Japan’s popular Host

I found a vice documentary about Naoki, a charismatic Japanese male “host”, who is basically a modern version of male Geisha. Hostess and Host clubs are very unique to Japanese and Asian cultures. There are a lot of night clubs like these in China, South Korea and other Asian countries. It is very hard for westerners to understand because it is really bizarre. One question they always have is: “Why would anyone spends that much money just to drink?” You can get a prostitute and it’s cheaper..in the U.S., there are lots of gentleman’s clubs. I don’t really know but in California, you aren’t allowed to touch strippers..and security can literally throw you out of the club or call the police. But you don’t spend $30,000 for a lap dance..

Naoki (the main character of this documentary) was voted the best host of the 2011. He isn’t bad looking and sure he is cute (not my type) but something about him makes him attractive. Of course he better be attractive and is a good actor because he has been spending all his energy in order to become the number 1 host not only in Tokyo but he was voted the number one host in Japan in 2011. I admire him for whatever he has done to achieve that and great! I can’t imagine all you do is to look attractive, manipulate other people..so his clients will keep coming back and will do whatever it takes to keep his attention.

Naoki is very confident. He is proud of what he does and I really hope that he won’t look back later and think to himself what he has done to his body, soul and most importantly other humans. Unfortunately, I have a lot of problems with Japanese media glorifying this industry because there is nothing to be proud of being in this industry. But there are a lot of reasons to be ashamed of being a host and sustaining that level of popularity and success.

As Naoki explained briefly in this documentary, “many girls who come to our club work for “fuzoku” They are basically prostitutes, and one girl who is really into Naoki spends 300,0000 yen (30,000 USD approximately) for a special occasion in this film and he explained that it was only 500 yen when she first stopped by and now she spends roughly 500,000 yen (50,000 USD) and of course she is a prostitute. Money can buy us a lot of things, almost anything including “happiness” and it’s a temporary solution for someone like her who feels so empty everyday that she is spending probably all of her hard earned money selling her body and soul so she can continue to pay this guy who doesn’t give a crap about her wellbeing. If you care about another human being, you feel guilty..basically deceiving a woman into thinking that she may be able to make him fall in love with her if she spends just enough money. If she was born rich and has the money from inheritance, maybe it is a different story but it is almost never the case in this industry. Experienced hosts who survive in this industry justify what they are doing by telling themselves that they are selling “happiness” to their clients (often prostitutes) and that these women need them to make them feel better..

Probably he is right that this is the only industry in which you have an opportunity to earn $20,000 USD during the first month. Probably that’s less than 1% of people who join this industry. But so what? How long can you continue without hurting your body, telling yourself lies and harming another human being. They can say whatever to justify what they are doing but as I grew older, I came to the realization that how I live my life matters to me. Life is so short and I want to live by my values and to me, it isn’t ok for someone to continue selling her body to feed me. It’s a low life of living..just like a pimp or even selling drugs. Would you do anything for money? How many of his “girlfriends” are slowing killing herself physically, emotionally and financially? It is really a matter of your value and perception but I don’t care about making $20,000 a month or $50,000 a month if my job involves slowly killing another human being. I don’t want to look back and think why the hell I did that to myself and to other people when I reach inevitable-death. Unfortunately the issue here isn’t about Naoki’s lack of ethics or morales (it is) but he is one of millions of other hostesses and hosts who hold the same values. Otherwise you just can’t survive in this industry and Japanese media is mostly to be blamed for glorifying this industry and sure it is really interesting and as I studied Sociology in college, I am still fascinated by this. But I just had to write a posting on this documentary. But this industry involves a lot more than giving their customers fantasy..

Everybody wants to be rich..well it’s better to have some money than no money. I wouldn’t deny the importance of money and nothing is wrong to focus on increasing your income so you can buy nice things and support your family etc. But if you want to make money, do something more productive, do something meaningful, learn from your experiences and inspire other people. If you want to be popular, be popular..do something different..but don’t do something that involves deceiving another human being.