Asia After Hours

When the springs on the beds at Ikaho spa, near Shibukawa City in Gunma Prefecture, got a little bit too hot, it was the police, not the fire department, that came to the rescue.

Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 25) reports that snack bar operator Kenichi Ando, Matsuba-kai gang member Jiro Sato and four others were arrested on a charge of violation of the Immigration Law and abetting prostitution. Specifically they lured two Thai women to Japan and charged them 5.5 million yen for “travel expenses,” which they were expected to pay back by engaging in the world’s oldest profession.

The two women, ages 32 and 35, were taken into protective custody.

According to police, when not working, the women were held in a padlocked room.

“The women claimed they were threatened by their keepers, who told them, ‘If you don’t pay back what you owe us, you’ll be going back home to Thailand in a white shroud.’” a police source is quoted as saying. He added the women charged their customers 12,000 yen per hour-long session, which allegedly included intercourse. “A woman from Taiwan also seems to be involved, we’re looking into her role in the prostitution.”

“Tricking foreign women into working as hookers is one form of ‘white slavery,’ “pink” journalists Yukio Murakami tells the paper. “It’s one of the ways gangs make their money. Japanese recruit women from Thailand and the Philippines, and set them up with gangsters. The women are then taken to lonely hot springs where men visit solely for meeting prostitutes. Most of the action is upstairs over the snack bar.

“The keepers eavesdrop on the women while they’re turning tricks to make sure they don’t beg the customers to help them,” Murakami adds.

The women are only paid enough to buy bento (boxed meals) and cosmetics, and are prohibited from going out. Until their “loans” are repaid, they are made to work like “horses pulling carts.”

“If a woman is attractive and popular, then about the time that she’s worked off her loan she’ll be told, ‘A customer complained about your poor service, and we’re levying a fine on you,’ or some other lie to keep her on the job longer,” Murakami adds. “In addition to Filipinas and Thais, females from Russia living in Tokyo and other cities who have run up large debts are also sent to work in the onsen gulag.”

Nikkan Gendai sternly advises its readers against having anything to do with such criminal enterprises. (K.S.)

Source: “Tai josei ni baishun kyoyo; ichijikan niman-en ‘jinshin baibai’ no jittai,” Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 25, page 7)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: 5%

“Tonight we’re having a shinnen-kai (first party of the New Year), and we haven’t got enough gals to go around. Would you mind lending us Rei-chan and Tomo-chan?”

“Tonight is quiet here, so no problem. Tell you what: take three and I’ll send them over.”

The above exchange, relates Shukan Shincho (Jan. 26), took place not long ago between two bar “mamas” while getting their hair done at a beauty salon in Ginza 7-chome.

“I’d never heard of the renting out of hostesses,” said another mama, who overheard the negotiations. “Clubs are all rivals. Aren’t they worried the girls will steal their customers?”

But according to a Ginza veteran, business at the clubs slumped badly following last March’s earthquake and tsunami, and as personnel costs (stipends to the hostesses) make up 55 to 60 percent of operating costs, the clubs would have trouble staying afloat even if they extracted penalties from the hostesses who fail to make their sales quotas.

Of course clubs could lay off regulars, but would then have to worry about how to apportion their hostesses on the rare occasions when things get busy.

“If the ratio of customers to hostesses exceeds three to one more, it’s common wisdom that customers will feel neglected and never come back,” the mama at a medium-size club tells the magazine. “In the past there were services that would dispatch hostesses to join customers at hot springs resorts, but from the year-end and New Year, and then in March and April, when companies typically engage in personnel changes, things get busy and it’s not easy to get enough gals,” says the manager of one club. “And there are lots of girls who for whatever reason aren’t suitable to work at Ginza.”

To deal with any shortfalls, the mamas have come up with a system of hostess rental, where the girls are dispatched for a straight 3,000 yen per hour. The rules are strict: a hostess may not give out her cell phone number to the customer of another club, nor may she accompany him outside the establishment.

Still, the system is not without occasional stumbling blocks.

“Once I went to another club and the hostesses were all decked out in long dresses with revealing décolletages,” recalls one hostess. “I came wearing a pants suit, and some customers suspected I was on hire from another place. But the regular hostesses came to my rescue by telling them, ‘She’s a newbie and doesn’t know any better.’”

It also seems at least some hostesses for hire fully justify the outlay.

“This girl in her mid-20s had an incredible capacity for booze,” recalls the aforementioned manager. “She kept ordering small bottles of beer, emptying 20 bottles and leaving our customers gaping in amazement. After that, I wasted no time going to her club when her services are needed, and personally escorted her to our place.” (K.S.)

