An article in today's NY Times reports on a growing profession among young Japanese women: hostessing. What is hostessing? Quoting the article:
|The women who pour drinks in Japan's sleek gentlemen's clubs |were once shunned because their duties were considered immodest: |lavishing adoring (albeit nonsexual) attention on men for a hefty fee. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/global/28hostess.html?hp=&pagewanted=all In some ways, being a hostess is, I believe, comparable to the services that geisha's provided in the past but being a geisha involved extensive training, an apprenticeship, and development of some skill in entertainment (e.g., playing a musical instrument, singing, dancing, etc.). It seems that being a hostess only requires one to be a "pretty young thing", be able to make believe that one really cares about the man who is currently her client, and to hold one's liquor. Sex is typically not part of the package (unlike the "Girlfriend Experience" in the U.S., a subject of a recent Stephen Sonderbergh film, which means that a sex worker/prostitute provides "relationship services" in addition to "sex services"). Prostitution in Japan is illegal but it only became illegal in the late 1950s (see Kenji Mizoguichi's film "Street of Shame" about the women who worked in one house of prostitution in the Tokyo redlight district; it is said that Mizoguichi's film helped to get the anti-prostitution law passed). Thus, the types of services that women could provide were rather rigidly defined though not always obvious to westerners. The more basic issue involved with hostessing is summarized in the following quote: |Atsushi Miura, an expert on the issue, says hostessing will be popular |among Japanese women as long as other well-paying jobs are scarce. | |"Some people still say hostesses are wasting their life away," he said. |"But rather than criticizing them, Japan should create more jobs for |young women." -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
