Why “macho bars” are quickly going out of business in Kabukicho, where only “thin men who drive women’s desire for shelter” are in demand…

Kabukicho is lined with every kind of water business and sex establishment, from hostesses and cabarets to delicatessen and women’s entertainment establishments. The only one that is not found in Kabukicho is the “macho bar. Macho bars are places where muscular men serve drinks to customers and let them touch their muscles over the counter. There used to be one in Kabukicho, but it closed after less than three years.

Kabukicho is basically a town that sells sex and love, so men who are thin and drive women to be protective of them are popular. Here, macho men are seen almost as a gag.

Miyuki (pseudonym, 23), a cabaret girl, has been working in Kabukicho for three years. However, she has not found a place where she can buy the eroticism and excitement of macho men.

In Kabukicho, there is no place for macho men. If I had to say, I would say supper clubs. In supper clubs, there is a stage in the store, and they put on a show to liven up the customers. There are both male and female waitstaff, and sometimes customers participate in the show. A fat waitress may chug champagne in a leotard, expose her lower body to the background music, and buzz her male genitals with a commercial hair dryer. …… It’s almost like a comedian’s naked act.”

The clientele is wide-ranging, with some night workers going there for after-hours drinks, while others are used for business entertainment by executives. Another feature is that they are relatively inexpensive.

After being forced to leave Kabukicho, Macho ended up in Nakano, a 15-minute train ride from Shinjuku.

Highball, please, muscle?”

Macho Bar is located in a small building off the downtown area and is packed with machos and female customers, and there is a line outside the bar every day. There are counter seats and box seats, and about 10 machos are moving around in all directions inside the small bar.

Customers can drink as much as they want for 1,500 yen per 30 minutes, but they pay extra for the sake they give to the waitresses who sit with them. Customers purchase a 10-muscle$ tip for 1,000 yen when they enter the restaurant. The tip is used to pay for various options, such as hugs, floor dongs, and princess hugs. The most popular of these is the Muscle Injection, which costs 15 Muscle$. The cast member straddles the customer’s lap, shakes her hips, and gives the customer a drink in a syringe while hugging her.

To be honest, it’s not so much the muscles as the face that sells. There is no nomination system, and each cast member decides which customers to serve. There are some women who go here regularly, but most of them come here for the excitement of the moment.

Aiko (pseudonym, 27), a married woman who used to be a hosiery fanatic and is now addicted to the two-dimensional “guessing game,” is another macho bar user.

She says, “I copy the faces of my two-dimensional guessers, put them on my macho face, and take pictures. It’s satisfying to feel like my favorite character has appeared in three dimensions. I guess I don’t really need all that stuff coming to me.”

According to Aiko, host and macho bars are incompatible in terms of clientele and the way they enjoy themselves.

There are more people who enjoy themselves in a more light-hearted way than in host clubs,” she says. There are almost no “pienkei” types here, only office workers. It’s like a boys’ bar with a “macho” skin, but with a more intimate atmosphere. They sell their appearance more thoroughly than hosts, and enjoy the thrill of contact rather than pseudo-romance. Since we assume a superficial relationship, we can paste illustrations of our guesses on their faces without hesitation.”

The machos would certainly be stronger in a fistfight, but in the Kabukicho principle, the slender hosts are the overwhelmingly stronger.

Sasaki Chihuahua
Born in Tokyo in 2000. After attending an integrated school in Tokyo from elementary school to high school, he went on to Keio University, where he has been living in Kabukicho since the age of 15. At university, he is studying the sociology of the downtown area, including Kabukicho. His book, ” Pien” to shakai” (“The Disease of ‘Pien’: Consumption and Approval of the SNS Generation”), is now on sale.

From the August 11 , 2023 issue of FRIDAY