Source: “Hosutesu no kashikiri ga hajimatta himasugiru Ginza kurabu-gai,” Shukan Shincho (Jan. 26, page 45)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: 3%

On a typical evening at 1 a.m., the lights in the Ginza club district start to dim, but standing out will be at least one brightly lit pet store, in which a number of dogs and cats can be viewed by passersby, typically bar hostesses and their customers. However, reports weekly tabloid Shukan Post (Nov. 18), these late-night shops will be the subject of new regulations to reduce abuse beginning next year.

On October 31, the Ministry of the Environment announced new guidelines that will ban the exhibition of pet commodities during late hours. Set to start next June, the legislation aims to prohibit the display of cats and dogs after 8 p.m.

In Tokyo, late-night shops are common in the entertainment areas of Ginza, Roppongi, and Shinjuku. Most of their visitors after midnight are hostesses in flashy make-up and outfits who wonder aloud how ownership can be attained.

“I visit here after I’ve dealt with particularly difficult customers or simply felt fatigued,” a 25-year-old hostess tells the tabloid as she locks her eyes on a Chihuahua, priced at 250,000 yen. “By looking at them, I can feel a soothing feeling. I will feel sad if I don’t get to see them.”

A 38-year-old hostess, accompanied by a customer, realizes that it is tough on the animals. “But it is nice to be able to see them as we deal with issues or situations that cannot be simply shared with others,” she says.

She then asks her companion to buy one for her.

“While they provide soothing moments, it’s temporary,” explains a 48-year-old bar mama-san. “For the sake of the animals, it should be regulated.”

Incidents of hostesses receiving poodles as gifts from their patrons and then returning them quickly for cash, a process known as “pet recycle,” are common in the entertainment areas of Tokyo and Osaka.

The article notes that these types of cases are the basis for the Ministry’s action, but adds that most shops that operate have not come up with a concrete strategy for navigating the new mandate.

The hostesses, too, are a concern, says Shukan Post: With the soothing smiles of dogs and cats set to fade from the night-life scene, where will the girls turn in search of relief? (A.T.)

Source: “Inu neko shoppu no ‘shinya tenji kinshi’ wo Ginza no hosutesu ni kiitemitara,” Shukan Post (Nov. 18, pages 141-142)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: 7%

Wearing jeans and a casual jacket, Tamiko quietly holds three bunches of flowers under the flashing neon lights of Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district. She is one of the last independent flower vendors in this area known for its swank hostess clubs and bars.

“There aren’t that many classy customers who buy flowers anymore,” the 73-year-old tells Shukan Post (Oct. 28).

Tamiko is like a walking encyclopedia for Ginza, having experienced the area’s booms and busts. “There are only three Japanese ladies left selling flowers like this,” she says. “There is also one Korean girl but I haven’t even spoken to her.”

With the other two Japanese ladies not working due to health problems, Shukan Post believes that these flower girls are on the verge of extinction.

Tamiko remembers back to the early days. “In the 1940s, there were 100 girls selling flowers,” she explains. “They would buy flowers from the Shimbashi and Ginza areas and then hit the shops and clubs one by one. It was a really busy time.”

The conventional flower shops appear to be on the same path as the independent girls.

“In the summer, we had the push for energy conservation, so people bought flowers to lighten up,” says a flower shop owner. “But shops and businesses started to close in September.”

Some flower arrangements made especially for the birthday of mama-san at a hostess club or club anniversaries can be priced as high as 100,000 yen. Most of these flowers are actually purchased by other shops and clubs, not the customers who frequent them. But the market is not as it once was.

“Many flowers come from Tohoku,” the same owner says. “The flower farmers are starting to close down their businesses as the demand has declined.”

After World War II, the emergence of fashionable kids who gathered along the district’s Miyuki Street in 1964 — termed the miyuki-zoku — and the opening of the first McDonald’s in 1971 made Ginza the center of hipster culture. It then became the hallmark for high-end night life in the ’90s.

But Japan has faced a prolonged recession after the burst of the bubble economy, and conditions have only worsened since the Great East Japan Earthquake in March.

“Today things are more dead than ever,” Tamiko says. (A.T.)

Source: “Mukashi hyakunin, ima sannin: saigo no hanauri musume,” Shukan Post (Oct. 28, page 134)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Popularity: 8%

At around 22:50 on the evening of Feb. 4, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27) investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Dept. raided “United Lounge Tokyo,” a high-class cabaret club allegedly operating illegally in Tokyo’s ritzy Azabu district.

