Playback ’94] More Than 20 Women in Kinshicho, Central and South American “Women of the Night” in the Early Hours of the Day

Putting a hand on the shoulder of a man on the street: ……

At the time of the interview, this reporter saw that the girls were very enthusiastic in their “sales” activities. They would pace with a man on the street and make him feel comfortable by putting their hands on his shoulders. They responded amiably to the drunken businessman’s poor English, waved and flirted with him when a car drove by, and talked to him through the window when he stopped. Once the “business meeting” is concluded in this way, they go straight to a nearby hotel.

Some women stood alone or in pairs on street corners, but most were waiting for customers with their friends. There were also a few women standing in a park a little further down the road along the railroad tracks.

“Nimanen~, asobanai?” . Her quiet voice drew customers.
I asked back, “20,000 yen for two hours?” When I asked her back, she answered in dubious Japanese, “Chigau, ichijikan, nimanen~.
When a middle-aged drunken man settled down and said, “Too expensive, too expensive,” he put his hand on his arm and said, “Takakunai yo,” inviting the customer to join him.

When I later asked one of the “customers” about their technique, she replied, “No, I can’t last an hour, No, I couldn’t last more than an hour. Drunk or not, I was squeezed out in no time at all,” she complained. It seems that the policy of “customer service” is that as long as the “business deal” is concluded, the rest is emotionless. The girls said they usually deal with three to four customers a day.

When the customers stop showing up, some of the women are chatting with their friends in the convenience store. When the sky became slightly brighter and the streets less crowded, the women headed home. Some women get into a one-box car driven by a yakuza-like man, while others wait for the first train at the station.

I took the first up train at 4:48 a.m. and arrived at Koenji at 5:23 a.m., changing trains at Ochanomizu on the way. On a good day, they would sometimes take a cab back to the apartment where they lived. Even in the early 1990s, just after the bursting of the bubble economy, Japan must have been a country where these women could make a lot of money.