OKAYAMA--Toshiko Yokota fancies herself a "meddling old woman," which she dates to when she encountered a customer in dire need of help a few years ago here.

The desperate-looking woman entered Yokota's restaurant, Ponta, in Kita Ward here seeking employment.

The woman's fiance had forced her to work in his restaurant without pay and resorted to violence when she refused.

So, Yokota decided to help the woman.

“A meddling old woman proves useful in some cases that are difficult to be covered by public assistance programs,” Yokota, 54, recalled thinking at the time.

Since then, she has committed herself to helping people suffering from various issues and in need.

On Oct. 2, Yokota opened a pub also in Kita Ward, where some 20 women with greatly varying careers serve as mistress of the establishment in rotation. The hostesses on staff include a former teacher, a psychologist and a stained glass artist, and were found through Yokota’s network of personal connections.

At the Public Space Higawari Mama snack bar, 20 percent of sales go to a fund that benefits organizations that provide accommodation and emergency contraceptive pills for women to prevent unwanted pregnancies and deliveries deriving from sexual violence and other means.

The new snack bar follows Yokota's unique restaurant Ponta, which she opened in the ward's Kokutaicho district in autumn 2018.

At the eatery, diners can treat people in need by placing meal tickets they purchase on a “pay-it-forward” board for other customers.

The noblesse oblige system was developed based on Yokota’s belief that people should help each other--an idea described as “tego” in the local dialect in Okayama.

When the woman with the abusive fiance walked in, that brought out the tego spirit in Yokota. 

The fleeing victim said her fiance resorted to violence when she tried to refuse his demand to work in his restaurant. The woman cried, saying, “I want to run away from him, but I have no money or home to live in.”

Hearing the story, Yokota supported the woman as a rental guarantor so she could escape to an apartment by night.

STARTED OUT AS ARCHITECT

Yokota graduated from Okayama University’s Faculty of Law and obtained a second-class architect license. She ran her own architectural firm for 20 years after opening it at age 32.

Yokota also serves as chairwoman of a nonprofit group working to preserve the family home of poet Kiyoko Nagase (1906-1995), who hails from Akaiwa, Okayama Prefecture.

Interactions with the woman victimized by her fiance’s violence gave Yokota an inspiration, when she told Yokota that her mother “would say she should not have given birth to me.”

The words reminded Yokota of the difficulties facing junior and senior high school girls she had come across through her support activities.

One student said she “had to deliver after I felt sick in a gym class and was taken to a hospital,” while another said she “repeatedly had sex for money since my junior high school days and finally contracted a sexually transmitted disease from a patron.”

Yokota felt then that unwanted pregnancies and deliveries lead to poverty, abuse and eventually an unfortunate life, and started thinking of a way to bring an end to the vicious circle.

Acting on the thought, Yokota asked a pharmacist friend “whether it was possible for me to offer emergency contraceptives” to enable troubled women to prevent unwanted pregnancies by taking them within 72 hours of having sex.

But the answer was disappointing: that kind of prescription is not covered by public health insurance, so no less than 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen ($47 to $95) would be required for the medicine, on top of the doctor’s consultation fee.

Yokota was struggling to raise funds to distribute the contraceptive medicine. It was then that a pub operator acquaintance contacted her for advice, because the increasingly elderly manager found it difficult to continue the business alone.

Hearing that, Yokota had her eureka moment, thinking, “I will open a pub myself to secure the money.”

Yokota has since sought hostesses via tego and introduced the daily host rotation system to entertain customers.

DRINKING FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Situated in the Uchisange 1-chome district, Higawari Mama is open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. only on weekdays. The table charge costs 2,000 yen.

The monthly sales goal is set at 500,000 yen. After deducting the fund reserve and 20 percent for hostess' salaries, the remaining proceeds are used to cover operating costs.

Under the plan, the reserve will be donated to three support organizations for women and children, such as nonprofit Sankaku Nabi in Okayama.

As simply drinking at the bar will lead to support for someone, Yokota believes customers will much more enjoy imbibing there as they are doing so for a good cause.

Behind the opening of Higawari Mama is the meddler woman’s gentle but devious tactic, which attracts customers with the appeal that the hostess is changed every night.

Yokota is looking to raise the number of hostesses to 50 in the future and said even men are eligible for serving as “mistresses.”