How an affair led to the creation of a Kabukichō host club popular among street-working girls

In Tokyo’s Shinjuku–Kabukichō, there are women who work as tachinbo—street-based sex workers. It is well known that behind their selling of sex lies debt they accumulated at host clubs.

Kabukichō is famous as an entertainment district, but within its small area—walkable in 15 to 20 minutes—over 300 host clubs are packed together, making it renowned as the holy land of host clubs.

Host clubs are a uniquely Japanese cultural phenomenon unlike anything else in the world. In recent years, their popularity among foreign tourists has risen, and they are even included in tour itineraries. My own book, Mugen no Machi: 50 Years of Host Clubs in Kabukichō (Kadokawa), which depicts the half-century history of host clubs, was translated overseas immediately after publication.

However, few people understand why Kabukichō became the holy land of host clubs in the first place. Here, drawing from my book, I shed light on the history behind the birth of this nighttime district.

The Father of Host Clubs

What is considered the prototype of the modern host club was Night Tokyo, which opened in 1965 at Tokyo Station’s Yaesu exit.

Unlike today’s host clubs, this establishment was a place where wealthy, middle-aged to older women came to enjoy social dancing. There was a spacious hall with live band performances. Female customers would approach free-agent male dancers waiting in the club and, in exchange for tips, enjoy ballroom dancing with them. They would also share light food and drinks during breaks.

However, the male dancers were not employed by the club. They paid an entrance fee, called badai (floor fee), out of their own pocket to enter. By dancing with women who approached them and dining or drinking together, they earned tips, which they used to offset the badai and cover their living expenses.

One of these dancers was Aida Takeshi—later known as the father of host clubs. Born in a poor rural area of Niigata, he had been adopted by a farming family in his youth. After failing at jobs such as furniture sales and wig sales, he became a dancer at the suggestion of a friend.

The turning point in Aida’s life came when he met a female customer named Enomoto Akemi. She was an elite woman, born as the eldest daughter of architect Okada Tetsurō, the first chairman of Wako University, and married to a University of Tokyo–educated banker. But her marriage had soured, and when a friend brought her to the club, she met Aida.

Before long, the two entered into an affair, which blossomed into a passionate romance. Akemi pushed through strong opposition from those around her, divorced her husband, and chose to start a new life with Aida.

In 1971, the two opened a new club independently in Shinjuku 2-chome—its name was “Ai” (Love).

At first, Aida intended to make Ai a club similar to the social dance venues he had been familiar with. However, in a corner of Shinjuku, he struggled to attract not only customers but even dancers.

So Aida, taking Akemi’s advice, devised a new business model. It consisted of the following:

・Stop hiring boys (servers) as staff, and instead invite male dancers free of charge, replacing the former badaisystem. In exchange, these men would provide all services—from serving food and drinks to entertaining customers.

・Determine each male dancer’s daily wage for the following month based on the total amount spent by his female customers that month. For example, if a dancer generated ¥100,000–¥200,000 in sales, his daily wage the next month would be ¥3,000. A minimum guaranteed salary system was also introduced.

・In addition to the daily wage based on sales, dancers would receive a portion of the women’s designation fees, and systems such as perfect-attendance bonuses were established.

・The club would not interfere if female customers tipped the male dancers or gave them monetary gifts.

In other words, the club began to employ the male dancers as actual staff members.

It also helped gain the trust of female customers

Male dancers, who until then had been in an unstable position, flocked one after another to Ai after hearing rumors of this new system. It was only natural—after all, the shop guaranteed them a minimum living wage. As employees, they united and pushed each other to improve, which naturally raised their sense of professionalism.

This clear system also earned the trust of female customers. The pricing structure was transparent, and there were many high-quality male dancers. They could even take a dancer out of the club to spend time together.

Thanks to this innovative business model, Ai quickly became a hugely popular shop. Women who had previously enjoyed social dancing in places like Yaesu, Shimbashi, Ginza, and Roppongi heard the rumors and began coming to Shinjuku.

Unlike today, the main clientele at the time was not sex workers. Most were affluent women—wives of top executives at major companies, female owners of high-end restaurants or clubs in Ginza, and well-known actresses.

The year after its founding, a second shop, New Ai, opened, and the following year, the main store expanded and relocated to Kabukichō. Business was divided into two shifts, daytime and nighttime—the first focusing on social dancing, and the second on food and drink.

This marked the birth of the host club in Kabukichō.

Daily pay was at most a few tens of thousands of yen

As Ai became a brand in Kabukichō, the role of the male dancers also began to change.

Under Ai’s salary system, no matter how much social dancing a dancer did, it did not affect his pay. But if he got customers to order food and drinks, his daily wage increased. For that reason, their work shifted from dancing to entertaining customers—essentially, the dancers became hosts.

However, income as a host was not very high. Reiji, who appears in Mugen no Machi and was the No.1 host at the time, recalls:

“Back then, hosts didn’t earn tens of millions of yen like they do today by taking half of the store’s sales. Women only drank champagne or brandy slowly—it wasn’t like now where they open dozens of bottles. So even if you were the top host, your daily pay was maybe a few tens of thousands of yen at best.

That’s why hosts in those days focused more on being supported outside the club rather than making money inside it. For us, host clubs were places to meet wealthy women. You’d find a patron, get spoiled by her, receive financial support outside the club, then use that money to open your own shop or business and leave Kabukichō. Being a host was really about finding a patron who would help you become independent.”

In the 1980s, many men who were buried in debt also became hosts. They would work under a pseudonym, find a patron, pay off their debts, earn capital to start over, and return to the normal world.

That was the kind of environment host clubs in Kabukichō used to be.

In the second part, we will delve deeper into the two men who made Kabukichō the holy land of hosts.

【Part 2: The legendary founders of Ai—how teen girls and nightlife shaped the rise and fall of Kabukichō host clubs】