Truth about host clubs - The Great Happiness Space
I’m sure many of us are familiar with the concept of the “host club.” In fact, many people should be somewhat familiar, especially with the finishing of the recent comedy anime “Ouran Koukou Host Club.” Have any of you ever wondered what a real host club was like though?
Recently, I saw a film/documentary by the name of The Great Happiness Space, which gives the viewer a insider view of how the many male host clubs in Japan truly operate. Boy, was I surprised. I knew that the reality of the host club was no fun and games a ‘la Ouran, but the truth was pretty eye-opening.
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In The Great Happiness Space, we are taken in by one of the (not sure if they are #1) most popular male host clubs in Osaka, Japan. The club name is “Rakkyo,” and the owner, Issei, prefers to call his club a “pub/cafe.” Common knowledge dictates that their occupation is to entertain various women clientele and that very base fact is shown to be true.
I found the entire documentary to be very down to earth and real for the viewer. Throughout the film, there are lots of one-on-one interviews with various employees as well as members that really does shed some light on the subject. Not only that, the interviews do not attempt to censor or sugarcoat anything. I found the many interviews of Issei to be of particular interest, as he revealed many different things.
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For example… He has sex with practically 365 women a year. He drinks about 10 bottles of wine a day (but throws up so much that sometimes, blood comes out). The lowest earning member makes as much as a normal business salaryman does per day of work (some make as much as 30000 per month). The women he serves annoy him to the edge sometimes. Etc etc.
What was even more astounding were the interviews with the customers that made me want to slap them in the face, lol. The customers spend thousands and thousands on these guys everyday and idolize them to the point of resorting to more shameful (in my opinion) methods of earning money. In fact, most of the women who attend such host clubs are prostitutes, cabaret, and host club workers themselves! How ironic is that? Many of the women were originally not prostitutes, but resorted to it as a method of paying for their host club lifestyle.
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And ironically, they end up depending on the host club members for emotional support/healing from their the job that they started to pay for the host club in the first place. It’s a vicious and unfortunate cycle that they have hit.
While watching this, I must say, I had mixed feelings about all the people participating in this exchange. In regards to the host club employees, I find their line of work to be something that I cannot respect. Sure, it’s good to cheer customers up and give them a good time, but most if not all of the interactions involve false emotions and senses of love. The customers adore the host club members, and as a result, resort to prostitution and defiling themselves only to throw the thousands they make back at the host club employees.
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In contrast, I also occasionally feel some odd sense of sympathy for the employees since they seem to be stuck in an endless loop as well. The guys all seem to want a real relationship, but have no time to pursue one. Sometimes I wonder what time they have to use the tons of money that they earn. Sure, you can make a million dollars per month, but if you work from 1pm to 7am, what time do you have to spend your hard earned money? In addition, the years of providing this “acting” service and dealing with women non-stop has scarred their personalities as well. For example, Issei talks about how sometimes he isn’t even sure which personality is the real him.
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I highly recommend this documentary to those who have been somewhat interested in it. I thought that it would be a monotonous and boring watch, but surprisingly found myself intrigued by the realities that it presented. It will be an intriguing look in a separate society that is often overlooked by the outside world.
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Oh my… This is host club reality? Egads.
Such a scary and senseless cycle x_X And the subs on that last photo, it really slams the reality on your face.
On a lighter note…
I think I’ll just stick to the Ouran Host Club XDDD
Guess I should cross that one out of my Top 3 desired professions.
I’m really interested in this documentary.
I wonder where I could find it…
:3
Host clubs are just a prettier name for male prostitution, so that’s no surprise. The major difference between male and female prostituition is of course that guys only care about the look and the fuck and girls want more of an emotional bonding, so hosts clubs are more glorified.
Really, nothing surprising here, but I think it would make an interesting watch, if I can find it.
*edited by request of film maker*
Sorry, dandan ^^
Haha I saw the billboard of a host club when I was in Shinjuku. Pretty surprised by it
wahahaha, i don’t think aezie will ever see host clubs in the same way anymore =/
*edited by request of film maker*
It’s really quite ironic that the girls turn to prostitution to sustain their host clubbing -_-
‘Host clubs are just a prettier name for male prostitution, so that’s no surprise.’
Incorrect, hosting is not prostitution.
‘The major difference between male and female prostituition is of course that guys only care about the look and the fuck and girls want more of an emotional bonding, so hosts clubs are more glorified.’
