Former Japanese porn star Kirara Asuka to open hostess club in Ginza

Retired adult video star Kirara Asuka is hoping to build a second career for herself (beyond her successful YouTube channel and apparel line, CPITO) with a new venture.

She is “producing” a hostess club, which is set to open on August 2 in Ginza, the district of central Tokyo known for its luxury boutiques, restaurants, and, yes, hostess bars.

The club, J-Vogue, is now recruiting its “cast” of hostesses, offering hourly (yes, hourly!) wages of up to ¥30,000.

Asuka, who retired from the JAV industry in 2020, made the announcement on her official social media accounts on Monday, and it was subsequently picked up by the media.

It is unclear at this stage if 32-year-old Asuka will actually be on hand to meet and greet patrons as the “mama” (or head hostess), which would surely bring in custom, but she is certainly putting herself front and center of the J-Vogue publicity.

Ex-porn stars sometimes fade quietly from the limelight; others try to continue public careers. The recent effort by Ai Uehara, in which she fronted a brand of health supplements, failed to attract much buzz in terms of hard numbers: its crowdfunding campaign reached less than half of its target (which was not even an especially high figure).

Asuka’s hostess club idea actually makes a lot of sense, since minor porn stars frequently moonlight as hostesses (or prostitutes) between jobs or after they retire, either at clubs or less decadent snack bars. (Gravure idols and fashion models also do this, as Tenchim recently revealed.)

However, the timing for J-Vogue is less than ideal, given how hostess clubs are struggling in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, when people are avoiding small and badly ventilated locations (like a hostess bar), and the state of emergency in Tokyo and other major areas nominally requests establishments to close at 8 o’clock each night and not serve alcohol (getting the client to pay for over-priced drinks for the hostess during a visit is how clubs make money).

Mass vaccination is surely the only thing that can save such businesses, premised as they are on intimacy and face-to-face communication, but a majority of the population in Japan won’t be fully vaccinated until autumn or even winter 2021. Despite the publicity blitz, J-Vogue may face a rocky start.