’ was that most of the regular clients are prostitutes and 5 mill yen is what a highearner makes in a month. Has been quite a while since I watched it though.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:05 pm? I am highly skeptical of this “news” story. It may be that it happens, but as far as a trend goes? I highly doubt it.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pmI think that the mainstream media is too quick to jump on stories that highlight how “wacky” the Japanese can be. Hardly a day passes where I don’t get an e-mail forward from friends overseas asking if the pictures showing boob-shaped scarves, skirts that are printed to look see-through, tiny swimsuits (a personal favorite), etc are acutally the “Newest Trend in Japan” as claimed. I even remember the apron-to-vending machine bit being picked up by a newspaper a while back.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:44 amThere truly are women who spend that or even more.
Why is it so expensive? It’s because of the alcohol, they sell it highly overpriced the most expensive bottle cost 1 million yen ($10,000) yen!! But there are women who spend only like $100 each time. Most women can’t afford to buy 1 million yen bottles. And many clubs have cheap rates for first time clients like 5000 yen ($50)
Here are some price from the wikipedia article here: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9B%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A9%E3%83%96#.E6.8C.87.E5.90.8D.E3.81.AE.E7.A8.AE.E9.A1.9E
The most expensive champagne is Dom Perignon, and their price varies depending on the color. It goes in this order from cheapest to most expensive (price is per bottle) white (40,000 to 60,000 yen), pink(10,000 to 15,000 yen), black (12,000 to 20,000), gold (30,000 to 50,000) and platina (70,000 to 100,000)
Also a cheaper champagne, Café de Paris, is sold at 10,000 to 15,000 yen in Host CLubs, while you can buy a bottle in store for less than 2,000 yen.
So they make mad profits.
CNN hasn’t invented anything. Host Clubs used to be really underground and had an image of being seedy places for older women, but recently they have have more younger clients (partly because of the wider range of prices) there are groups of Office Ladies who go to clubs together.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:33 amThis is not a hoax cooked up by CNN, the existence of these places is knownn in Japan for several decades, except they only started to get more popular in the last 5 to 10 years as a wider range of clubs opened with lower entry prices.. Except most host don’t earn 5 million yen per month, few continue more than a few months doing this job because it’s very tiring (work starts at night and ends at noon sometimes the next day) and they have to drink a lot of booze, and if they don’t earn enough they can get kicked out.
This is not a hoax cooked up by CNN, the existence of these places is knownn in Japan for several decades, except they only started to get more popular in the last 5 to 10 years as a wider range of clubs opened with lower entry prices.
If you want to know how many Host Clubs and Hosts there are, I have no idea but the Japanese Wikipedia article on Host Clubs has a link to an article that says there are more than 3000 to 4000 Korean Hosts working in Japan who service a clientele mostly composed of Korean women (10,000) who work as Hostesses and prostitutes.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:37 amSo extrapolate to the number of Japanese women who work in 風俗 (sex related) business who must be at least 10 times more numerous than the immigrant Korean women, and
it seems there must be a lot of Hosts. If you go to Kabukichô in Tôkyô, there are probably several hundred different Host Clubs. You just ahve to go there to see it.
About the Korean Hosts servicing Korean 風俗 women, there’s the same thing with Japanese Hosteses and sex workers, many of them go to Host Clubs, they can enjoy the reverse of what they do in their job having men pour them alcohol, lighting up their cigarette etc.
Recently there was a lot of TV shows on Japanese TV that highlighted Hosts and talked about them in a rather sympathetic way (basically casanovas who make good money drinking with women) in a way they’d never talk about Hostesses, so Hosts are viewed in a less negative way than Hostesses, there is probaly also a bit of sexism at work too.
Basically a Host job’s is to make the woman come back as often and as long as possible and to spend a lot of money on booze. Because after a few visits to the club (usually in the 1st 2 visits) the customer is supposed to designate a Host who will be assigned to her and which she can’t change, so there is competition between the Hosts to get designated by a client. The designated Host (指名者) gets a cut from everything the woman drinks.
Like I said there is a cheap rate for 1st time clients, to entice them to go like a few thousand yen for 2 hour (alcohol included) then they ask the client to choose her host, and if she doesn’t choose during the first visit, she chooses next time. Also, the Hosts ask the clients email or phone number because to make her come back, they will send her messages saying they want to see her.
And a common way to make sure a client keeps coming back is for the Host to pretend he’s fallen in love with her… He tells her he loves her, but he says that to all his other clients! A popular host usually has sex only with clients he’s pretending he’s in love with to make them believe the lie even more, if he had sex with all his clients he’d be too tired, and some would never come back because the propsect of having sex is what makes them go there.
And there truly are girls who believe this love thing and even belive they are going to marry with their Host. Some end up broken or are forced into prostitution to pay their debts. There have also been cases where the girls in question were underage. And amongst Hosts too, some are underage. A number of clubs are also owned by the Yakuzas. Some say Host Clubs was started by the Yakuzas to get back the money they pay their female employees. (Hostesses and sex workers)
April 12th, 2008 at 1:43 amHostesses also used similar techniques as Hosts, but for both, sleeping with their clients usually is their last resort measure for clients who seem like they won’t come back.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:56 am