The equivalent of Host CLubs is Hostess Clubs… It is the *same* thing as Host Clubs… And no, it is not prostitution either…
Hosts and Hostesses are like Geisha, they are misunderstood by foreigners to be prostitutes.
Here is a message that explains more in detail.
It’s incorrect to equate Host Clubs with prostitution, go read this page:
http://www.pripix.com/features/hosts.htm
There are Hosts who don’t sleep with their clients.
———–
‘Yet a night at a host club isn’t always innocent. There is the promise in seedier clubs - sometimes fulfilled - of sex.
Officially, it is not part of the service, but it is no secret that hosts end up in bed with customers, although many try not to.
“The danger is that if you sleep with customers, they won’t come back to the club again, and that means losing a source of income,” says one Tokyo host.’
From http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1307365,00.html
———
From another page:
‘Takuya Sawamura, a gregarious, pink-haired host in Kobe, phones his top clients a few times a week, tags along on shopping trips and acts as their boyfriend at class reunions. He also provides sex. “It’s whatever the client wants,” he says. He isn’t paid cash for these favors, but the women thank him by racking up fat expenses at the club and lavishing him with pricey gifts.
“What we sell is not a thing,” Sawamura muses. “If they just wanted a drink, they could go to a liquor store. If they wanted sex, they could call a gigolo. What they want and we provide is caring. Kindness. The knowledge that someone is thinking of them.”‘
From: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,193635,00.html
————–
The same is true for Hostesses, they are not whores.
It’s true that Host Clubs are viewed in a better light than Hostess Clubs in Japan, but Hostess Clubs are not brothels either. It is normal that Host Clubs are considered more highly than prostitutes since they are not prostitutes. This has nothing to do with gender, because Hostess Clubs are more highly considered too than real prostitutes! The Hosting job wether its clients are males or females is not akin to prostitution, everyone knows that in Japan. It is probably true however there might be an element of sexism in the difference of treatment between Hosts and their female counterparts, Hostesses. Hosts are seen in a slightly more favorable light since the past few years, like Don Juans or Casanovas. That’s because since a few years ago the Japanese TV has been showing many TV shows about Host Clubs, dramas etc. also former Hosts have appeared on TV giving advice on how to seduce women etc.
Actually the sudden boost in popularity in the last few years of Host Clubs, whose clientele has expanded from rich women, Hostesses and prostitutes to college students, office ladies is mainly due to the media exposure.
———-
‘Celebrity and Public Attention
A few hosts are national celebrities – draped across magazine features, starring on prime time TV talk shows and publishing autobiographies. A host bar was even the setting for a popular TV drama – a pretty good barometer of mainstream acceptance. The industry pinup and “King of Hosts
As for prostitution, well there are hosts who force their indebted clients to turn to Hostess or prostitution jobs that’s true.
Also behind some of these clubs are the Yakuza, so imagine what can happen to girl who racks up debts with a Yakuza run cluba and can’t pay them… I don’t know if Yakuza own a lot of Host Clubs though… However it is very common for Clubs to have to pay protection money to the Yaks. Also there are clubs who try to lure in underage looking girls precisely because they’re HOPING these girls won’t have enough money to pay, then they can force them into prostitution… But this is not exclusive to Host Clubs, there are also men who end up heavily indebted because they spend all their money on Hostesses. However there are stories of Hosts being violent toward clients who can’t pay their debts.
Also not all clients of Host Clubs are Hostesses or prostitutes. During the past few years the number of women who work dayjobs and who attend these establishments has greatly increased due to media exposure which made Host Clubs seem less scary.
Often Host Clubs have two time shifts, one that starts in the afternoon I think and ends at midnight and the other is from midnight to the morning.
In the first shift which is from the afternoon to midnight, they get housewives, businesswomen, rich old ladies, office ladies (OL), college students… And after midnight, they get Hostesses and prostitutes. These women can only come at these hours because during the day they are working. They are also usually richer than the OL’s and students who comes during the day, so usually the top ranking Hosts only come at these hours and don’t ‘waste’ their time with ‘poor’ clients.
Wow, pretty eye opening stuff.
I just found an interview with the producer of the documentary. Here’s a sentence about sex and Hosts:
‘Q: How much is sex a part of this scene?
Iris: For the men who are hosting… it does happen. [Issei told us when he was starting out as a host], he did have sex a lot. He would jump in there and have sex, but then he loses clients: They would just leave because it was finished. [Hosts generally avoid sexual relationships so that clients will continue to come back and spend money on them.] It something that does occur in [host clubs], but it’s not the way that the hostesses have sex all the time… it’s more emotional, more like a psychological game.’
from http://www.cinematl.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=78&p=143
There is also other interesting stuff, such as the production made a deal with Issei to not release the film in Japan.
