Below is part 2 of  my article about Jules, an American working in a host club in Japan.

If you missed part 1, click here.

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The Salaryman-Fuzoku-Host Triangle

What kind of women go to a host club? Before my research, I imagined the clientele was mostly lonely housewives of rich, neglectful businessmen and unattractive young women, starved for attention. The reality is quite different. “Sexual gratification workers make up about 50-60% (of our customers)” he says. Fuzoku (Prostitutes), Soapland Girls (erotic massage parlors) and Sexual Cabaret girls (dancing with heavy petting) are big industry in Japan, and the number of young girls walking around Osaka with four-thousand dollar Chanel handbags makes me wonder if not all of them have rich parents. Jules explains what he calls the Salaryman-Fuzoku-Host triangle: “You have the salarymen (Japanese businessmen), who have all this money and an empty life. They spend all their money at the night clubs and the cabaret girls. The cabaret girls need somewhere to spend all their money, so they spend it on clothes — and us. But we’re at the top of the food chain, because we spend our money on nobody.”

So at least half of his customers are girls with large incomes for dubious services – but why would they want or need to go to an overpriced club to talk to men, when they are usually the object of desire? “They’re looking for something” says Jules. “Like some kind of guidance, or something to connect with. Most of the girls that go to the host clubs, they work at night, they dance or (perform sexual acts) for money, so they can’t find good boyfriends. They live a totally unacceptable life by Japanese standards, so they can’t connect with anybody. They don’t even need sexual gratification, because they’re being molested by guys in the clubs all night. So they come to us and they’re looking for a connection, something else. To have fun with a male, instead of being molested and ogled. They want little — boy toys… To fill the holes in their heart.”

Conveniently, my next question is whether any relationships develop outside of the club with customers, or if there were the implication of sex in the client-host transaction. “It’s an intuition thing. We try not to have sex with the girls, because that’s what they want. They don’t have a reason to come in to the host club if they can meet you outside.” Under his breath he continues “I mean, I do have sex with some of my customers…” he laughs. “But — not all of them want sex.”

Jules tells me about the first and most important unspoken rule of hosting: do not ask about the girl’s work. “It’s embarrassing for girls that do work at those types of places (sex workers)” he says. “There are negative feelings attached to work, and (the host club) is a place of fun and enjoyment. We don’t want to talk about dark things.” I ask him what they might usually talk about. “Anything. Like, what I did today, or whatever. We have conversations and argue, sing karaoke, hold arms, and play drinking games… enjoy a bottle of champagne…hopefully.” And there are big dollar signs attached to Jules’ hopes. A Henessey Richard du 4th  in Jules’ club is $20,000 a bottle. Cost to the club is somewhere around a thousand dollars. “I mean, you can buy a bottle of Dom Perry for $120-150, but we sell it at the club for $1,200” says Jules. He says he mostly makes his commission on cocktails and individual drinks, but he has sold a few bottles of Dom – and at a 55% commission rate, that translates to a lot of Benjamins – or rather, Fukuzawa Yukichis.

The Hosts are rated on a scale of salary, and the Number One host at a club (the Japanese have a penchant for ranking everything) can make anywhere from $15,000 to $100,000 a month. The Number One at Jule’s club averages about $30-$40,000 per month.

Host Beginnings

Jules came to Japan four years ago when he was 19, planning to study Japanese for six months, but enjoyed it so much he stayed. He has half brothers and sisters in Korea, Hawaii, Brazil and America and his father is soon to file for his 7th divorce. It seems the old adage like father, like son is true in his case, although he maintains that his ability with women comes from “a shit load of experience and a whole lot of sweat.”

“I worked teaching English for six months and after that I was like, fuck this, teaching English is not for me. I’m young, I’m educated, there’s so much more I can do. I can speak Japanese better than anybody I know. I had seen those host guys on Television, and I was like, that’s what I gotta get into.”

One night, a Cabaret club girl he knew offered to give him an introduction to a host club manager. The manager of the club said he could hire him, but he would get paid only on a commission-only basis (ie. He would only make money from the customers he brought into the club), with no base salary. He left, after drinking for a few hours with the hosts, saying he’d think about it, but generally feeling unimpressed with the low-level host club.

That morning, on his way home, as the sun came was coming up, he stumbled past Dotombori bridge – generally referred to as nanpa bashi (“pickup bridge”). Wasting no opportunity to chat with women, he tried to sweet talk a pair of cute hostess girls walking out of a convenience store. The girls said they were waiting for their hosts to pick them up and escort them to their favorite club. Within minutes, Jules had them giggling and hanging off him, and when the two hosts showed up and saw him in action, they immediately offered him a job at their upscale club. He started work that morning.

The Dark Side of the Glamour

In reality, hosting isn’t that glamorous. But I love it, so it’s glamorous to me.

– Jules

Despite his youthful enthusiasm for his job, his face shows lines that would peg him as older than his 23 years. All the chain smoking, hard drinking and long hours have taken their toll. “It’s hard though.” He says. “It’s not regular work. We’re selling our energy and our livelihood. We’re selling our thoughts and our feelings; our insight and our advice.”

Because the host’s salaries are based on how much alcohol they can drink each night, the job has its obvious downsides – one of them alcohol abuse. “These hosts, they can drink so much. We’re just like big, walking barrels of gallons and gallons of alcohol. So girls think they’ll get another bottle and another bottle, and they think they can get us drunk, but they are mistaken. We can go on for hours… But we never let them see us puking or acting so drunk that we can’t talk. We do act drunk … to show them what we do for them. Like the girl buys a couple bottles, and we’re like, oh, you made me so drunk, I don’t know if I can handle anymore… But really we could be pretty sober.”

Because the commission is tied to how much they drink, some hosts drink so much that they develop a routine of forcing themselves to throw up in the restroom between customers. Jules says he himself might do it once a night on the weekdays, but the much busier nights on the weekends, he says up to three or four times each night.

I ask him the obvious question of whether he thinks the binge drinking has affected his health. “Oh, absolutely. My stomach is fucked.” Most hosts start when they’re just a little over twenty, and usually burn out after less than two years. “There was a 34 year old host I knew, and he was like, top of the clubs, making tons of money, and he just wanted to get out of it. He was looking to start a normal life, I guess. I mean, you can’t do it forever. I’ve only been doing it for a year or so, and my stomach is torn to hell.”

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Stay tuned for part 3 next of Jules’ story next Sunday…  (I only have internet on Sundays — long story.)

If you liked this story, you might enjoy another story I wrote about Jules’ run-in with the Japanese mafia.