The Lucie Blackman case and the hostess industry

By William Hollingworth

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dokachin at 09:00 PM JST - 8th September

In the nineties a lot of attractive female teachers from Eikaiwa would work in hostess bars. Some actually preferred hostessing as it paid well and was seen as 'teaching English with alcohol'. Salarymen (on business nights out), Buddhist priests and even politicians would come to practise English and sing Karaoke. Girls who were non-native speakers (Swedish, Finnish etc) and were travelling around Asia would do a 3 or 6 month hostessing stint to save money for the rest of their trip. Some of the girls were highly educated and articulate and came from respectable families. No body forced them to do this work and they could choose which clubs to work for. The women knew by 'word of mouth' which clubs were strict and if 'mamasan' was a bitch. 'Dohans'(men who take out for dinner) are usually passed on to friends or incoming girls who are friends of friends. I'm guessing no one suspected Obara was trouble ...

But I suspect that Obara had connections to hide his crimes for a long time. There was definitely a feeling of Yakuza rules in that vicinity. I often saw police completely ignore yakuzas (with guns waving in hand) beating up street stall people...and stories of club owners 'getting away with murder'.
BuddhismTech at 09:36 PM JST - 8th September

Clare Campbell should not seek a profit by writing a book about Lucie Blackman's disastrous adventure . Calre does not have a right to pose herself as a Western feminist criticizing all of the Japanese sex industries for Lucie's mistake. She is throwing herself into an alien world without trying to familiarize its culture first. What a stupid woman she is. Clare should know that both sexes, not only male humans, are capable of doing evil things.

Lucie happened to be in a wrong place and wrong time. She agreed herself to take a risky action in another country thousands of miles away. This was Lucie's liability. She came to work in Tokyo illegally. She did not know that a hostess job in a Roppongi club was a part of the "mizu shōbai" (sex-entertainment industry). There, she could sell a sexual act for a price without having to conspicuously prostitute in a public place.
BuddhismTech at 09:56 PM JST - 8th September

@womanforwomen

"The European, Australian women are different. In their cases most of the time there is an element of thrill and the desire to make money more than their counterparts in their countries or something."

Yes. Agreed. Lucie Blackman was attracted to this job because of money. Her 2-month salary for a Tokyo hostess was equivalent to a British Airways stewardess's one-year salary.
dokachin at 11:25 PM JST - 8th September

BuddismTech

She came to work in Tokyo illegally. She did not know that a hostess job in a Roppongi club was a part of the "mizu shōbai" (sex-entertainment industry). There, she could sell a sexual act for a price without having to conspicuously prostitute in a public place. >

The point of Western hostess clubs is not sex but the experience of spending a night out with girls who would not even bat an eyelid at ugly salarymen. (A BA stewardess is a 'trolley dolly'). Having a drink bought buy a stranger at a bar is usually more dangerous than having a night out with regular customers in a club....in Roppongi.
womanforwomen at 11:37 PM JST - 8th September

Budtech, I have the same feeling about this author. She cannot make money from the tragedy of others. The only thing I can think of is to use her book towards helping other young women become aware of what can happen. Of course, it will not deter every girl from abandoning the idea, but atleast gives some awareness of the dangers. Human minds are so creepy and there is no linit to its creepiness. And financial constraints drives people to extremes. Sad when a women thinks of making money by using her beautiful body.
usaexpat at 11:49 PM JST - 8th September

Truly a shocking case and defintely exposes the dangers that hostess face if they decide to take their work outside of the clubs.
hakujinsensei at 08:16 AM JST - 9th September

womanforwoman, Yes I have dated girls who worked at clubs and they did not feel ashamed or belittled, they just looked at it like a job. Some didnt like their job and aspired for other things and were going to college. And some thought it was the best job in the world and said they had no desire to change careers. You might just be amazed at how many of the girls from these clubs use their job to land a husband.
carlosgodoy1 at 09:55 AM JST - 9th September

