June 20, 2025 • 11 mins
Once considered a harmless curiosity, the niche corner of the nightlife industry is being blamed for driving vulnerable women into debt.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Japan is cracking down on host clubs where men flirt
for money. By Alice French, Akemi Terrukina and Haduka Yuei,
read by Bob Danielson at ten p m. On a
recent Friday, at a bar in Tokyo's Kabukicho red light district,
young men in suits weave between tables, pouring drinks for
(00:21):
their first customers of the evening under the glimmer of chandeliers.
Twenty eight year old So checks his reflection in the
mirror and explains how he became a top earner at
a Hoonten, one of hundreds of host clubs in the
neighborhood where women pay to be entertained by male companions.
No one's going to spend money on someone who looks
or smells like a flabby salary man you'd see on
(00:44):
a train. So you need to take care of your body,
your clothes, the way you smell everything, said So, who
cuts a dashing figure in his navy suit and shock
of bleached blonde hair. And you need to show an
interest in the princess, he added, referring to customers who
hundreds of dollars for drinks and a few hours of
his attention. The lofty prizes have made so who asked
(01:06):
to be identified by the pseudonym he uses at work,
richer than most of his peers, who took more regular
jobs straight out of high school. But they've also helped
place the clubs, which are a niche corner of Japan's
two trillion yen or thirteen point eight billion dollars night
life industry, at the center of a government crackdown. Male
host clubs were long viewed as a harmless curiosity in Japan,
(01:30):
a simple gender reversal of the more common hostess bars,
where men pay to drink and flirt with female companions,
but their reputation darkened in recent years amid reports of
vulnerable women taking on debt and in a growing number
of cases, sex work to pay for their visits. Lawmakers
in May passed a bill prohibiting establishments from pressuring customers
(01:51):
into sex work to pay their bills. The legislation, approved
unanimously and effective later this month, also includes a ban
on the use of predatory tactics, including false claims of
a romantic interest, to extract money from patrons. The crackdown
reflects pressure on the government to maintain order in a
nation renowned for its low crime rate, while the club's
(02:13):
appeal to both hosts and customers speaks to a growing
economic divide as Japan emerges from decades of deflation. Japan
currently has about one thousand host clubs, which emerged in
the neon lit back streets of Tokyo's entertainment districts during
the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies as a place for
wealthy women to blow off steam by partying with young men.
(02:35):
The clientele changed in the wake of the pandemic when
clusters of COVID nineteen infections were traced to such spots.
Even after the lifting of social restrictions, working women and
well to do housewives stayed away, and the clubs began
attracting increasing numbers of younger and poorer women, many of
them employed by nearby hostess bars or in other low
(02:55):
paying service jobs. An increasing number of women have been
turning to prostitution to pay for their visits. According to
officials and social workers, around a third of women arrested
for soliciting sex in the streets around Kabukicho in twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four said they were doing
so to pay host club bills. According to Tokyo Police,
(03:15):
The growing visibility of sex workers in the area, a
short walk from the busy Shinjuku train station, has become
national news, feeding into broader anxiety about public safety amid
a recent increase in crime. The number of nationwide criminal offenses,
while still low by global standards, has risen for three
straight years since twenty twenty two. Domestic media have also
(03:37):
suggested that Japan, which is seeing a surgeon oversees visitors
thanks to a week yen, could potentially become a destination
for sex tourism. Lawmakers have been under pressure to act
ahead of what's expected to be a tightly contested Upper
House election in July. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's conservative Liberal
Democratic Party is grappling with falling support after a series
(03:58):
of funding scandals and surging food prices. You see new
stories saying that in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo is
depicted as some sort of sex tourism capital, said Masahisa Miyazaki,
an LDP lawmaker and a backer of the bill that
passed in May. This is just very embarrassing. A rise
in prostitution could push down Japan's already low standing in
(04:19):
global gender equality surveys, long a source of unease for
the government. The involvement of organized crime groups is also
a concern. In seeking payment for outstanding bills. Some host
clubs connect customers to middlemen called scouts, who in turn
introduce female customers to jobs in prostitution and pornography. According
to police and social workers, this kind of system should
(04:42):
not exist in a developed country, said Ayakasio Muda, an
Upper House parliamentarian for the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and
another proponent of the new law. It's not wealthy middle
aged women getting mixed up in this, it's young girls
whose bodies are being used as collateral. At kabuki, he
chose a Hoonten, which means love headquarters in Japanese. New
(05:04):
customers are given a whirlwind introduction to several hosts during
a sixty minute starter session for a basic fee of
about three thousand yen or twenty one dollars. After that,
customers pay for time and drinks with a host of
their choice. Orders of fancy champagne trigger a champagne call,
a boisterous singing performance where all the hosts gather to
fet the princess. Several customers said that being listened to
(05:28):
and showered with compliments by male companions made them feel appreciated.
