Ginza blues: Sister, can you spare a hostess?

“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. Read more

Japanese television stations also rife with yakuza ties

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. Read more

Tokyo times: Legislation to limit perusal of Ginza pussy

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.” Read more

Tokyo trends: Ginza flower girls wilting

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.” Read more

Former top model now top Tokyo hostess

TOKYO (TR) – A once popular model and actress is now employed as a hostess at a posh club in Ginza, reports Nikkan Gendai (Feb. 10). Read more

Tokyo story: Times get even harder for Ginza hostesses

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. Read more

Deflation equation: room, board, Ginza hostess — all in, 12,800 yen

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. Read more

Controversy around hitsudan hostess Rie Saito due to jealousy

Jealousy is the source of recent criticism being leveled toward deaf hostess, Rie Saito, 25, who rose to the top of Tokyo’s most extravagant entertainment quarter and has since published a best-selling book, reports Shukan Taishu (Jan. 4).

Saito lost her hearing soon after birth. While known as a bad girl during her middle-school days, she learned the subtle beauty of the hostess hospitality business and ascended to the number-one position in all of Ginza — a world of “night butterflies” — through the use of hitsudan, or written communication.

Such a drama-filled life moved many people and her book titled “Hitsudan Hostess,” published by Kobunsha in May last year, became a best-seller with 200,000 copies sold. On January 10, a TV drama of the same title and starring actress Keiko Kitagawa will be aired nationwide on Tokyo Broadcasting System.

However, there are ominous rumblings being circulated about Saito regarding her book and upcoming drama, the weekly warns. Read more

Police crackdown on ‘girl’s bars’ no deterrent to erotic offerings

In addition to crackdowns on soaplands and orgy parties that Weekly Playboy routinely features in its pages, the magazine is now finding that ‘girl’s bars,’ which are clubs staffed by ladies serving from behind a counter, are also becoming a target of the police. Yet a low profile is not an option as many are offering excessively provocative services — nearly a requirement in today’s tough economic climate.

Yui, a 19-year-old college student, tells the tabloid about a group of cops that showed up while she was working. “It happened so fast, and the bar was asked to stop operating. Apparently the problem was that the girls were sitting next to the customers. I was shocked because I thought this place was clean. But I quickly moved over to another girl’s bar,” she giggles.

A 10-year veteran writer for the “pink” trade offers: “The girl’s bar is registered as an after hours eating-and-drinking place, much like an izakaya. Because of this, they are not allowed to offer individual hospitality to customers. The only such place for that service is a kyabakura (hostess club), which is registered as an eating-and-drinking establishment that includes socializing.” Read more

DPJ’s nighttime dalliances deemed dubious

Following last month’s revelations in the Mainichi Shimbun that offices of Democratic Party of Japan members spent large sums in adult entertainment clubs, weekly tabloid Flash (Oct. 20) reports on whether the establishments were indeed suitable meeting locations, as was later claimed by the politicians.

To recap, the Mainichi revealed that 5.82 million yen in taxpayers’ money was used, and designated as being for “political purposes,” between 2003 and 2007 by the offices of five senior members of the newly elected DPJ at various kyabakura and hostess bars, where female staff pour drinks and engage in conversation with male customers. The biggest spender was Satsuki Eda, presently the President of the House of Councillors, who paid 2.37 million yen at 11 bars. Read more

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