Check out this interesting round up of responses to the controversial New York Times article on Japan's hostess culture. In the original article, the following phenomenon was explored:
with that line of work, called hostessing, among the most lucrative jobs available to women and with the country neck-deep in a recession, hostess positions are increasingly coveted, and hostesses themselves are gaining respectability and even acclaim. Japan's worst recession since World War II is changing mores.
It would be easy to say that the downturn economy has done these young women a favor by destigmatizing their work, and therefore, allowing them to earn a living without the previously requisite shame. But the economic reality reveals a far less simplistic picture:
But behind this trend is a less-than-glamorous reality. Employment opportunities for young women, especially those with no college education, are often limited to low-paying, dead-end jobs or temp positions...Even before the economic downturn, almost 70 percent of women ages 20 to 24 worked jobs with few benefits and little job security, according to a government labor survey. The situation has worsened in the recession.
Aya Ezawa, a sociology lecturer in the Japanese Studies Program at Leiden University in the Netherlands, seems to have hit one of the major missing points smack on the head:
At a time of economic downturn, it is worrisome that the media in Japan and abroad portray hostessing as a glamorous job and a woman's road to success. Instead of focusing on the hostesses, it would make more sense to examine the attitudes of the men who are willing to pay a high price for being entertained, served, and pleased by women with short skirts and heavy makeup.
And, of course, I would add, expanding economic opportunities, especially for young and low-income women so that they can make a true choice about being involved in hostess work or doing other kinds of work that more genuinely match their interests and gifts.
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"expanding economic opportunities" is a very distant memory in Japan, for everyone.
As long as Japan keeps the attitude and system that mothers should stay at home, and that men need to put their company before their family, this inequality will persist.
This is changing. Slowly, but it is.
When I was teaching English in Japan, an older salaryman in one of my classes asked a younger woman who was studying to be a doctor if she was going to quit when she got married.
Her response was the same as mine would have been: No, why would I?
I taught English over there too. ^_^
Things are changing....although I wonder how different the younger peeps really are....especially if the system isn't changing. Something might eventually have to crack, and it's not going to be pretty.
Ironically, it was the last Japanese recession lasting from about 1991 to 2001, particularly the later years, which prompted many to question the values of a society which assumed people would remain loyal to their employers, in exchange for an ideal of lifetime employment. When even top level companies such as National/Panasonic, which had a no layoff policy since the 1930s, was willing to cut workers loose for its own survival, many people became more willing to look out for their own interests, and what they wanted out of life and work.
BTW, WTF? "the United States is one of only five countries out of 173 that does not guarantee some form of paid maternity leave. (The other countries are Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-life_balance
"it would make more sense to examine the attitudes of the men who are willing to pay a high price for being entertained, served, and pleased by women with short skirts and heavy makeup."
Sounds like Hooters, to me.
im sure these hostesses arent only serving men
I'm gonna say that by and large the clientele for the average hostess bar, cabaret club, or "snack" is male. It would be very, very rare to see a woman in one of those.
There are equivalent establishments for women, where young men serve them alcohol and so on, but the clientele are mostly older women ... and ... (wait for it) ... hostesses.
And just to add, host bars are not nearly as prevalent or popular as hostess bars/kyabakura/snakku. Because women aren't as eager to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars (or tens of thousands of yen if you prefer) on male company. Hostesses just do it because they want someone to make THEM feel good after they spend all their time making other people feel good.
It's a curious question ... why are so many men so willing to spend so much on women, but not the other way around? It's certainly interesting. Although admittedly, a lot of business is done in hostess bars, so sometimes the guy isn't paying at all. The company expense account is.
I think you need to read the recent feministing community posting about male hosts in Japan and how women are spending thousands of dollars on them and ruining their primary relationships, etc. just to be with them. Reading that article makes it sound like there are at least as many female clients as male (though I actually doubt this).
Regardless it definitely does happen with both sexes, and more frequently then you might think.
That would be from me, about the documentary "The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief," which is at the same time a sympathetic yet unflattering picture of male hosts at one popular club, and select female customers who themselves all happen to be hostesses or exclusive sex workers.
http://community.feministing.com/2009/08/japan-male-hosts-and-female-cu.html
Important caveat: Host clubs are a rarity compared to hostess clubs. Even within owner/top host Issei's club Rakkyo of 20 employees, there are those making no more than the minimum of $2,000, and his manager claims maybe one man out of a hundred can last a year despite their desire to earn large amounts of money. Even owner/top host Issei casually relates how he can easily consume ten bottles of champagne per night (minimum cost to customer: $250 per bottle) in a cycle of drink/vomit, drink/vomit (not in front of customers, of course), in his efforts to please or entertain his customers. The only thing I envy hosts and hostesses, is the money it is possible to make, during their short careers. Losing oneself in the false adopted persona, as even owner/top host Issei admits to (also see how he claims his experiences with needy, manipulative customers have basically turned him against all women), is not something I would be willing to do, even on Issei's $30-50,000 per month hosting income (on top of an unknown level of club owner's income). One of his club's customers, a hostess, earns $100,000 per month (there can be much more), but you might prefer your own job, as well, after a few minutes look into their world.