Masahiro Yamada, a prominent sociology professor at Chiuo University, sees
the clubs as a reaction to a deeply patriarchal society.
Many Japanese women aren't valued at work and aren't respected
by the men in their lives, so they end up
looking for validation elsewhere, he said, host clubs are one option.
(05:53):
aUI Suzuki still remembers how excited she was the first
time a colleague took her to a host club shortly
before the pandemic. When a handsome host listened intently to
her story and flirted with her, she said she felt
appreciated in a way she never had before. Born in Atami,
a faded seaside resort city south of Tokyo, Suzuki described
(06:13):
her family as complicated and turbulent, one she was eager
to leave behind. Women around here have issues when it
comes to family and background, and they're lonely, said Suzuki
twenty nine, describing the low self esteem of many women
drawn to host clubs. So when a guy who's your type,
says he likes you or calls you beautiful, it's easy
to fall for him. In twenty twenty one, she recalls
(06:36):
she was visiting Kabukicho nearly every night, burning through her
meager pay as a caregiver. Unable to afford the costs
up front, she opened tabs at several host clubs via
a pay later system. Her debts ballooned to more than
two million yen. To make payments, she took up so
called sugar dating, spending time with wealthy men in exchange
(06:57):
for financial support. Suzuki has paid down her debts and
no longer visits host clubs as often. She doesn't regret
her experience, though, saying it provided excitement and motivation that
was lacking in her life. She's now trying to build
a career as an influencer with her own YouTube channel
sharing her insights as a former host club addict. Not
(07:18):
all former patrons are so upbeat. Midai Kisaragi twenty five
says she first wandered into a host club when she
was eighteen after dropping out of high school, and spent
most of her money on a host who promised to
eventually marry her. He said we'll get married, and we didn't.
He said he'd take me to Disney, and he didn't.
She said, I was left with nothing. She asked that
(07:39):
she be identified by the pseudonym that she's adopted as
a community outreach volunteer helping other women struggling with host
club debts because she's concerned about harassment. These girls are lonely,
have no money and no one to turn to, said
Kazuna Kanajidi, a leader at PAPS, a Tokyo based nonprofit
that offers support to sex workers, victims of sextionrual abuse,
(08:00):
and women in debt to host clubs. Kanajidi says such
women need more official support and questions whether the new
law is anything more than political posturing. Right before elections.
You often get a lot of politicians suddenly wanting to
protect young people and women, she said. Kanajidi and other
social workers say many male hosts are themselves victims, noting
(08:22):
the pressure on them to meet sales quotas. Like their customers,
the men often come from poorer backgrounds and have less
formal education, a demographic that's been left behind economically as
they miss out on Japan's stock market revival. And sustained
pay raises that have benefited office workers. While Japan is
finally emerging from decades of deflation, nominal wage increases haven't
(08:44):
kept up with surging food and fuel prices, a problem
that has disproportionately affected lower income workers. Instagram and TikTok, meanwhile,
have exposed poorer workers to the lifestyles of wealthier people,
including popular hosts turned to television person Rowland. People compare
themselves on social media and want to catch up with
(09:04):
their peers, said Yo Hirose, an analyst at think tank
NLI Research Institute. They look for ways to bridge the
gap by making a quick buck. So admits that earning
money quickly was his main motivation when he joined I
Honten in twenty twenty two. Born in a small town
in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, he moved to Tokyo after
(09:25):
high school to pursue his dream of working at Tokyo Disneyland,
but quit after a few years, deciding the pay was
too low. During the pandemic, he took up a job
managing Amazon couriers, but was unsatisfied. He aspired to a
better life, but felt constrained by his resume. I wanted
to make money, save up and eventually run my own business,
(09:46):
said so, I figured, why not take a gamble and
try being a host with just a high school diploma?
