Birth of Adult Entertainment the Origin Story of Happening Bars

The centerpiece, which involves guests engaging in lewd acts with each other, led to the police crackdown. Surprisingly, this centerpiece encountered unexpectedly, and there is a man who created the first Happening Bar in Japan.

In the heart of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Kabukicho district, there stands a multi-tenant building that blends into its surroundings. In one of the rooms of this building, Kawaguchi Toshiki (65), 39 years old at the time, opened a Happening Bar called “Pure Tea”. Kawaguchi explains:

“It was originally conceived as a bar where perverts would gather. That was the original concept, you see.”

Kawaguchi met a man named Y at the Aoyama “Gray Hall,” a bar where perverts gathered. This was in 1996. Y went on to create the couple’s café “Grand blue” in Kabukicho for regular customers like Kawaguchi, where he often brought several single women to enjoy.

A couple’s café is a café where entry is conditional on both men and women being present. In addition to sofa seats, there are playrooms and shower rooms, where swapping (group sexual activities where multiple couples exchange partners in the same or separate rooms) is possible, setting it apart from companion cafes. Although now classified under the same category, the system of swapping was not present in companion cafes of the past. “Grand blue” further innovated by accepting not only couples but also single men.

Despite its great success with innovative ideas, “Grand blue” gradually drifted away from its initial concept of creating a community for selected perverts. As Kawaguchi’s heart drifted away, troubles arose for the single women he brought with no support. When these women encountered trouble, they were dismissed with comments like, “Since women are given food and drinks for free, they should accept the risks,” indicating that this was no longer a place for them, the perverts.

“So I wanted to create a place where both couples and single men and women could enjoy themselves without feeling uncomfortable and have fun being perverts,” said Kawaguchi.

 

Seeking an ideal, Kawaguchi launched “Purety” in October 1998, following the “Wakayama Poison Curry Incident” in which 67 people suffered acute arsenic poisoning and four died in Enbu, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture. The concept was established, but how to attract perverts? Neither companion cafes nor couple cafes would suffice, and a new catchy phrase was needed. At that time, the term happening bar didn’t even exist, let alone its concept. After much deliberation, they settled on the cryptic slogan 21st-century-style adult bar to differentiate themselves from Grand blue. With this enigmatic tagline, they placed a three-line ad in the Nikkan Gendai newspaper, marking the beginning of their journey.