High School Students Dream of Cabaret Girls and Host Roles, Social Media Speeding Up Trend Towards Younger Debut Ages in Nightlife Industry

The mizu-shobai are inseparable from Kabukicho in Shinjuku. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the state of the mizu-shobai, such as the problem of corrupt hosts, but there are many other problems as well.

One is the declining age of the Kabukicho crowd. The age range of people who play in the nightlife district has been declining, but the age of those who work there has also declined, and the average age of those who work in the host and cabaret clubs has dropped significantly.

We decided to talk to the people involved about the reasons why they came to work in Kabukicho, where the population is getting younger.

Ms. K (a pseudonym), a 20-year-old former con-cafe worker and current cabaret worker, explains her reasons.

I had originally decided to stop working at concafés and go to cabarets when I turned 20. At con cafes, 20-year-olds are not so young, and 18-year-olds are common. I work at a flower shop during the day, but I think some of them are high school students. My take-home pay from my day job is 140,000 yen, which is not enough to make a living, so I started working at nightclubs as a part-time job.

The first reason for working in mizu-shobai is money. There are not many jobs that pay as much as mizu-shobai for people in their position. If they choose a regular part-time job but work a few hours at the end of their day job, a high hourly wage job like cabaret is more efficient. And she chose to work as a cabaret girl, which pays 4,500 yen per hour.

We also interviewed other cabaret girls about these non-monetary reasons.

Ms. N, 20 years old, is a current college student. She works at a cabaret club as a part-time job.She also chose to work at a cabaret club because of the high hourly wage, but she also has other reasons.

I want to do something I can only do now, she says. When I get older, I won’t be able to work in a cabaret club, and when I see people having fun working in cute dresses on TikTok and Instagram stories, I get excited, I often hear high school students say that they’re dying to be a cabaret girl.

She said that if she was going to work, she had to be able to wear cute outfits, and we heard similar opinions from other cabaret girls.

If you work part-time, you are often required to wear a certain hair color, clothes, etc. But if you work in a water business such as a cabaret club, you can do whatever you want. Pretty dresses, hair color of your choice, flashy nails, all can be done freely, which is why more and more young people are coming to work in these places.