Asia After Hours

“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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The resignation of television personality Shinsuke Shimada over the summer put the spotlight on connections between gangsters and the entertainment world, but, warns reports Shukan Post (Nov. 11), the broadcasting stations themselves should be equally nervous about associating with organized crime.

Nationwide legislation passed in October prohibits ordinary citizens from assisting the business activities of criminal organizations, yet television stations, the article says, can be structured whereby certain activities involve yakuza connections.

“I have experience in helping sell tickets to events hosted by TV stations,” says a gang member involved in show business. “A TV station producer will come to an event promoter because he knows on the surface things look clean, but the reality is a connection to the mob. A request will be made to sell half the tickets to an event. That will happen, but with fifty percent of the sales price kept as commission.”

Both benefit from this arrangement, and the relations only get deeper from there. Gangsters connected to entertainment production companies will utilize their resources to ensure that the performers within the company’s talent pool rise to the top to receive a take of the large fees they are able to charge for dinner shows and banquets.

“Entertainment production companies are basically gangster front companies,” says a former television station manager. “They’ll engage in the wining and dining of TV station producers, and offer gambling on the golf course and mahjong, in which the producers will be intentionally allowed to win big. Then they might be taken to high-end hostess clubs, operated by gangsters affiliated with the entertainment production company, in Ginza and Roppongi at no charge. The companies will also arrange parties with some hot, young female actresses. Invitations to soaplands also occur.”

As a result, the TV station producers will be influenced regarding the casting and structuring of upcoming programs. But there is yet a potentially darker side, the magazine warns.

“TV employees at big stations frequent ‘members only’ clubs in Nishi Azabu that are managed by close associates of gangsters,” says a police investigator. “The network being built up within this community is a concern.” (K.N.)

Source: “Boryokudan kankei no geino puro TV man josei tarento tono enkai settai kikaku,” Shukan Post (Nov. 11)

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 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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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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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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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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