Would I ever find a company that pays me more
than this? He now has around twenty to thirty regular
clients and says he earns more than a million year
a month. But being a host can take a toll
on one's health with late hours and regular consumption of alcohol.
(10:07):
Now the hosts and their employers also need to be
mindful of new regulations, So says He's already careful about
establishing customers budgets early on and doesn't encourage them to
spend more than they have, But he's not sure how
to handle the new rule prohibiting a show of romantic interest.
There's no way human relationships can be totally free of
romantic tension, right, he said. If even hugging a client
(10:28):
to thank them after a session is considered romantic, then
what is allowed? Amid increasing government scrutiny, I Home ten
stopped allowing pay later plans last year. Pakayuki Makita, an
executive at Group Dandy, which runs the club and is
one of the industry's top operators, employing around seventeen hundred hosts,
confirmed that a growing number of sex workers had begun
(10:50):
hanging out at host clubs after the pandemic, but he
blamed a few rogue players for giving the host industry
a bad name. There are hosts with lower standards who
don't care about compliance or value their customers, that resort
to violence or force clients to do things. Makida said,
these people should not be hosts. As So prepared for
(11:11):
his shift, he scanned the floor, were a few women
in suits settled into easy conversation with their male companions.
Office workers tend to come on Fridays, he explained, while
women working at bars and the adult entertainment industry visit
midweek and like to splurge, although they've become more budget
cautious since pay later plans were banned. On the wall,
(11:31):
a digital display ranked the club's hosts by popularity. So
said he knows his time as a star host is
limited and aims to make the most of it. Honestly,
if there isn't at least one million yen in your
monthly paycheck, there's no point being a host, he said.
Same at any host club,
Japan is cracking down on host clubs where men flirt
for money. By Alice French, Akemi Terrukina and Haduka Yuei,
read by Bob Danielson at ten p m. On a
recent Friday, at a bar in Tokyo's Kabukicho red light district,
young men in suits weave between tables, pouring drinks for
(00:21):
their first customers of the evening under the glimmer of chandeliers.
Twenty eight year old So checks his reflection in the
mirror and explains how he became a top earner at
a Hoonten, one of hundreds of host clubs in the
neighborhood where women pay to be entertained by male companions.
No one's going to spend money on someone who looks
or smells like a flabby salary man you'd see on
(00:44):
a train. So you need to take care of your body,
your clothes, the way you smell everything, said So, who
cuts a dashing figure in his navy suit and shock
of bleached blonde hair. And you need to show an
interest in the princess, he added, referring to customers who
hundreds of dollars for drinks and a few hours of
his attention. The lofty prizes have made so who asked
(01:06):
to be identified by the pseudonym he uses at work,
richer than most of his peers, who took more regular
jobs straight out of high school. But they've also helped
place the clubs, which are a niche corner of Japan's
two trillion yen or thirteen point eight billion dollars night
life industry, at the center of a government crackdown. Male
host clubs were long viewed as a harmless curiosity in Japan,
(01:30):
a simple gender reversal of the more common hostess bars,
where men pay to drink and flirt with female companions,
but their reputation darkened in recent years amid reports of
vulnerable women taking on debt and in a growing number
of cases, sex work to pay for their visits. Lawmakers
in May passed a bill prohibiting establishments from pressuring customers
(01:51):
into sex work to pay their bills. The legislation, approved
unanimously and effective later this month, also includes a ban
on the use of predatory tactics, including false claims of
a romantic interest, to extract money from patrons. The crackdown
reflects pressure on the government to maintain order in a
nation renowned for its low crime rate, while the club's
(02:13):
appeal to both hosts and customers speaks to a growing
economic divide as Japan emerges from decades of deflation. Japan
currently has about one thousand host clubs, which emerged in
the neon lit back streets of Tokyo's entertainment districts during
the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies as a place for
wealthy women to blow off steam by partying with young men.