Once their eyes adjusted to the surroundings, the cops blinked and ogled in astonishment.

“It was like we were standing in a deluxe hotel,” one is quoted as saying.

Occupying all 80 tsubo (about 265 square meters) — an entire floor in a four-story building in one of Tokyo’s swankest residential areas — United featured private rooms equipped with karakoke, expensive sofas and an enormous wine cellar stocked with Chatau Margaux, Romanee-Conti and other premium labels priced as high as 1.5 million yen per bottle.

Another attraction was its grand piano, described as a type so rare only a few exist in the world.

“United had about 6,600 members who each paid 10,000 yen to join,” says the police source. “The members included politicians, entertainers, professional athletes, business executives and the like. One famous singer would come here and drop about 1 million yen in the course of one evening.”

Another of United’s attractions was 101 women who were registered to work there as hostesses, all described as “good-looking and fashionable women in their early 20s.” Some of them reportedly held daytime jobs as “race queens” or models, but about one third were students at prestigious private or public universities in the Tokyo area.

“They could earn 100,000 to 150,000 a month working there part time, but actually the had an ulterior motive for working there,” the investigator explained.

It seems that with the “ice age” situation in corporate hiring this year’s university graduates are currently facing, the young women were hoping that by toiling evenings at United they might get lucky and link up with some free-spending businessmen and other patrons, and hopefully landing a job in the process.

But United had not obtained an entertainment business license, and instead of giving its hostesses a contract, had treated them on the books as “customers.”

Under police questioning, reports Sankei, the young women had given such explanations as “There were some customers in showbiz, so I thought I might get a chance to find work,” and “My ulterior motive for working there was to charm my way into a job.”

Somewhat strangely, the article did not mention any names of persons arrested in the sweep. (K.S.)

Source: “Hosutesu nerai wa shukatsu,” Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27, page 26)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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With the cancellation of the Osaka sumo tournament in March, the city’s nightlife quarters will not be receiving patronage from its burly regulars, who, reports weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (Mar. 3), are using their mobile phones when canceling entertainment bookings.

Every year, sumo wrestlers (rikishi), their supporters (tanimachi), and coaches (oyakata) frequent one particular lounge in the Kita Shinchi district.

“Since we do not need to prepare a big sofa this year, it is sad,” says an employee. “While it is disturbing to see drunk sekitori grapplers” — those ranked in one of the top two professional divisions — “we are used to hosting them every year. Sumo wrestlers drink a lot given their huge body mass. Given that nowadays we have been losing customers, this will have a huge impact on sales.”

A hostess from a club within the Tobita Shinchi district is shocked by the cancellation. “Since they have massive bodies,” she says, “they do push themselves over the limit. Plus, they are good tippers. I just have to sit on their laps all night; it’s not much work. They were good customers.”

Shukan Jitsuwa informs its readers that Tobita Shinchi is a Mecca for quickie joints. A person from a lounge says that they’ll usually come in a group that includes three attendants (tsukibito) and a sekitori. “When the sekitori is off enjoying his erotic activities,” the source says, “the attendants will stick around for drinks. It is vital to the local economy.”

Some wrestlers called their regular places to kindly let them know that they would not be able to make it this year, and there was one thing that they all had in common. “Everyone is using a pay phone to say they cannot come,” says the previously quoted hostess. “They were told not to use mobile phones.”

For those living under rocks for the past few weeks, the Japan Sumo Association indicated that text messages discovered on the mobile phones of roughly a dozen senior wrestlers have implicated them in systematic bout-fixing — a revelation that caused the cancellation of the Osaka tournament.

“While I cannot speak for other training stables,” says one coach, “I am prohibiting the use of the mobile phone. Any contact to be made outside the stable must be done in open areas. Of course, there will be no playing around with women either, including visits to Tobita. We have to do this to regain trust.”

Shukan Jitsuwa, however, wonders what steps the grapplers will take to satisfy their sexual needs. (A.T.)

Source: “Osaka basho chushi Tobita-Shinchi e no cancel rikishi wa zenin koshu-denwa,” Shukan Jitsuwa (Mar. 3, page 31)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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On Nov. 19, Chiba police arrested 75-year-old Morimitsu Iha on the charge of groping a 46-year-old woman aboard the JR Sobu Line.

“Energetic,” was the word that Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 23) uses to describe the suspect.

“Iha was wearing a dark suit, possibly to make it easier to flee,” a police source confides to the tabloid. “The victim had been holding a strap. He had moved behind her and begun rubbing his groin against her buttocks.”

