- The scene in the chintzy Club Ai in Tokyo is a familiar
one. A "host" bar in the Kabukicho district of the city, smartly
dressed men and women chat to each other over absurdly expensive drinks.
-
- There is laughter and flirting, and more than a hint
of sexual tension.
-
- But Club Ai is unusual in one important respect: the
customers here are women.
-
- While the host bar industry has long catered for Japanese
men in search of young, attractive partners, there is now a burgeoning
industry catering for women too, a sign of an important cultural shift.
-
- Club Ai is one of some 100 host clubs and bars for women
determined to claim part of Japan's lucrative escort business for themselves.
-
- For some that can mean indulging in as much hard drinking,
X-rated conversation and casual sex as men do.
-
- For most, though, a visit to a host club is an escape
from the drudgery of work and enforced passivity in what is still a largely
patriarchal society. The women who frequent host clubs defy the stereotype
of bored, wealthy housewives.
-
- Mutsuko, a boutique owner and regular at Club Ai, is
well-dressed, confident and witty. She is typical of the older women who
visit before midnight, after which it quickly fills with off-duty hostesses,
cabaret club workers and prostitutes who sing, dance and drink until dawn.
-
- "I forget everything when I come here. It's impossible
not to when I'm surrounded by so many gorgeous men," she says, as
her host for the evening dutifully mixes her drink.
-
- Banter and drinking doesn't come cheap at an upmarket
club like this. First-time customers can sit and chat over a bottle of
whisky for two hours for a little more than £25, but those who return
can expect to pay many times that, depending on their host, and food and
drink.
-
- Such extravagance is not unusual. A bottle of Dom Perignon
"Gold", for example, costs 250,000 yen (roughly £1,800)
while a vintage Romani-Conti will set you back 1.8m yen - Club Ai sells
20 a month.
-
- Hard drinking is encouraged, because the hosts, aged
from 20 to 68, depend on commissions. The more guests drink, the more reckless
their spending.
-
- The cavernous club, where 90 hosts can entertain up to
100 customers at a time, is a temple of kitsch. Huge chandeliers cast their
light on dozens of gilded neo-classical statues below. Mirrors cover the
walls and, of course, the ceiling.
-
- Upstairs at street level hang pictures of the hosts,
ranked according to their popularity. The flavour of this month - indeed
the past few years - is Keisuke, a deeply tanned man with dyed wavy hair
and a clear liking for baring his chest.
-
- But the undisputed public face of Ai is Takeshi Aida,
who opened the club in 1971 after making a name for himself as a persuasive
door-to-door mattress salesman.
-
- Now the owner of four lucrative clubs in Kabukicho, including
one for lesbians, Mr Aida wears his wealth on his sleeve - a 25m yen diamond-encrusted
watch.
-
- He has little time for smaller host pubs around Tokyo
that, together with more established clubs, are worth £335m a year.
-
- "There is no comparison between here and those places,"
he says. "They don't follow safety standards or pay their taxes. We
do. The police are welcome to drop by here any time they like."
-
- Should they take him up on the offer they are unlikely
to find anything more untoward than off-key karaoke crooners.
-
- Yet a night at a host club isn't always innocent. There
is the promise in seedier clubs - sometimes fulfilled - of sex.
-
- Officially, it is not part of the service, but it is
no secret that hosts end up in bed with customers, although many try not
to.
-
- "The danger is that if you sleep with customers,
they won't come back to the club again, and that means losing a source
of income," says one Tokyo host.
-
- At Club Ai, Ryosuke, a 30-year-old with pencilled-in
eyebrows, says he can separate his private and professional lives.
-
- "I'm actually quite nervous when I talk to girls
here," he says. "You have to be careful not to go too far in
what you say and risk ruining the club's reputation by insulting someone.
Of course, some of the women who come here are beautiful, and believe me
I notice them. I don't act on my feelings, but I admit it's difficult to
keep a lid on them sometimes."
-
- Like his fellow hosts, Ryosuke was unwilling to reveal
his earnings, but insiders say a good host can easily make £50,000
a month, rather more than most Japanese salarymen take home in a year.
-
- But the glamorous side of hosting comes after a tough
apprenticeship. Newcomers are expected to scrub toilets and take out the
rubbish, and can only move on to full-time hosting once they prove they
can attract high-spending punters.
-
- There are risks, too, for the customers. Tales abound
of young women lured into host clubs, run up huge bills and are forced
to turn to prostitution to pay them.
-
- As the clock ticks towards midnight on a weekday at Club
Ai, the prospect of a hefty bill doesn't seem to trouble two young women
in jeans and T-shirts who skip to their table, hosts in tow.
-
- At the next table, an older woman laughs uproariously
in between long slugs of strawberry margarita, her glass refilled regularly
by one of seven hosts around her table. She is in for an expensive night.
-
- Which is just as well, as some women are also exercising
their right not to be impressed with this newfound freedom.
-
- They include Reiko, a 23-year-old office worker on her
first visit. "The hosts were quite intelligent, which surprised me,
she said. "But they weren't nearly as good looking as I'd been expecting.
I won't be going again."
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1307365,00.html
|