And also none of the female clients saw the film because they weren’t going to the club anymore when the film crew went back to show it to the guys.
Also there is a bit about Yakuza involvement who force the indebted girls to go into prostitution. I guess that must mean that Yakuza own some of these clubs? I know that clubs in Yakuza areas have to pay ‘protection money’. But apparently they own clubs too. And they put a low ranking Yakuza as an owner to act as decoy in case there are any problems with the Police for example. The guy risks himself because he can rise the ranks of Yakuza faster. Wonder what percentage of Host Clubs are owned by Yakuza… So I guess frequenting Host Clubs can be even more dangerous than getting into prostitution, probably it can be life threatening if you don’t manage to repay your debt to the Yakuza… I wonder how many shady deaths of clients there are..
Your reaction to the occupation of the majority of the women clients is quite interesting because it’s been posited that host clubs, despite their popular image as servicing housewives with money to burn, have been created to get money back from the women in the sex/escort/host/”companionship” industry.
Marxy has a post (http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/2006/09/wake-up-to-the.html) on host clubs and the ensuing discussion in the comments is also enlightening.
I guess that really makes an enlightening aspect on the truth between anime and the real life situation. Of course, even in documentaries, it’s generally edited to suit the needs of the person who is doing the film, but the exchange of sex, even though not exactly mandatory, means that it does happen quite a bit.
I guess what you said exactly about the lure of sex and the usage of sex as a containing factor for their customers is so pessimistic yet so realistic. I can imagine why they are resistant toward sex.
On the issue of yakuza, I will think that any service with a sleazy alternative tends to have the backing of someone behind the scenes, and I will not be surprised if the most successful has the approval, if not the support of some of the biggest yakuza organizations in Japan. The thing is that you will never know about it, no matter how much you try to find out about it.
In all, some of the links have been excellent and I am glad that Mr Admin put up such an interesting article for me to learn a bit more about Japanese culture.
^_^;;; you never stop to learn as the author of that anime blog, it seems.
I’ve just gotten around to reading this entry now, and after reading the content and the comments, I’m actually speechless. (I usually have something to say :P)
This is quite an unfamiliar subject for me, thus, my lack of anything to say. And just like Impz and DJ, I’m glad that you posted this entry here and for the info and links which Hanratty provided. They’re really quite some revelations particularly for people like me. ^^
[...] a documentary on male hostesses in japan, “the great happiness space“. initially, i just thought that those people were crazy. patrons and hostesses alike. i was [...]
*edited*…can someone please help?
I just watched this documentary recently, and I really found the hosts and their customers to be both deplorable and pitiful. They are really working in an unfulfilling line of work that is tearing them apart as humans, yet they desperately want to understand who they are and have love. It’s kind of tragic, really.
Very good documentary, in my opinion.
i saw this some time ago its realy good & i’d like to see it again since i dident see all of it the first time round!
Wow, I really want to watch this! Do you know where I can get it besides on Veoh? Veoh’s not accessible in my country -_-”
I too watched this and kinda already had a background about what the Host business is about and the other ‘water business’ (red light district) of Japan. Pretty much Hosting is where you literally hang out with some pretty person/s in a posh seating area, socialize with them and feel like you are in some earnest form of relationship. And you pay in an hourly interval of sorts. Sex in a hosting business IS a killer; In the male host case, they lose a customer. In the female hostess, they can LOSE a successful hostess.
The females paying on the other hand do some form of prostitution, or as I like to say “special interest in fetishes”. One girl said she worked in a hand job bar, another in a soap land (both naked, but girl soaps herself up and washes male customer), and such. And I found it interesting how there was this cycle of one industry kinda supporting another. I mean its not like they were searching for women ‘in general’, but these high payers were their best customers.
But yeah it was really nice and an eye-opener in that niche little world.
i wanna watch this documentary, it’s kinda sad that they’re giving emotional & sometimes physical comfort to their customers. but the men themselves doesn’t get a chance to have real relationships of their own and instead just have weird girls with them every night…
Hiya, I read your review and was quite interested in the film. I watched it and want to write a review, I’d like to ask if it’s possible to use you’re screencaps for my blog. I only have a version were the subtitles are English and spanish. Since I don’t live in the US I can’t get the film over netflix. I’d credit you of course. Thanks for your reply.
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