The source then adds, “According to several eyewitnesses, ‘He’d got a splendid woody for a man of that age.’”

Last summer police had received reports of a similar offender on the same commuter line, and Iha is being grilled over possible prior offenses.

Nikkan Gendai notes that crude crimes by coarse codgers have been increasing of late. In September, a 71-year-old Tokyo man was caught pink-handed attempting to pilfer women’s underwear; a police search of his house came up with a total of 7,000 items. The following month, another 71-year old man was apprehended while in the act of stealing a woman’s under things from a veranda clothesline. And a 64-year-old taxi driver was arrested after he fondled the genitals of his passenger, a cabaret hostess who had drunkenly dozed off on the back seat.

Numerous incidents of stalking involving seniors have also been reported. Last September, a 72-year-old Hiroshima man was detained for hounding a woman of the same age, and earlier this month an 82-year-old Kumamoto man was nabbed for lurking in ambush outside the home of a salesgirl in her 20s to whom he had the hots.

“A lot of these old guys are unable to get over their Lolita complex,” remarks a crime reporter. “Last September a 60-year-old man was arrested in Ibaraki on suspicion of violating the law banning child prostitution. He’d handed 1,000 yen to a junior high school girl and asked her to perform a lascivious act. He was a horny old goat, who was in the habit of accosting young females who walked past his house.

The pattern of violations suggests a shift in crime trends in the world’s most rapidly aging society.

“I guess we can expect more incidents by lecherous old men in the future,” the reporter predicts. (K.S.)

Source: “Zenkoku de erojii-san daibousou,” Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 23, page 7)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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There’s flaky and then there’s outright weird. With the prolonged business recession, Tokyo’s mecca of glitzy nightlife, Ginza, looks like a ghost town these days.

Not surprisingly, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 13), the hard times have made life all the more difficult for the hostesses who toil in Ginza’s clubs, and more than a few have found themselves facing financial failure.

At the end of 2009, cabaret and club workers joined forces to form the Kyabakura Union, an affiliate of the Freelance Worker’s Union, which has undertaken negotiations on behalf of 38 former shop employees.

In one such case, three former hostesses at a pricey Ginza club went so far as to sue their former employer in the Tokyo District Court, demanding 4.3 million yen in unpaid back wages.

“I didn’t receive any salary for the first seven months of this year,” one of the litigants told the tabloid.

According to the terms of the hostess’ employment when she was recruited last December, she was to receive 46,000 yen for working three and a half hours per evening (slightly more than 13,000 yen per hour). But hostesses who fail to meet quotas or whose customers are in arrears on their bills are subjected to fines or are otherwise penalized.

What’s more, the shops typically deduct certain nominal expenditures from hostesses’ wages, such as the cost for toilet paper and bathroom deodorizer, which can add up to as much as 30,000 yen per month.

To make matters worse, business this year has been terrible.

“The shop paid me no salary at all since January,” one hostess told Nikkan Gendai. “They claimed that unless I paid them the money I owed — for those fines, penalties and so on — they weren’t obliged to pay my salary. Even for Ginza, this treatment is exceptionally severe.”

The hostess went on to relate a tale of woe, which culminated in eviction from her residence for failure to pay rent.

The attorney representing the club lambasted the hostesses for “one-sidedly bad-mouthing the club at a press conference.”

According to a hostess union representative, to escape their financial liabilities quite a few Ginza establishments are engaging in such underhanded stratagems as shutting the shop and filing for bankruptcy, after which they re-open under a different name.

“In such cases, the girls who previously worked there are just discarded,” the rep says. (K.S.)

Source: “Ginza hosutesu zankoku monogatari,” Nikkan Gendai (Aug. 13, page 5)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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In January the media was abuzz with reports over the arrest by Saitama prefectural police of a citizen of the Philippines, who had entered Japan by means of a fraudulent marriage with a Japanese man, after it was learned the individual in question — charged with violation of the alien registration law — had undergone a sex change operation.

Writing in Shukan Kinyobi (Mar. 12), Takehide Mizutani notes that cases of fraudulent marriage have soared since March 2005, when Japan’s Ministry of Justice, in response to criticisms of abetting human trafficking by the U.S. State Department, cracked down on admission of women from the Philippines.

In 2004, a record high of 85,000 “entertainer” visas had been issued to Filipinas. The following year the number had fallen to half and has continued to decline.

One result of the tightening restrictions was a surge in spurious marriages with Japanese males. In 2005, some 10,200 couples tied the knot — a rise of 20 percent over the year before and the first year ever to exceed 10,000. Last year as well the number is said to have risen by 20 percent amount.

