With all the negative news about hosts right now (especially related to the way that the clubs leave clients in debt and some even force vulnerable women into prostitution), the industry needs some good news. But this might still be bad news for the flamboyant guys.
How come? Because it seems that some of the most popular hosts right now are actually women.
No, they're not hostesses. They're women dressed up as hosts.
According to an article in Weekly Gendai, Nia Amatsuka (天使ニア) is leading the trend.
As a woman (and as a lesbian), she understands her female clients better -- and ...
Shinjuku police have arrested a 22-year-old in Kabukicho host for tricking a 17-year-old girl out of around ¥400,000 in cash.
Rai Akama is a former actor and was in contact with the girl after she came to see one of his stage productions last summer. He invited her to his host club and, so that she wouldn't get caught as underage, even lent her the ID of a female friend.
This only solidified the girl's dependency on Akama, who was apparently prepared to deceive his own club and risk his livelihood for her benefit.
She took a part-time job to give him money but he wanted more. He ...
As regular readers will know, we are as interested in the current professional activities of Japanese porn stars as we are in their post-career lives: What do they do are they retire from adult video? What jobs do they do? Can they settle down with a partner and start a family?
An interesting example of this is Suzumi Suzuki, who used to work as a porn star under the name Ruri Satoh in the mid-2000s.
She then got a graduate degree from the University of Tokyo (she also holds an undergraduate degree from the equally prestigious Keio University) and launched a career as a sociologist and ...
The stories about the victims of male hosts' exploitation seem to become more sensational week by week.
Last week, we wrote about the schoolgirl who was allowed to build up a huge bill at a host club and had to prostitute herself to pay off her debt.
Now comes a story in which this latest moral panic seems to dovetail with another recent trend: the tales of Japanese women going abroad to earn money as sex workers and take advantage of the weak yen.
This has become so common that a crackdown has started in the United States.
China, Hong Kong, and Macau remain popular destinations, however ...
More bad news coverage about male hosts as the moral panic over this industry continues.
A Kabukicho host was arrested early last week for allegedly exploiting and prostituting a junior high school student who owed his club around ¥6 million.
The 22-year-old host Renji (Yuya Inaba) works at the appropriately named Worst Over in Kabukicho, central Tokyo. He is also accused of bringing the girl into his club when she was just 15 years old and serving her alcohol, including a very expensive "champagne tower" order.
The student used her mother's credit card and cash from her grandmother to ...
The moral panic over host clubs and prostitution in Japan continues unabated with a story yesterday in the Tokyo Shimbun about a 20-year-old woman whose whopping ¥10 million debt to a club prompted her to begin doing sex work.
While still a high school student in Kanagawa, she went to a host club in Yokohama in autumn 2021. The chandeliers and attention of the hosts seduced her, and she was hooked.
She ended up with a debt of ¥10 million, forcing her into prostitution at Okubo Park, Kabukicho, to pay it off. The club was demanding she pay back as much as ¥300,000 a day. Even after she ...
The gentrification of Kabukicho, which has turned the main strip and square into a cleaner, more tourist-friendly place, has not changed the fundamental nature of the district. Just turn a corner and you'll find blowjob parlors and host or hostess clubs galore, not to mention Shinjuku's massive love hotel area right behind.
The dark side of Kabukicho, which gets its name from an unfulfilled plan in the postwar years to build a kabuki theater in the neighborhood, reared its head over the weekend -- in two very unpleasant scenes.
A few weeks ago, someone was thankfully prevented from jumping ...
It's no secret that the Tokyo Kinky team has a thing for Mariya Nagao.
The former AKB48 hottie now works as a model, actress, and general TV celebrity.
And though it's hardly a surprise that a woman of her age, beauty, and social opportunities would not have lovers, we can't help but feel a bit peeved and sad at the news that broke recently about her new boyfriend.
Apparently, Mariyagi is in a relationship with a former Kabukicho host, having met through a mutual friend.
Fresh off releasing a ravishing photo book earlier this year, she's been spotted by weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun in ...
Times are tough for host and hostess clubs, since they were demonized during the first wave of coronavirus infections in Japan and, inevitably, even their loyal patrons don't want to risk the close quarters of such clubs during these times.
But if you are brave enough, now is actually the best chance to visit the clubs. They are likely to be empty and you will have the pick of whichever host or hostess you fancy talking with. Plus you can get a discount.
We came across a photo report about a first-time visit to host clubs in Kabukicho in the coronavirus era. The young Japanese woman makes ...
In a further sign that hosts and hostesses are skillfully trying to reframe the media narrative that has demonized their trade as hotspots for spreading coronavirus infections in Tokyo, the city's metropolitan government has released educational videos on COVID-19 that see two hosts and a hostess ask doctors questions.
After host clubs began cooperating with the Shinjuku government to initiate testing for employees and stem the spread in Kabukicho (and the demonization in the media), and the government started handing out cash payments to clubs that agree to close and to individual hosts and ...