(02:35):
The clientele changed in the wake of the pandemic when
clusters of COVID nineteen infections were traced to such spots.
Even after the lifting of social restrictions, working women and
well to do housewives stayed away, and the clubs began
attracting increasing numbers of younger and poorer women, many of
them employed by nearby hostess bars or in other low
(02:55):
paying service jobs. An increasing number of women have been
turning to prostitution to pay for their visits. According to
officials and social workers, around a third of women arrested
for soliciting sex in the streets around Kabukicho in twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four said they were doing
so to pay host club bills. According to Tokyo Police,
(03:15):
The growing visibility of sex workers in the area, a
short walk from the busy Shinjuku train station, has become
national news, feeding into broader anxiety about public safety amid
a recent increase in crime. The number of nationwide criminal offenses,
while still low by global standards, has risen for three
straight years since twenty twenty two. Domestic media have also
(03:37):
suggested that Japan, which is seeing a surgeon oversees visitors
thanks to a week yen, could potentially become a destination
for sex tourism. Lawmakers have been under pressure to act
ahead of what's expected to be a tightly contested Upper
House election in July. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's conservative Liberal
Democratic Party is grappling with falling support after a series
(03:58):
of funding scandals and surging food prices. You see new
stories saying that in places like Hong Kong, Tokyo is
depicted as some sort of sex tourism capital, said Masahisa Miyazaki,
an LDP lawmaker and a backer of the bill that
passed in May. This is just very embarrassing. A rise
in prostitution could push down Japan's already low standing in
(04:19):
global gender equality surveys, long a source of unease for
the government. The involvement of organized crime groups is also
a concern. In seeking payment for outstanding bills. Some host
clubs connect customers to middlemen called scouts, who in turn
introduce female customers to jobs in prostitution and pornography. According
to police and social workers, this kind of system should
(04:42):
not exist in a developed country, said Ayakasio Muda, an
Upper House parliamentarian for the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party and
another proponent of the new law. It's not wealthy middle
aged women getting mixed up in this, it's young girls
whose bodies are being used as collateral. At kabuki, he
chose a Hoonten, which means love headquarters in Japanese. New
(05:04):
customers are given a whirlwind introduction to several hosts during
a sixty minute starter session for a basic fee of
about three thousand yen or twenty one dollars. After that,
customers pay for time and drinks with a host of
their choice. Orders of fancy champagne trigger a champagne call,
a boisterous singing performance where all the hosts gather to
fet the princess. Several customers said that being listened to
(05:28):
and showered with compliments by male companions made them feel appreciated.
Masahiro Yamada, a prominent sociology professor at Chiuo University, sees
the clubs as a reaction to a deeply patriarchal society.
Many Japanese women aren't valued at work and aren't respected
by the men in their lives, so they end up
looking for validation elsewhere, he said, host clubs are one option.
(05:53):
aUI Suzuki still remembers how excited she was the first
time a colleague took her to a host club shortly
before the pandemic. When a handsome host listened intently to
her story and flirted with her, she said she felt
appreciated in a way she never had before. Born in Atami,
a faded seaside resort city south of Tokyo, Suzuki described
(06:13):
her family as complicated and turbulent, one she was eager
to leave behind. Women around here have issues when it
comes to family and background, and they're lonely, said Suzuki
twenty nine, describing the low self esteem of many women
drawn to host clubs. So when a guy who's your type,
says he likes you or calls you beautiful, it's easy
to fall for him. In twenty twenty one, she recalls
(06:36):
she was visiting Kabukicho nearly every night, burning through her
meager pay as a caregiver. Unable to afford the costs
up front, she opened tabs at several host clubs via
a pay later system. Her debts ballooned to more than
two million yen. To make payments, she took up so
called sugar dating, spending time with wealthy men in exchange
(06:57):
for financial support. Suzuki has paid down her debts and
no longer visits host clubs as often. She doesn't regret
her experience, though, saying it provided excitement and motivation that
was lacking in her life. She's now trying to build
a career as an influencer with her own YouTube channel
sharing her insights as a former host club addict. Not
(07:18):
all former patrons are so upbeat. Midai Kisaragi twenty five
says she first wandered into a host club when she
was eighteen after dropping out of high school, and spent
most of her money on a host who promised to
eventually marry her. He said we'll get married, and we didn't.