The process is abetted by marriage brokers who circulate in Manila’s bar districts searching for women willing to take a chance on a job in Japan.

The prospect of repatriating several million yen, which would enable their families to live in relative luxury, apparently makes it worth the risk.

Mizutani introduces a woman named Karen (a pseudonym) who last July wed a Japanese gent 30 years her senior. After a civil wedding, a party was held for several dozen friends and family members. The two barely spoke.

Karen was already lined up to work at a hostess club in the Kansai area, with a contract, conditions and precautions to prevent her from reneging on the deal. She was told that as long as Japanese immigration could not come up with watertight evidence to show she was living apart from her husband, she could maintain the ruse.

A Japanese source involved in such investigations tells Mizutani that “questioning over just a few days is usually insufficient to enable prosecution, and in some cases investigations took months, or even years to wind up.”

“It’s a cumbersome process,” he adds.

Even though these impoverished Filipinas know they are breaking the law, their earnings in Japan are still better than what they could earn back home. Some 8 million, nearly one-tenth of that country’s population, now works abroad, many at menial jobs to support their families. Despite the risks involved, it’s unlikely they will abandon efforts to gain entry to Japan. (W.W.)

Source: “Dekasegi no tame giso kekkon suru mazushii onna tachi,” Shukan Kinyobi (Mar. 12, page 13)

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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Usually entry to a high-end Ginza hostess club requires an initial outlay of tens of thousands of yen. Yet the wave of deflation is causing one new establishment to charge a mere 12,800 yen for an hour of all-you-can-drink and — get this — food and lodging.

Shukan Shincho (Feb. 25) reports on the latest project by mama-san Shiho Masui, 41, who has appeared in the media numerous times since 1995, when she opened the hostess club Futago-ya (Club Twins) in Ginza’s 6-chome district. This separate pricing venture began on the first of the month.

“I wanted more and more customers to enjoy the tradition of Futago-ya,” says Masui, whose twin sister operated a club in Ginza that closed two years ago. She adds that whiskey, brandy, shochu and wine “can be enjoyed on an all-you-can-drink basis for an hour while viewing the show put on by our hostesses.”

The rate for single rooms depends on the day of the week (and includes weekdays only), but reaches a maximum of a mere 12,800 yen and includes a room at the Ginza Capital Hotel and a choice of sushi or pasta for dinner.

Masui is often asked by customers how she can offer such a deal. She responds in the article by emphasizing the recession-manageable pricing at the Futago-ya club, whose entry rises from 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen over the course of each evening. Further, since she is the owner, she doesn’t have to employ a separate mama-san to manage the hotel guests. She claims that Futago-ya has racked up sales totaling 300 million yen over last two years.

Shukan Shincho views this separate offer as an aggressive move in an area where the economic downtown is very apparent.

“In the late afternoon, I checked in at the Ginza Capital Hotel and received two vouchers, one for dinner and the other for club Futago-ya,” says one male customer, who selected the pasta dish. “The room is bit small, but it is typical of a business hotel.

“The pasta came with tuna, squid, anago (eel), shrimp, red snapper, egg and tekkamaki (tuna rolls). It’s usually 1,500 yen for this alone. So I was pretty satisfied.”

The guest adds that the hotel may use the Ginza tag but its address is actually for nearby Tsukiji, known for its large fish market.

“When I arrived at the bar [in Ginza], I was shocked because the girls were all in mini-skirts and dancing to loud music,” says the same customer. “For those expecting a quiet evening in Ginza, it may be a disappointment, but it may be a good chance for you to have some fun with your friends.”

So far, five people have used the package. Another 30 people have reserved spaces through March.

Shukan Shincho wonders if other clubs in the area are getting restless.

“Even though it is called a club, it is in a different category,” says a person related to the Ginza club scene. “Uniqlo has become well-known for its store in Ginza. It now seems like we have night version of Uniqlo.” (K.N.)

Source: “Hoteru tsuki Ginza kurabu ‘12,800 yen’ de shobaijozuno reino mama,” Shukan Shincho (Feb. 25, page )

Note: Brief extracts from Japanese vernacular media in the public domain that appear here were translated and summarized under the principle of “fair use.” Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the translations. However, we are not responsible for the veracity of their contents. The activities of individuals described herein should not be construed as “typical” behavior of Japanese people nor reflect the intention to portray the country in a negative manner. Our sole aim is to provide examples of various types of reading matter enjoyed by Japanese.

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