My take is, since many women and women workers in Japan are viewed as disposable after age 25 or 30 (see: office lady, part-timer or freeter), and almost certainly after they are married UNLESS they have a secure or high status position such as yes, doctor, or public school teacher; some unsurprisingly take advantage of the commodity of youth they possess to try making a lot of money while they can.
Ah, correction, the Rakkyo customer makes "only" $10,000 per month, not $100,000. Like I posted elsewhere, it's possible for top hosts to make much more than top hostesses, because of the nature of hosts' clientele (likely hostesses and other night workers dumping days, even months' worth of income in a single visit - Issei claims he once got $40,000 in one day, and I've heard much more).
I do not have the source, but one day while perusing the Asian section of the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Hamilton Library of Graduate Studies, I came across either a book about hostessing, or a section of a book which pertained to hostessing. It was either that, or some book I was reading about looking for work in Japan, back in the early 1990s, when the Japanese economy was booming.
In it was the allegedly true tale of a very young Australian woman who became a hostess in an international club. She died after an accident in her Ferrari. In her bank account, they discovered 200 million yen, about $2.2 million US nowadays. IIRC, she had been a hostess for only a couple of years.
I think you need to read the recent feministing community posting about male hosts in Japan and how women are spending thousands of dollars on them and ruining their primary relationships, etc. just to be with them. Reading that article makes it sound like there are at least as many female clients as male (though I actually doubt this).
Regardless it definitely does happen with both sexes, and more frequently then you might think.
Because women are smarter than men?? JK
Well, ok, not completely joking. I've been to a host bar and maid cafe....they sound awesome, but I think their pretty stupid.
Women are probably more likely to get their kicks by buying stuff----getting their husbands to buy them expensive bags.
I guess I'm one academic and sociologist going to disagree that a better question is about who the men are. I think there's been a shift in the literature on sex work and similar fields toward the demand side of the equation, which I think is some sort of odd attempt at parity or perhaps less "victim blaming". I haven't worked out my thought process and proper phrasing of that just yet.
To me, a better question is: what are the labor rights situations for hostesses? How are they treated by management? How much of their earnings do they get to keep? What are their job prospects if and when they choose to leave hostessing? In other sex work areas (if you can even call hostessing sex work, but I guess it is the sale of an "erotic experience), there has been a lot of focus on the workers (why do they do it?!), the purchasers (why do they do it?!, are they normal or freaks?!), and less about the labor conditions. For example, strip clubs in the US are notorious for labor rights abuses. I'm not saying dancing and hostessing are analogous, but I can see the parallels.
You will find quite a bit available online. Unfortunately, what you are going to see most readily available in English, will likely be the words and experiences of foreigners who have worked as hostesses, rather than translations of the words and experiences of Japanese women. While very similar fundamentally, most places that would hire foreigners, even if they are caucasian from Oceania, North America, or Western Europe ("desirable" foreigners), are not the top class clubs. You also see things through the cultural lens of a Westerner, even if factually accurate.
But to generalize: we are talking about an industry in which youth, beauty, personality, and other aspects of womanhood or oneself are commodities; in what remains a largely traditional and patriarchal society and culture. Conditions are poor. Career longevity is poor. Work opportunities for women in particular, beyond a certain age, are poorer than for those fresh out of school or with fresh qualifications.
You will find quite a bit available online. Unfortunately, what you are going to see most readily available in English, will likely be the words and experiences of foreigners who have worked as hostesses, rather than translations of the words and experiences of Japanese women. While very similar fundamentally, most places that would hire foreigners, even if they are caucasian from Oceania, North America, or Western Europe ("desirable" foreigners), are not the top class clubs. You also see things through the cultural lens of a Westerner, even if factually accurate.
But to generalize: we are talking about an industry in which youth, beauty, personality, and other aspects of womanhood or oneself are commodities; in what remains a largely traditional and patriarchal society and culture. Conditions are poor. Career longevity is poor. Work opportunities for women in particular, beyond a certain age, are poorer than for those fresh out of school or with fresh qualifications.
Is it just me or is the Western media completely hating on Japan?
Where's the good news? All I see is this one-sided 2D view of Japan. I know they aren't perfect, but neither are we.
I still remember when Sailor Moon got censored in the US. Instead of Sailor Uranus and Neptune being a lesbian couple, they were cousins. Some episodes and manga were either mistranslated/dubbed, or just wiped out. The last season was never released here, due the trans-nature of the new characters.
As a kid growing up in the 90s. I loved the show because there wasn't anything else like it. If it wasn't here, I'd probably be stuck with watching DragonBallZ (worst anime ever) with my brother. I was disappointed later how censored the franchise was when it came here.
"Is it just me or is the Western media completely hating on Japan?"
Isn't Japan weird? news has been around since the 19th century at least. The New York Times is known for it, and former Tokyo bureau chief Nicholas Kristof was well known for articles he wrote about life in Japan.
"Where's the good news?"
If you do not read Japanese, you can read English language Japanese news. However, English language news is aimed at foreigners as well as multilingual Japanese, so there is a good deal of Isn't Japan weird? news there as well. Try searching the terms news japan.
http://www.newsonjapan.com/
looks like a good, digest site, with links to Japanese major news services, in English. See their lefthand margin for many more links. Pink Tentacle is a safe for work site.