TOKYO: Japan is waging war on "host clubs" -- where men entertain women willing to pay for romance, but authorities and industry insiders say customers have long been scammed and saddled with debt.
Neatly coiffured, well-dressed "hosts" bedazzle women with sweet talk and the mirage of intimacy at glitzy establishments in big Japanese cities.
In return, the women pay inflated prices for champagne and other expensive drinks while they flirt, sometimes splurging tens of thousands of dollars a night.
Authorities are clamping down because of allegations that some women are being tricked into towering debts by hosts, and even into sex work to pay them off.
Under a new law that took effect in June, taking advantage of women's romantic feelings to manipulate them into ordering overpriced drinks has been banned.
This has sent shockwaves through an industry where pseudo-romance, from casual flirtation to after-hours sex, has long driven relationships with clients.
John Reno, a star host in Tokyo's red-light district Kabukicho, said the crackdown was "unsurprising" after "scammer-like hosts increased".
Hosts, he told AFP, used to employ intimacy primarily to entertain women.
But "their mindset today is basically 'if you love me, then don't complain,' silencing women and exploiting their emotional dependence", the 29-year-old owner of Club J said.
A growing number of victims have reported financial and sexual exploitation linked to these establishments.
Official data shows there were around 2,800 host club-related cases reported to police in 2024, up from 2,100 two years before. These have ranged from hosts ordering drinks the clients did not ask for, to prostitution.
Some hosts are racking up profits by introducing their cash-strapped clients to brokers known as "scouts", who then send them into the sex trade, police say.
Women, for their part, strive to work hard for their crush.
"These hosts in return promise them their effort will be rewarded with actual relationships or marriage," Reno said.
"That's outright fraud," he added, while denying that his Club J employees engage in any such practices.
Difficulties such as poverty and abuse often make hosts the only escape for young women with low self-esteem, campaigners say.
While high-flying businesswomen used to be the main clientele, girls "with no place to be" are increasingly seeking refuge, said Arata Sakamoto, head of Kabukicho-based non-profit Rescue Hub.
To them, "host clubs have become a place where they feel accepted" and "reassured they can be who they are, albeit in exchange for money", he said.
One recent night saw a 26-year-old woman surrounded by smiling men at a table of flamboyant Kabukicho club Platina.
"Some hosts are bad enough to brainwash you, but I would say women should also know better than to drink far more than they can afford," the woman, a freelancer in the media industry who declined to be named, told AFP.
Another customer comes to Platina to "spice up my mundane life".
"I hope this will remain a place that keeps my female hormones overflowing," the 34-year-old IT worker said.
The new law does not ban intimacy, but behaviour such as threatening to end relationships with clients if they refuse to order drinks.
Industry insiders like Platina owner Ran Sena call the law "too vague".
"For example, if a client tells me, 'I'm about to fall in love with you,' does that mean I'll have to forbid her from coming to see me again?" he said.
Another disruptive change is also rocking the industry.
Police have notified clubs that any billboard advertising that hypes up the sales and popularity of individual hosts is no longer acceptable.
The rationale is that these bombastic, neon-lit signs boasting "No.1" status or "multimillion" sales can fuel competition among hosts and push them further toward profit-mongering.
Self-identifying as Kabukicho's "conqueror," "god" or "king", and egging on prospective customers to "drown themselves" in love, for example, is similarly banned.
To comply, clubs have hurriedly covered such slogans on Kabukicho billboards, defacing the pouting portraits of hosts with black tape.
This signals a "huge" morale crisis for hosts, Sena says.
"It's been the aspiration of many hosts to be called No.1, earn a title and become famous in this town," he said.
"Now, they don't even know what they should strive for," the 43-year-old added.
For women, too, the rankings were a way to reassure themselves that the money they spent on their "oshi (favourite)" hosts was not in vain -- proof they were helping them ascend in the cutthroat hosts industry.
"I think the industry is heading toward decline," Sena said. - AFP
