‘Romance’ for hire: A male host waiting for customers at a host club in the Kabukicho area of Tokyo. — AFP
THE country 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 move is “unsurprising” after “scammer-like hosts increased”.
Hosts, he said, used to employ intimacy mainly to entertain women. But “their mindset today is ‘if you love me, then don’t complain’, silencing women and exploiting their emotional dependence,” the 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, Arata Sakamoto, head of non-profit Rescue Hub, said.
The new law does not ban intimacy, but behaviour such as threatening to end relationships with clients if they refuse to order drinks.
Another disruptive change is also rocking the industry.
Police have notified clubs that billboard advertising hyping 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. — AFP