Im sorry SocietyMike and BuddhismTech and some others, I dont mean to sound argumentative but I believe this business is HEAVILY involved in danger and linked with murder. Getting rid of problem girls (whether they become pregnant from customers or demand compensation or the like. They "disappear" never to be seen again . Claire the writer is doing women and readers a great SERVICE by writing about this issue, and She does NOT need to understand Japanese culture to know that the Hostess business is "off". (what could she learn about Japan? that men are stressed? So what?) It is not safe for the girls and it in fact, life-threatening if they step "out of line". SocietyMike, for example, I dont think the incident in the article is a RARE case, its simply RARE to have come to light. This is a dangerous business, particularly in Nagoya and Osaka - Tokyo is simply a safer (and i think better at covering up such things). And it's worse for the non-Caucasians. Brazilians, Colombians, Philippinas and Peruvians are involved in this business too. Not just Daddy-pampered white girls (Which is the only reason this is in the news). If her Dad didnt return to Japan and make a big stink, this would have been forgotten by now. The Girls in the business sell the IDEA of possibly having sex with the patrons, which excites the patrons in buying more drinks. The more they entice, the more the patrons come back. Some girls have sex with the patrons and and thus "end their game" with that customer - or just get it started. Sometimes that customer wants more and the issue then gets out of hand, and you can imagine the potential danger from there.
rommelderfohlen at 10:34 AM JST - 9th September

This isn't an issue specific to Japan, it's global. You can find hostess - or associated 'services' - in any corner of the planet, and the dangers are always going to be the same, regardless of race or culture.
taiko666 at 12:15 PM JST - 9th September

This isn't an issue specific to Japan, it's global

You're never more than a couple of minutes walk away from a hostess / 'snack' bar in Japan. Where else in the world can you say the same?

A man seeking this kind of service is not confident of himself, and there are a few other character traits that are evident from his visiting such places

Misandric pontification.
Foxie at 04:43 PM JST - 9th September

As a woman, I think you gotta be stupid enough to work in such establishments and you shouldn't be surprised if things turn out sour. Entertaining drunk men... what a repulsive job.
Lowly at 01:24 AM JST - 10th September

Sad story, but I agree it's more a question of who you trust and give your phone number to than whether hostessing is good or bad or this or that. Hostess bars are everything everyone has written here about. Dangerous, run by Yaks, also very safe with educated young women taken care of by sharp-eyed mamasans and doormen. Sort of like trying to say something about colleges. There's ones like Harvard and princeton, ones oriented toward free creative thought ones that are sort of run-of- the mill salaryman producers, ones for lonely rich people who party and do drugs instead of going to class, ones that have no funding and ones that teach vocations for factory work or construction, etc etc.

In short there's all sorts of people in the world and all sorts of places to have a drink. No need to blame / look down on Japan for having this... institution.

YObai- very unfortunate to be mentioned in this way. I understand it to be a kind of cute and thrilling practice for young people for gettting together with your girl at her place w/o her parents noticing. Not randomly creeping around and raping people. Writing what was in that article/ what may be in that book in that way would be like a Jpns author writing that Westerner young ppl are allowed to go out on dates at a young age and the men can just rape the women as they see fit with no control! What barbarians! After like hearing about the existance of date-rape. Way to generalize.
genkimark at 07:17 PM JST - 13th September

How about all of the non-white women (mainly Chinese, Philippina and Korean) who are held in virtually slave-like conditions, with their passports held by the mama-sans and their every sleeping and waking minute alike monitored by the Yakuza bosses? No one cares about them, because they are not rich, white and western!
Cicada at 07:39 PM JST - 13th September

genkimark:

How about all of the non-white women (mainly Chinese, Philippina and Korean)... No one cares about them, because they are not rich, white and western!

You seem to care. I'm sure there are others too.

Foxie:

As a woman, I think you gotta be stupid enough to work in such establishments and you shouldn't be surprised if things turn out sour. Entertaining drunk men... what a repulsive job.

My thoughts exactly. Stupid, or desperate. White or colored.
NeoJamal at 09:19 AM JST - 15th September

White woman down! shake up the whole industry!