Former hostess queen says life no cabaret for hard-up kyabajo gals
Nightclub hostess jobs have become hotter than ever before and women are flocking to them in droves in the hope of pocketing some easy money, according to Sunday Mainichi.
Most in demand are positions for kyabajo, the name given to women working in nightspots the Japanese call cabaret clubs, but are largely watering holes decked out with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and velour sofas like some throwback to '50s Las Vegas.
"Cabaret clubs began in the early '80s. They're cheaper than nightclubs and customers pay a standard fee for a certain amount of time, then extra amounts for any food, drink or services on top of that," Kazuhisa Kimura, Japan's foremost expert on cabaret clubs, tells Sunday Mainichi.
Most cabaret clubs charge customers anywhere from a few thousand yen to 10,000 yen an hour, during which time they are plied with drinks by usually young, cocktail dress-clad young women - the kyabajo. Extra money comes from such charges as extending the standard time period, or for designating a particular kyabajo to serve drinks. Kyabajo take a slice of each bill paid and charges can soon run into six-figure sums. Top kyabajo, Kimura says, can earn in the vicinity of 20 million yen annually.
Manami Moriyama, a former kyabajo who now writes on the business, says the picture isn't quite so rosy. She argues that except for the very top workers in the industry, the average kyabajo is working a 6-hour day at somewhere from 3,000 yen to 5,000 yen an hour and an annual income of 5 million yen is more typical.
"And yet everybody working in the sex business or at nightclubs thinks working at a cabaret club is a fun way to make big money," Moriyama says.
Whatever the fiscal merits of serving drinks may be, there's little doubt that the kyabajo caper is a popular one, as a company called Comtech Japan can attest. Comtech is Japan's largest employment agency specializing in finding jobs for nightclub hostess and kyabajo. Comtech, which operates with the approval of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, has partnerships with about 550 nightspots across the country and more than 6,000 women have registered on its books.
Wannabe kyabajo simply register with Comtech at no charge and the agency tries to find a club that best suits her needs. Agency employees accompany hostesses to job interviews, help with the purchases of cocktail dresses and in finding housing, often a problem for those working in adult entertainment businesses. The agency will also represent any women who have trouble with employers.
Moriyama, who has worked with Comtech in the past, has mixed feelings about it.
"It may well be a convenient service for women working in adult businesses for the first time, but as far as the club hiring the woman is concerned, the agency doesn't always provide exactly the type of person desired. It probably only has a success rate of about 10 percent," the hostessing expert tells Sunday Mainichi.
Even when a club does take on a woman introduced by Comtech, it has to pay a 10 percent commission to the agency, meaning that unless the kyabajo makes a lot of money and fast, there's always a strong temptation to sack her.
Kimura, the cabaret club connoisseur, is also bearish about hostess job agencies.
"There's always been a huge gap in the quality of kyabajo who volunteer and those who are scouted off the streets," he tells Sunday Mainichi. "Hands down, the ones picked up off the streets make loads more money for the clubs."