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.

Very good documentary, in my opinion.

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. ^^

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.

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.

‘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..