Some women earn 3 million yen a month as a funtia…Why are hosts in Kabukicho, Shinjuku “all born in September”?

Kabukicho, now known as a town of young people, calms down a bit in the fall every year after the summer vacation when all the toyo yoko kids are arrested at once. But the atmosphere is more tense than in the summer among the prostitutes.

Even if you go to work as much as you did in August, you earn only one-third of what you did in August. I’m bored waiting in a private room at the soap all the time! Seriously, the time goes by so slowly that it makes me sick!” (Yurika, pseudonym, 22)

The sex industry has a quiet season from September to November after the busy summer season ends. Therefore, sex workers try every possible means to earn money until December, when the cold weather sets in. Yurika also says that she goes out to work every year during this season to save for the winter.

She says, “I go to areas where there are no soaplands, and I make money by doing “masturbation. In the case of delicatessen, I only get about 10,000 yen for a 60-minute session. That’s a waste of money, so I ask the customers to do the real thing right then and there. Of course, they don’t tell the store. The price is quite a bargain. Many of them don’t know the market price, and many of them are not used to the sex industry, so I can negotiate to my advantage.

If I start out by saying 50,000 yen and then say I will discount it to 30,000 yen, I get a hundred percent. It is my own magic word to get a share (laughs). It’s kind of fun because there is an element of gambling. I ask the customer to pay in cash so that the store doesn’t find out, so if the customer doesn’t have any cash in his wallet, it’s the end.

September, the month of many Christmas babies

Other girls are also involved in the thin profit margins business through social networking sites.

I do “fan tier” (a platform where music, photos, videos, etc. can be made public). I take naughty pictures during my waiting time at the brothel and put them on my fan-tier account and publish them for a fee. If people are willing to pay to see the photos, I can make a lot of money. The trend is for girls who are not afraid to show their faces to earn a steady income this way. One of my seniors who retired from the sex industry and started fan tier when this method was not yet popular was earning about 3 million yen every month. Unlike the sex industry, you don’t have to deal with unpleasant customers, but it’s hard work because you have to use your head. I have the impression that only a few girls can make a lot of money.

One of the reasons why the girls are so eager is because of the birthday events of the hosts, who are in the midst of a rush in September.

September is the month with the largest number of birthdays in Japan because Christmas babies are born. The off-season for prostitutes is the off-season for hosts, so some try to get by by making a lot of money at “bar eve,” and there are also many hosts who pretend that their birthday is in September because they don’t want to lose out to their rivals in sales (laughs). (host Shoki, pseudonym, age 24)

Maki (pseudonym, 22), a college student working in the adult entertainment industry, said that all of the hosts she has appointed so far were born in September.

He said, “I make a host in charge in July, and after the summer vacation, I go to all the sex clubs and spend the money I earned on the host. and they will try to get you a high amount of money at the bar eve in September. But since I can’t make good money during the off-season, things start to get awkward at the birthday event, and eventually we part ways with the new term …… three times over (laughs). It’s a one-summer romance that costs a fortune.”

In Kabukicho, many people do not reveal their birthplace or age. Because the cycle has been established in a small world, they are forced to tell a few more lies than in general society.

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. He is studying sociology of downtown areas including Kabukicho. After graduation, he worked as a writer. His new book “Host! Tachinbo! To Yoko! Overdose na Hito-tachi” (Kodansha) is now on sale.

From the October 11, 2024 issue of FRIDAY