Hostesses in Japan: byproducts of sexism and economic downturn

December 1, 1:34 PM

Norfolk Human Rights Examiner

Youngbee Kim

Japanese women find their career success in hostessing, which they are not able to find in any other career fields. Many salary men visit hostessing bars at night to hang out with the hostesses. A hostess entertains her customers by keeping them in company, talking to them, boosting their ego, and flirting with them. While more and more Japanese population is accepting hostessing as a legitimate career, no one seems to realize the flaws in the phenomenon.

RIE SAITO

Meet Rie Saito. She is a 25 years old Japanese woman who became the best hostess in the Japanese sex industry. Japanese media appplauds her accomplishment in becoming the best hostess in the country despite of her hearing impairment. Saito wrote an authobiography of her life as a hostess, which became the best seller in Japan. The popularity of her book further carried its reputation when the TBS channel in Japan decide to produce a show based on Saito's life story in the sex industry.

ERI MOMOKA

Meet Eri Momoka, another accomplished Japanese woman who turned her hostess career into the glamorous fashion design business for hostess clothing. To many Japanese young females, Eri's is considered as Cinderella in modern day Japan. She also is a single mom, but the publicity is on her side. She even has her own TV show. [1] Eri told NY TIMES that she gets fan mails from elementary school girls saying that they want to be like her. [2]

What exactly is hostessing?

A website on Japanese contemporary culture describes hostessing as a modern day geisha system in Japan. [1] Another website describe the duties of a hostess as, luring male customers to spend lots of money on drinking and food, Singing in front of them with a karaoke machine, slow-dance with a customer, serving them, and flirting with them to boost their ego. [2] Another hostess recruit website states that an applicant must be in the age between 18 and 24 and have nice body and pretty face. [3] In short, a hostess's job is to be her customer's mistress or a girlfriend for a night. Though sex is not required as part of the job description, many suffer from alcoholism. [4]

Popularity of hostessing career is sky-rocketing among young Japanese females

As Eri Momoka told NYTimes, some girls consider a hostess as a modern day princess. The economic downturn and the scarcity of job opportunities also direct many young Japanese women to hostessing careers. According to the NY report, one can make $20 per hour even for the very low end of hostessing career, which is twice more than how much most part time jobs pay. [5] Further, a hostessing job can easily pay $100,000 a year, and as much as $300,000 per year for the biggest star.[6]

What is wrong with this picture?

One can argue that if it makes a girl happy, she should jump into the hostessing career. After all, she does not have much of choice in terms of job opportunities. However, consider the fundamental assmption behind the success of a Japanese woman as a hostess. Her success is defined by how much of entertainment she can be to male populations. Her weight, beauty, singing skill, as well as how much she can amuse men to sell drinks and food, therefore, determine her selfworth. A hostess can argue that she chose her career because of the difficulty to get a job as a woman in Japan. Certainly, the Japanese government's failure to provide an equal opportunity for women to enter into any career fields is blameworthy. However, as long as women in Japan show their contentment with the current situation, their difficulty to get a proper job and compensated justifably willl remain as problems for them and their daughters in the future. Further, unless they fight for their own rights to be treated the same as men in working environment, the government has absolutely no reason to change the hostile work environment for women.

A hostess is not only placing herself in the deeper trap of sexism in Japan but also calling next female generations into the same place by glamerizing their success. A hero because she became a number one hostess with her disability? How about campainging for her rights to be employed and treated as the same as anyone else in the career fields that she wants to be and qualifies to be in despite of her disablity?