CLUBBIN' IT Drinking in the delights of men By MASAMI ITO

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The Japan Times, Jan 12, 2003

At Club Gigolo, Misaki (right) and Hideki (center) serve our reporter a drink.

For the first time in my life I was headed for a host club — primed to interview hosts. Hopefully, too, I'd also be able to satisfy a personal, long-standing curiosity about why women are attracted to them. So it was that I eagerly entered Club Gigolo.

I at once found myself face to face with my first prey (or predators?) — Hideki Aso, Misaki Kanzaki and Kaoru, three of the club's 50 staffers.

These men exuded an air of confidence, and each was dressed to kill. As we sat down and I got out a cigarette, Misaki (hosts usually go by first names) whipped out his Zippo, flipped open the top and lit it all in one graceful movement. I crossed my legs and smoked while the men scurried about, setting the table with a bottle of Jinro shochu, ice and water. Reversed roles; I loved it.

"Though most of our customers are night people like us," said Hideki, "this job also gives us an opportunity to meet celebrities and company executives — people who you'd never ordinarily come across."

At this point, a loud voice suddenly came over the speaker system calling all the hosts to gather together. Apparently, it was Misaki's customer "Mika's" birthday and she had ordered Veuve Clicquot Champagne at ¥45,000 a bottle. Surrounding her, the hosts began to chug down her bubbly while chanting congratulations and thank yous

For those who imagine that host clubs have a romantic, cocktail-lounge ambience, this, by all accounts, is much more their style: chug, chug, chug, not dissimilar to a students' drinking party in an izakaya. The difference is that in a host club you have lots of attractive men fawning all over you.

With pastel walls and gorgeous flower arrangements giving the club a feminine touch (and, of course, those good-looking men), it's no wonder that Mika and so many other women adore Gigolo. And it certainly didn't pick its name out of a hat. Being the top three hosts, Hideki, Misaki and Kaoru see to it that Gigolo lives up to its name.

"I was given a Toyota Celsior by a customer," said 29-year-old Hideki.

"I was 19 when I received a Jaguar," said Misaki, 27

But the one who topped it all was 25-year-old Kaoru — who was presented with an apartment in Tokyo.

"I accepted it graciously, but sold it pretty quickly," he said — "because I didn't want to be kept by her."

Being a host also gives them another opportunity — making connections. In Misaki's case, it led him to meet sponsors who helped him to fund side businesses.

"This job as a host is only a step in my life," says Misaki. "I sell my talent at host clubs and these sponsors buy it. With the help of these sponsors, I used to run a bar and a couple of host clubs."

However, gifts and connections are just the perks of a job that earns successful hosts millions of yen a month. To make that kind of money, though, they have to be high in the club's league table. And getting there is definitely not as easy as it may seem

Like a regular company, each host club has a hierarchy — from the president and manager down to the ordinary rank-and-file. At present, Hideki is daihyo torishimariyaku (president), Misaki torishimariyaku (director), and Kaoru is bucho (manager) at Gigolo. All new hosts start at the very bottom, and from there have to struggle up — if they can.

"In the beginning, I made less than ¥100,000 a month," said Misaki. "I even used my own mother sometimes, introducing her to my customers so they felt closer to me."

Yet, what keeps them going is their dream to reach the top and make tons of money. On the wall at the entrance of Gigolo, photographs of the top 15 hosts are hung in order, ranked by last month's sales.

"In a way, each host is a private company," Misaki said. "We are the commodities and we are just borrowing this space [at the club] to display ourselves. If we succeed, our sales lead directly to our salaries."

Once they have captured the heart of a customer, they explained, the trick is to maintain that relationship with her. Before business hours, they meet their customers and have dinner or go out for a drink, and then go to the club together. This system is called dohan, and the higher a host is in the pecking order, the later he's allowed to turn up at the club. Top hosts like Hideki, Misaki and Kaoru typically get there around 3 or 4 a.m. at the earliest.

Although there is no rule against it, the one thing the hosts usually do not do is have sex with their customers.

"Before, sex used to be a part of the job as a host," Misaki said. "But not anymore. In order to survive in this industry nowadays, people, both men and women, have to like you for your personality, not your sexuality."

By the time our conversation had got round to sex, it was nearly 4 a.m. — the start of rush hour at host clubs — and time for Hideki, Misaki and Kaoru to go and greet their customers. As for me, I headed over to Club Feiz, another host club in the middle of Kabukicho, wondering what other surprises were in store for me that night.

Many more, I was to find out.

At Feiz (slogan: "Phase in the new side of you"), I met Yusuke Sawamura, the director and its top host. Astonishingly, Yusuke is a 22-year-old student at Hosei University, majoring in economics.

"Because I work as a host, I learn many things that you couldn't at school," said Yusuke. "At school, they only teach you the big picture of the economy, but here I'm learning about how to run a company and how to spend the money on it."

Being a full-time host and student is definitely difficult. Hosts say that the only time they are not working is while they are sleeping. Yusuke could have chosen this job after graduating from university, but he didn't. He entered this world when he was 18.

"I am glad I became a host at an early age because I got to know how the society works before other regular students," says Yusuke. "These students have no sense of responsibility and they are indulgent."

With good looks, money and education, Yusuke seems to have it all. There is, however, one thing missing from his life — a girlfriend.

"With this job, it is very difficult to have a love life," he said. "I used to have a girlfriend, but she got really jealous and it just didn't work out. Right now, my job is more important than love."

That job is not just about drinking and chatting with the customers, and it takes a great deal of professionalism and determination to succeed, Ryusei, the 28-year-old president of Feiz was keen to explain. "Nine out of 10 people quit after three months," he said. "Most people think that making money as a host is easy, but it isn't. We are entertaining customers, many of whom are themselves professionals in the service industry."

However, for the tiny minority who make the grade — or even the superstars with dozens of high-rolling customers assigned to them alone — the working life of a host is very short.

"A host is like an idol or a sportsman," said Ryusei. "You need to be young because, as well as good looks, this job requires strength and stamina to keep the hours and do all the drinking we have to. A host's job is high-risk with high returns, but as you get older the risk remains while the returns go downhill."

Ryusei, unlike other hosts, runs a daytime business as well. Gentilezza, which he founded in 1998, is an event-management company, doing everything from flower arrangements to balloon decorations. Many of its clients are, naturally enough, host clubs.

"In order to keep these two businesses running, I have a trick," says Ryusei. "I can fall asleep anytime, anywhere in 30 seconds. So I often sleep for a few hours in the morning, and a few hours in the evening."

Meanwhile, for other hosts, every minute they spend hustling is one less minute they have to learn about the outside, "real" world. Even were they to become No. 1 in the host world, all the men agree that it is unlikely they would enjoy similar success in another business, simply because the club is all they know

It was past 7 a.m. by the time I finished my mission. Looking back, I realized that I had honestly enjoyed talking to these hosts. They are good conversationalists, attractive — and know how to take a risk. Being surrounded by them is not a bad way to spend an evening at all, I thought. Shame about the price tag!

Shukan ST: Aug. 10, 2004

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