A fascinating report by Mark Simkin from Australia's ABC-TV on the rise of Male Geishas. For those of you without access to Australian TV here are some excerpts from the transcript:
SIMKIN: Meet Reiji. Entertainer, businessman, multi-millionaire. He’s amassed a fortune by knowing what women want and giving it to them.
REIJI: Twenty years ago I was cooking fried noodles in a roadside stall. Now I am celebrated by everyone. Thankyou very much!
SIMKIN: Reiji is a host. This is his club and these are his employees, men specially trained to flatter and flirt with female customers. Tonight though it’s Reiji who’s getting all the attention. It’s his birthday and some of his clients have turned up for a party that will last 48 hours. . . .
SIMKIN: The consumption is conspicuous. Here the host drinks from a ten thousand dollar bottle of cognac. Reiji can afford to smile. The customers are paying for the drinks so the more he consumes, the more he profits.
REIJI: As a male geisha, I have always treated my customers with due respect and hope for their happiness. The most expensive birthday present I ever received from a client was a car – a Mercedes Benz – and I was also given a parcel of land.
SIMKIN: The blokes are expected to be good looking, dutiful and able to handle vast amounts of liquor. A sense of rhythm is also important. Each night the hosts perform for their adoring customers. This being a host club, I was expecting some sort of strip show and that’s how it seemed at first but as the performance progressed, the dancers started putting gear on not taking it off. Rather than the Full Monty, it was more like the full Monty Python.
Japanese women love things that are “kawaii” or “cute”. Guys dressed as cats are considered very “kawaii”.
SIMKIN: Japan’s adult entertainment industry, the “water trade” as it’s known, is massive in scope and scale. It covers everything from special clubs for men who like to grope schoolgirls on trains, to upmarket hostess bars. The industry is worth a hundred and fifty billion dollars a year.
For decades the host clubs were a small and sleazy part of the spectrum. Not any more. Reiji is taking them up market. In the last two years, one hundred new clubs have opened in Tokyo along and Reiji is so busy, he needs a weekly vitamin cocktail to keep going. He’s in huge demand as a corporate consultant telling companies like this one how women think.
SIMKIN: The club’s clients are hardly lonely losers. Central to Reiji’s success is the realisation that many Japanese women are fed up with their traditional roles. Divorce rates, while still low by western standards, have doubled in a decade. The vast majority initiated by women. More and more young women are putting off marriage altogether preferring to stay in the workforce.
SIMKIN: Yuri Miyajima has a high paying job but still lives with her parents. What she saves on rent she spends at the club. Yuri-san is what’s known as a “parasite single” and it’s estimated there are eleven million of them living at home but financially independent.
SIMKIN: It’s not that Yuri-san can’t get a date, far from it she tells me, but because hosts are less hassle, less risk and less high maintenance than regular boyfriends. She likes nothing better than taking one shopping.
YURI-SAN: A host puts the emphasis on my enjoyment and listens to my worries. I can just be myself. A boyfriend will restrict me. I would always have to take his feelings into consideration.
SIMKIN: Japanese men seem to like the idea of being paid to drink and flirt with women. Fifty of them apply for a job at the club each month, quickly learning the company creed.
GROUP REPEATING AFTER TEACHER: Welcome. Excuse me. I am sorry. Thank you for the drinks. Thank you very much. I look forward to being with you.
SIMKIN: Special classes are held to teach newcomers the art of seduction. The rules are laid out. Never ask a client her age, job, religion or marital status. Smiles are carefully crafted. Bowing techniques practiced and perfected, the right angle is crucial.
