Tokyo | Sat June 8, 2024
Yu felt a rush of excitement as she walked into his bar for the first time – eager to meet the charming young host she’d been following for years online.
They had a conversation over champagne on that chilly January night of last year, which was the first of many encounters that would quickly lead to Yu falling in love.
Yu, 41, a clinician and mother of two who had been divorced, quickly started spending every free moment at the bar in Tokyo’s main red-light district, where they would spend hundreds of dollars on alcoholic beverages that were highly marked up.
In exchange, he lavished Yu with love and tiny gifts, joined her in celebrating her birthday, and even made a promise to get her a ring.
He told her, “You are my girlfriend,” according to Yu, who CNN is using a pseudonym to preserve her anonymity. “I gave him credit.”
Yu claims that the attractive, twentysomething host pushed her to run up a bar tab, which swiftly got out of hand.
Everything changed when her money ran out.
Yu owed the bar 25 million yen, or roughly $165,000, and had no way to pay it. So he promised to take care of the obligation. She would now have to pay him back, and the only way she could get the money was through prostitution.
According to experts who spoke with CNN, Yu is only one of hundreds of women who were forced to sell their bodies after visiting Japan’s alleged “host clubs.”
Lonely women can find male companionship at almost 300 of these establishments located in Tokyo’s neon-lit Kabukicho area.
While not all hosts take advantage of their female patrons, critics claim that the industry’s lax regulations have allowed abuse to grow and authorities claim that certain clubs are connected to organized crime.
Anybody over the age of 18 is allowed entry into the clubs under present legislation, and attempts by legislators to enact more robust safeguards have not succeeded thus far.
After Covid limits were lifted in 2023, cases of excessive debt, exploitation, and sex trafficking increased, according to activists. This was because women were flocking to host clubs after years of company closures and seclusion.
According to national broadcaster NHK, Tokyo police detained 140 persons last year for allegedly engaging in prostitution in Kabukicho, a threefold rise from the previous year. NHK said that 40% of those arrested admitted to authorities that they were asking to be paid back for debts accumulated at host clubs.
Authorities established victim hotlines and detained hosts for allegedly pressuring indebted clients into prostitution as a result of the rise in these occurrences.
When Tokyo police visited 176 host clubs in Kabukicho in December, NHK claimed that they discovered 75% of the establishments to have violated the law, primarily for hiding menus and failing to prominently display alcohol prices.
Ayaka Shiomura, a member of Japan’s upper house of parliament, described it as essentially a romantic scam. She has tried in vain to improve protections against exploitative host clubs.
“These hosts have fooled some of these women into believing they are their partners. It’s a terrible, horrible circle.
The price of love
Many victims start that cycle online, particularly on social media, where hosts amassed a following after being forced to close their clubs due to epidemic limitations.
The 28-year-old host Mikami Rui has been in the business for ten years, and over the most of that time, he claims the clubs were little known. However, he added, “awareness is spreading in Japan” as a result of hosts “working very hard to become more visible” on websites like X, TikTok, and Instagram.
He acknowledges that he has convinced women to spend much more than they can afford, even though he maintains that he has never coerced a client into prostitution.
He now asserts, “I entertain women without putting financial pressure on them. I only buy what they can manage.
In order to lure potential patrons to the clubs, hosts use these applications to find and flirt with them, according to Hidemori Gen, a Tokyo-based advocate who offers victims of gang and sexual assault a drop-in consultation service.
According to Gen, hosts frequently prey on impressionable young ladies, depleting their finances before forcing them into prostitution as a way of paying off their bar bills.
Before attending his club, Yu had been watching the host’s YouTube videos for two years; that initial encounter set the stage for a one-sided relationship based on broken promises.
Yu went back to the club after that night when he reached out to meet her again. Before long, she said that he was showing her special attention “over other girls” at hookah bars and restaurants. He mentioned visiting the sites she desired to see, such as Okinawa, a well-known island in Japan, or Disneyland.
According to Shiomura, a member of the national assembly, victims—some of whom are as young as 18—often mistakenly think the hosts are their lovers because of this kind of special care.
In order to build intimacy, hosts may have sex with their patrons “early on,” exchanging sentiments like “I love you” and “let’s get married.” Some have even gone so far as to meet the women’s parents, according to the source.
Yu kept accruing debt that she was unable to pay.
In order to draw in new patrons, host clubs frequently offer huge discounts. However, once people get hooked, the prices skyrocket, with some bottles of booze costing as much as $6,000.
Additionally, a lot of hosts urge their guests to leave their bar tab open for weeks on end, which is how debt can quickly spiral out of control.
Yu suggested, “Go abroad for sex work.” He said, “How are you going to pay me back?” and when I replied that I didn’t know, he responded.
“I was unwilling to. He claimed, however, that it was the only option and that I could earn 8 million yen, or around $53,000, per month.
Yu started working as a prostitute in Japan and the Chinese territory of Macao and Hong Kong after becoming desperate and losing all of her cash. She claimed that she didn’t feel like she had an option.
We put in over 10-hour stints. There was a show every hour, and I got picked and then bought. “Seeing about 100 girls, including myself, be bought made me really sad,” the girl remarked.
“I believed it would be simpler to pass away when my body was worn out or I felt feeble. I gave that a lot of thinking.
She was so overcome with self-loathing and rage that she chose not to disclose her situation to friends or relatives.
According to legislator Shiomura, many women still want to support and see the hosts as their boyfriends even when they are being taken advantage of.
“I think it tells you how this mind control runs deep,” she said.
No regulations, no relief
According to Gen, who oversees the abuse victims’ consulting service, the number of cases similar to Yu’s has increased fivefold in the last year alone.
“Consultations about host clubs increased dramatically last spring when we emerged from the pandemic and the masks came off,” he stated.
Laws also follow the spike in instances, which permits unscrupulous host clubs to carry on with their dubious activities.
In parliament, Shiomura put out a measure last year that demanded government inquiries, public awareness campaigns, counseling services, and help finding jobs for victims. The bill was opposed by the ruling party and did not pass. Some of the detractors claimed that it was the fault of the female patrons to attend the host clubs and spend carelessly.
Thus, self-regulation is mostly the responsibility of hosts and host clubs, some of whom have made this commitment. Since April, over a dozen host club owners in Tokyo, each with multiple locations, have declared that they will not allow women under the legal drinking age of 20 inside their establishments and will stop patrons from accruing enormous debts.
The host, Rui, praised the action, stating that establishments that violate the regulations ought to close.
However, there are many more clubs than only those run by the 13 operators who have promised to abide by the new self-imposed regulations; additionally, there is no similar commitment made at the national level. Shiomura expressed skepticism about teams fulfilling their commitments even in Tokyo, threatening to resubmit the law that had been rejected if the issue persisted.
Many claim that it is the woman’s accountability for herself. But I’d never dare imagine that,” she remarked. “I believe there is an issue with Japanese society that regards these young women’s bodies—who are in their teens and 20s—as commodities.”
Furthermore, those whose lives have already been turned upside down find little solace.
Yu claims that after repaying the majority of her debt, the host released her, but they are no longer together. She still feels stuck, though, with a lot of credit card debt and expenses to pay.
I’m unable to afford to stop working as a prostitute, so I continue. This task is not what I want to do. Yu remarked, “I feel like I’m going to fall apart.”
“I am at my lowest point. I’m not sure whether I can make a fresh start.
