Meet Marie Tachibana, the queen of Kabukicho

You may never have heard of Marie Tachibana, but pretty much everyone in Kabukicho seems to have heard of her.

Perhaps the first thing to remark about her is that she is biracial (her father is American). The second is that she comes from a Christian family (that father was a missionary) — and a big family at that, with seven siblings.

Instead of pursuing the conventional academic path, none of the children went to high school. Marie went to volunteer in India when she was 15, for instance.

If you were following J-Pop closely in the 2000s, you might have already seen Marie Tachibana before. She formed a duo called MiA with one of her sisters, Angela, and they put out some releases.

She then took up hostessing in Roppongi to make ends meet and her biracial looks not surprisingly ensured she was popular with patrons (this was a time when the likes of Becky were everywhere in the mainstream media). She would subsequently join a show pub (a drinking establishment with singing and dancing), putting her vocal talents to good use.

That was when she was in her mid-twenties. Now in her mid-thirties, Tachibana is no longer a fledgling hostess but running a mini empire of her own. The trajectory almost seems like something lifted from the pages of a manga or novel: from pop star to hostess to Kabukicho entrepreneur.

She has, according to a recently published profile by Daily Gendai (and later abridged by Mulboyne in a thread on Twitter), 12 establishments in her current roster. These include the usual choices of snack and girls bars, sushi restaurant, and so on, but also a beauty salon and even a daycare that aims to support mothers who work at night in Kabukicho.

The effects of the pandemic have meant many businesses went under, especially eating and drinking establishments. Sensing an opportunity to expand, Tachibana has gone on something of a shopping spree, renting out new places in Kabukicho despite the uncertain prospects. She has particularly targeted ground-floor sites that get the most foot traffic. It seems that Marie Tachibana has only just got started and, barring another pandemic, her business empire should remain a fixture in Kabukicho for many more years to come.