Japan’s silver-tongued Lotharios sell dreams to lonely women
tokyo — Cigarette smoke hangs thick in the air of a Tokyo nightspot as Aki Nitta sips drink with a trio of sweet-talking Lotharios peddling fake love at premium rates.
In a country which has lost its mojo, many wealthy women spend eye-watering sums on male hosts in return for an evening of sweet talk, flirting — and often sex.
“I want my heart to flutter,” Nitta told reporters at a popular club in the Kabukicho red-light district lined with chrome and mirrors.
“Japanese men aren’t very attentive and don’t show their feelings, but hosts treat you like a princess. I want to be pampered and I don’t care how much it costs,” she adds.
The 27-year-old businesswoman from Nagoya, spends around $10,000 a month on the object of her desire — a faintly androgynous beau with bleached hair and a boyish grin. But some big-spenders splurge over $100,000 in a single night to have their egos stroked by smooth-talking rental Romeos who themselves can earn five times that amount in a good month.
There are a growing number of wealthy and successful Japanese women that have become frustrated with traditional dating and instead prefer to focus their romantic energies somewhere they are guaranteed to be treated well.
“I’m paying for time, rather than men,” explained Nitta. “Time is more important to me so I want to live for now, without any regrets.”
Many women — ranging from 20-somethings to those in their sixties — lavish expensive gifts on their favourite hosts, buying them diamond watches, luxury cars, even apartments.
“When I was 20 a customer bought me a Porsche,” said former host Sho Takami, who owns a chain of clubs and likens a host’s role to that of a psychiatrist, with benefits.
“It’s a 24-hour job,” insisted the 43-year-old after arriving for work in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce.
“Our real work starts after hours — going for drinks with customers, crawling into bed at 9am, meeting another one for lunch,” added Takami, who is set to open a host club in Las Vegas next year.
“It’s important the customer believes there’s a chance of love. After all that’s how you get her to come to the club and spend money,” Takami explained.
Host clubs are a $10 billion industry in Japan with some 800 venues nationwide.
Around 260 of those are located in Tokyo, most squeezed into Kabukicho’s narrow streets where flickering neon signs display the air-brushed faces of hosts outside clubs with names such as Romeo, Gatsby and Avalon. —