Photo/Illutration The Kabukicho entertainment district in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward is home to more than 200 host clubs. (Nobuaki Tanaka)

A host’s flattering words were enough to enchant a Tokyo woman in her 20s. But it was a “kake” pay-later mechanism at the club that pushed her into heavy debt and eventual work in the sex industry.

Under the kake system, host club operators or the companions themselves temporarily cover the costs of the service, allowing customers to “wine and dine gorgeously even if they do not have much money on hand,” said a former host in his 30s.

“Were it not for the kake framework, host clubs cannot continue their business,” he said.

The woman first went to a host club three years ago on a friend’s invitation.

The woman lacked self-confidence in her appearance, so she was thrilled when the male companion told her she was “cute.”

As a part-time worker, she had a limited amount of funds to spend at the club. So she used the kake framework, and she kept returning to the host.

As her debts to the club piled up, a staff member put her in touch with the operator of a sex establishment where she could receive a “higher salary.”

She started working there to pay back the money she owed, but her earnings remained unstable. And she was unable to stop going to the host club.

She had become a “hos-kyo” (host crazy).

To cover her expenses, she borrowed money from a consumer loan company. When her financial situation made it difficult for her to see her favorite host, she imagined that he was spending time with other women. She cut her wrist on occasion.

Her debts ballooned to more than 10 million yen ($76,000).

Although she still works in the sex business to pay back her loans, she has stopped going to the host club.

“I did not have anyone I could trust more than my host,” she said, looking back on those days.

The thirtysomething former host has little sympathy for such hos-kyo.

Male companions are “simply providing pseudo love affairs to women,” he said. “Customers themselves should be blamed for being saddled with debts or going into personal bankruptcy.”

He worked at a host club for more than 10 years until 2022. He was also involved in managing it. He said a single visit to a host bar in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district could cost hundreds of thousands of yen to millions of yen, depending on what is ordered.

“Customers are not forced to buy certain services,” he said. “Charges may sound pricey, but we are proud that our offerings are worth the large sums.”

The kake system, however, can lead not only to huge debts but also legal violations.

In January, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested a former host on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Law.

He allegedly forced a client to prostitute herself at a brothel so that she could repay him for meals and drinks that he brought her under the kake system at his club.

The ex-host in his 30s acknowledged that he also brought a patron to a sex establishment where she could work to repay her debts to him.

He said one reason this kind of thing is happening is the overheated competition among hosts in the industry, fueled by the kake system.

Lawyer Akihiro Kosuge, who is knowledgeable about problems in the nightlife community, said the kake system is rampant at host clubs as a payment method.

“Postponing payments from patrons makes it easier for clubs to force such customers to take responsibility for disproportionate sums,” Kosuge said.

Shingo Sakatsume, chairman of the Futerasu nonprofit group in Niigata that offers advice to sex workers, said many women contact his organization after they are hired by brothels to work off their debts to host clubs.

“Many women feel isolated through their household conditions and other factors and have no one to talk to except hosts,” he said. “It is important to alleviate their social isolation without coldly viewing their situation as ‘self-inflicted.’”

Related News