He said he'd take me to Disney, and he didn't.
She said, I was left with nothing. She asked that
(07:39):
she be identified by the pseudonym that she's adopted as
a community outreach volunteer helping other women struggling with host
club debts because she's concerned about harassment. These girls are lonely,
have no money and no one to turn to, said
Kazuna Kanajidi, a leader at PAPS, a Tokyo based nonprofit
that offers support to sex workers, victims of sextionrual abuse,
(08:00):
and women in debt to host clubs. Kanajidi says such
women need more official support and questions whether the new
law is anything more than political posturing. Right before elections.
You often get a lot of politicians suddenly wanting to
protect young people and women, she said. Kanajidi and other
social workers say many male hosts are themselves victims, noting
(08:22):
the pressure on them to meet sales quotas. Like their customers,
the men often come from poorer backgrounds and have less
formal education, a demographic that's been left behind economically as
they miss out on Japan's stock market revival. And sustained
pay raises that have benefited office workers. While Japan is
finally emerging from decades of deflation, nominal wage increases haven't
(08:44):
kept up with surging food and fuel prices, a problem
that has disproportionately affected lower income workers. Instagram and TikTok, meanwhile,
have exposed poorer workers to the lifestyles of wealthier people,
including popular hosts turned to television person Rowland. People compare
themselves on social media and want to catch up with
(09:04):
their peers, said Yo Hirose, an analyst at think tank
NLI Research Institute. They look for ways to bridge the
gap by making a quick buck. So admits that earning
money quickly was his main motivation when he joined I
Honten in twenty twenty two. Born in a small town
in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, he moved to Tokyo after
(09:25):
high school to pursue his dream of working at Tokyo Disneyland,
but quit after a few years, deciding the pay was
too low. During the pandemic, he took up a job
managing Amazon couriers, but was unsatisfied. He aspired to a
better life, but felt constrained by his resume. I wanted
to make money, save up and eventually run my own business,
(09:46):
said so, I figured, why not take a gamble and
try being a host with just a high school diploma?
Would I ever find a company that pays me more
than this? He now has around twenty to thirty regular
clients and says he earns more than a million year
a month. But being a host can take a toll
on one's health with late hours and regular consumption of alcohol.
(10:07):
Now the hosts and their employers also need to be
mindful of new regulations, So says He's already careful about
establishing customers budgets early on and doesn't encourage them to
spend more than they have, But he's not sure how
to handle the new rule prohibiting a show of romantic interest.
There's no way human relationships can be totally free of
romantic tension, right, he said. If even hugging a client
(10:28):
to thank them after a session is considered romantic, then
what is allowed? Amid increasing government scrutiny, I Home ten
stopped allowing pay later plans last year. Pakayuki Makita, an
executive at Group Dandy, which runs the club and is
one of the industry's top operators, employing around seventeen hundred hosts,
confirmed that a growing number of sex workers had begun
(10:50):
hanging out at host clubs after the pandemic, but he
blamed a few rogue players for giving the host industry
a bad name. There are hosts with lower standards who
don't care about compliance or value their customers, that resort
to violence or force clients to do things. Makida said,
these people should not be hosts. As So prepared for
(11:11):
his shift, he scanned the floor, were a few women
in suits settled into easy conversation with their male companions.
Office workers tend to come on Fridays, he explained, while
women working at bars and the adult entertainment industry visit
midweek and like to splurge, although they've become more budget
cautious since pay later plans were banned. On the wall,
(11:31):
a digital display ranked the club's hosts by popularity. So
said he knows his time as a star host is
limited and aims to make the most of it. Honestly,
if there isn't at least one million yen in your
monthly paycheck, there's no point being a host, he said.
Same at any host club,
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