Why Do So Many Japanese Girls Become Hostesses? | Street Interview

For anyone who doesn't get why this job is so popular...think of it like this. You're basically doing the job of a cashier (smiling for people you hate), except you get to drink on the job and you get paid 10x as much. Not to mention you may make friends with some wealthy people or celebrities.

The guy in the leather jacket looks like a hosto himself lol

Still an honest profession of earning an income , better than those online scammers out there

It’s cool that they have such a diverse group of people answering. More serious types, and more silly types, and that man 😂.

If you think that all they have to do is smile and sell you drinks, you are incredibly naive.

Just a two cent, it might be more insightful if you also include an interview with a hostess as a comparison on how things actually are versus what people perceive

Be around sleazy guys all the time, trying to touch you, flirt with you, making inappropriate comments, leering at you. The threat of stalking, you have to dress provocatively or revealing, you are pressured to drink large quantities of alcohol. These are some of the negatives I see.

When I was in Shibuya last year I was approached by two different men, giving me club cards to "recruit" me. I think that's probably a driving factor - more active recruitment to women who really never sought out the industry but become introduced to it. Anyways, I would never be able to be a hostess because I get drunk off kombucha lol

This was an interesting episode as it shows that younger Japanese ppl are not judgemental and have a very realistic view of life in the 21st century. It's a shame they were unable to actually interview some actual hosts or hostesses but I probably can find that elsewhere.

My girlfriend used to work at a girls bar during university and says there's basically no reason not to. Not only do you make more money and have less scheduling conflicts with uni classes, you also make contact with people in the higher rungs of society. Even now, 6 years later, she sometimes asks a lawyer she met at her girls bar job for advice. She says it was way easier than her current job at a real company. To be honest if I was female and young I would've worked at one, too. Hostess clubs seem a bit harder but the few times I've tried going to a girls bar it honestly seemed pretty relaxed.

Maybe it's just me but when the guy in the jacket, whose ex was a hostess, was talking about the job and why people do it, he must have been reminded about stuff he and his ex talked about when she told him that she was working as a hostess. As he was saying those words, I feel like he just finally began to understand what she said when they were having theirs talk/argument. And he might have a different appreciation for the situation. Maybe if there weren't any another problems, he might even call her again ...

Nice discussion keep up the good content 😎

Considering how bad wages are in Japan it's got to be so hard for a pretty young girl to refuse the offer to be a hostess.

It is not exactly surprising that popularity of hostessing would rise, with the wages low and stagnant almost everywhere else and with social media highlighting the glamorous side of the profession. This, of course, means that the downsides tend to go unseen: costs of constantly maintaining one's looks, competition, constant consumption of alcohol, abusive workplaces (guess which organised groups run most of the establishments), possibility of falling into spirals of debt (often to the organized groups running the business), etc. It's also both a bit amusing and a bit disheartening to hear how the older generation looks down on the profession and don't understand the younger generation's need to make more money - the arguments are exactly the same as they were in the previous generation, too.

Ive been to Japan twice and never been to a hostess club or bar but my buddy and I went to a lot of maid concept bars and they are so great! I get why men go to these bars to drink and enjoy the company of cute girls who are there to have fun as well. We had an abudent of genuine laughs and interesting stories with a lot of these girls.

It's cheap wages for the hard work of a regular day job in japan.

Hosts & hostesses jobs are negative. What is so great about them ? Drinking a whole lot of alcohol every day,staying out whole night, people touching you , commenting on you ? Its enough to drive you to depression.

Employ beautiful, happy people to make a venue more fun. I think this is a pretty common idea.

It's more accurate to understand Japanese hostesses as a more generalized and popularized version of VIP hostesses in the West. Particularly in areas like Ginza, they are quite similar, as they need to understand major newspaper articles daily and have a solid grasp of business topics, along with excellent customer service skills. On the other hand, casual establishments have more reasonable prices, but the value provided is relatively lower. Therefore, no matter how attractive someone is, it's practically difficult to start working in a high-end establishment right away. Places where scouts approach women on the street are typically more casual, and working there doesn't necessarily guarantee a high income. This is why 99% of women ignore scouts.

When I was in Tokyo on a business trip my male boss and his male business associate took us to a high end hostess bar. The women sat around us and told me how pretty I was and stuff, because it’s their job to flatter you obviously. Anyway, I got talking to one of the girls next to me and it turns out she was fluent in English and had studied at university in the UK. I asked her why she was doing this job despite her level of education, and she said it was good money. Honestly in japan’s stagnant job market and as a woman it’s sad to think that even though she’s university educated and studied overseas she’s probably right, and this is the best salary she’ll ever see in her life.