Photo/Illutration A stage at the Hiroshima Daiichi Theater, the last standing strip club in the Chugoku region, in Hiroshima’s Yagenbori nightlife district, on May 20 (Jun Ueda)

HIROSHIMA--The last piece of clothing was shed and the lipstick kiss marks on the walls attracted their final glances. And after the last exotic dance was performed here on May 20, the Chugoku region had no more strip clubs.

The Hiroshima Daiichi Theater that day opened its door at 10:30 a.m. for a long line of people who were waiting in the rain for the last performances at a business that had been entertaining guests for 46 years.

Yoshitaka Fukuo, the 70-year-old president of the theater, watched the dancers from the side of the stage and then delivered a farewell address to the standing-room-only crowd.

“You are kindly requested to continue supporting strip theaters that are trying their best to stay open and the talented dancers who never fail to make an effort day in and day out,” said Fukuo, wearing a blue “happi” coat with printed words that read, “The Nude Hall of Fame.”

The club, famous for numerous lipstick marks on a wall from retiring dancers, is part of a vanishing industry in Japan.

According to a National Police Agency white paper, there were 320 strip joints around the country as of 1982. Fukuo estimates that only about 20 remain.

The Hiroshima Daiichi Theater opened in the city’s Yagenbori nightlife district in 1975, and Fukuo became involved in the operations in 1983.

The theater had affiliated strip joints in Kobe, Takamatsu and Okayama among other cities, he said.

But the industry started shrinking as more entertainment options became available, and strip clubs could not shed their negative image.

Many theaters closed when police cracked down on shows with “extreme” content, and people spent more time on the internet to get their sexual thrills in private.

After talking with landowners, Fukuo in 2017 decided to shut down the theater.

The demolition of the building started this month. A hotel is planned for the site.

The theater enjoyed the unexpected last hurrah after “Dancing in Her Dreams,” a fictional film featuring the theater, was made in 2019 and won an award at the Madrid International Film Festival.

The film, directed by Hiroshima native Hideyuki Tokigawa, tells a love story between the president of Hiroshima Daiichi Theater and a dancer.

Inspired by the film, young people and women started flocking to the theater.

A 24-year-old company employee who lives in Hiroshima said she first went to the club “out of mere curiosity.” But she was so impressed that she visited the theater on the final day.

“I didn’t know that such a beautiful world existed,” she said about the performances.

After the last dance, Fukuo, together with patrons who stayed until the wee hours, watched the neon signs of the theater being turned off.

Two chipped mirrors and a wire hanger were left in a dressing room on the third floor.

The lipstick marks were still visible all over the walls along the staircases leading to the stage on the first floor.

Fukuo said the end of the theater’s history hasn’t sunk in yet.

“I feel like we will hold the opening of our next show tomorrow,” he said. “It’s been completely quiet here, and I feel lonely.”

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