<figure id="attachment_448545" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-448545" style="width: 3231px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="abeb77e8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/12/f8dc80476a1a41b09e7edbf839548701.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-448545" class="wp-caption-text">Kabukicho is home to more than 300 host clubs.</figcaption></figure>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> </span>Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo, can be called the &#8220;sacred land of host clubs.</p>
<p> Rising to the top of the heap is Sho Takami, whose &#8220;Group Dandy&#8221; currently has 59 host clubs and approximately 1,900 hosts. In this article, I would like to write about the owner who reigns at the top of this town, using excerpts from my book &#8220;Yumegen no Machi: 50 Years of Kabukicho Host Clubs&#8221; (Kadokawa Shoten), the only nonfiction book in Japan that unravels the history of Kabukicho.</p>
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<p><a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/448541">Part I: The man who rose to the top of host clubs in Kabukicho, the sacred land of Kabukicho, ran into financial difficulties after only three months.</a></p>
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<p> In the 1990s, Takami&#8217;s host club business hit a rocky patch, and his girlfriend, who later became his wife, complained to him that he would never make it if he had to handle everything on his own.</p>
<p> Takami, however, listened to her honestly. He decided to make a 180-degree turnaround in his management approach from the gymnastics-oriented approach.</p>
<p> The two changes are as follows.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 1: Create an ace host to replace herself.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 2: To completely change the management structure of the restaurant.</span></p>
<h2> He is a man with a keen eye.</h2>
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<p> Let&#8217;s start from the first. The first thing Takami did was to put himself in the background and let another host take over as the ace.</p>
<p> First he turned his attention to a new host named Yoritomo, who was introduced to him by an acquaintance. He was a man with a deep moat on his face and sharp eyes.</p>
<p> Yoritomo was not a handsome man, but he was good at making the party lively and was well received by the guests. Takami fully trusted and trained this Yoritomo, grooming him in just a few months as an ace to replace himself.</p>
<p> His success in training Yoritomo was probably due to the fact that Yoritomo was a man of good sense, which was rare among hosts of this era. He had graduated from Hosei University and had worked for a general company before turning to hosting to pay off his debts. Therefore, he was not the type to easily commit crimes or easily betray the owner, and he was able to heed Takami&#8217;s advice.</p>
<p> Thanks to Yoritomo&#8217;s efforts, sales rose quickly, and within six months of opening, the store successfully expanded and moved to a tenant twice its size. At this time, he changed the name of the store to &#8220;Top Dandy.</p>
<p> What was outstanding about Takami was that he did not rest on his laurels and immediately took the next step after the expansion and relocation. He pulled in Ryusei, who had a sweet mask and was the complete opposite of Yoritomo, from another restaurant.</p>
<p> At that time, it was considered taboo in the host industry to pull out a host from another restaurant, and it was not uncommon to be sanctioned by the gangsters backing the restaurant. However, as soon as Takami heard a rumor that Ryusei, a beautiful host with a good reputation in Kabukicho, wanted to move to a new restaurant, he went to see him himself and skillfully arranged the transfer.</p>
<p> As a result, &#8220;Top Dandy&#8221; succeeded in attracting a diverse female clientele, with two star hosts, Yoritomo and Ryusei, who were the polar opposites of each other, reigning supreme. Based on this successful experience, Takami skillfully uses his negotiating skills to establish himself as the host industry&#8217;s number one &#8220;head hunter,&#8221; successively acquiring ace hosts from other establishments.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Supporting hosts who wish to become independent"></div>
<p>The next step Takami took was to change the structure of the 2 restaurants.</p>
<p> The host clubs were structured in such a way that each person earned money on a piece-rate basis as a sole proprietor, rather than all working together to make a profit. As a result, there was almost no way for the hosts to work together to make the club bigger.</p>
<p> In order to improve this situation, Takami made the other hosts equally valuable and gave each one of them a position and role in the club to create a cohesive workplace.</p>
<p> Specifically, the strategy was as follows.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Create a system in which everyone is given a position and can move up the ladder.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Create a system that allows everyone to move up through the ranks.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Create franchises to support hosts who wish to become independent.</span></p>
<h2> Newcomers,&#8221; &#8220;Third,&#8221; and &#8220;Second.&#8221; &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
<p> In a nutshell, Takami&#8217;s approach can be summarized as a corporate organization of host clubs.</p>
<p> Within the clubs, positions such as &#8220;newcomer,&#8221; &#8220;third,&#8221; &#8220;second,&#8221; &#8220;first,&#8221; &#8220;executive candidate,&#8221; and &#8220;executive (chief, general manager, director, and representative)&#8221; are created and each is given a clear role. Then, all hosts are assigned to some position according to their sales.</p>
<p> Not only will hosts have subordinates and improve their skills as they advance in their positions, but once they become executives, they will also be able to learn the know-how of running a restaurant and become a manager, the owner of a whole country.</p>
<p> To achieve this, Takami formed Group Dandy and pushed for the development of multiple stores. However, this approach was also unusual at the time.</p>
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<p> Until the mid-1990s, Kabukicho had a limited number of wealthy women who came to visit host clubs, and it was believed that opening multiple outlets would lead to competition for customers within the group. In addition, because of the rarity of the hosts, it was rare for the owners to trust them enough to let them run the clubs.</p>
<p> Proof of this was the Aida Kanko Group, led by Takeshi Aida, the creator of the host club and the reigning leader of the industry.</p>
<p> Even the industry&#8217;s largest company had only &#8220;Ai Honten,&#8221; &#8220;New Ai,&#8221; and the transgender host club &#8220;New Marilyn&#8221; among its family members (it had several other stores, but they all did not do well and were closed).</p>
<p> How, then, was Takami able to expand into multiple stores?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" All large stores went bankrupt except for &quot;Ai&quot;."></div>
<h2>At a stroke, they outpaced the rest.</h2>
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<p> First, the clientele of host clubs has changed dramatically. In the past, host clubs were mainly frequented by wives of successful businessmen, female owners of clubs and restaurants in Ginza, and entertainers and other cultural figures. The only women in the sex industry were the top prostitutes at soaplands.</p>
<p> However, with the bursting of the bubble economy, the number of such wealthy people decreased, and all the large-scale establishments went bankrupt except for &#8220;Ai&#8221;. The new host clubs that sprang up instead were small and inexpensive. This made it possible for girls in the then booming aid-seeking industry and those with lower incomes than those in the health clubs and clubs to come and have fun.</p>
<p> In the late 1990s and 2000s, TV specials and variety shows on host clubs attracted more and more women to the clubs. Host clubs, which had previously been underground, became a place where women working in the company could come and have fun in an unassuming manner.</p>
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<p> Takami was the first to ride the wave of this new era, and by expanding the scale of his group, he became the dominant force in the industry.</p>
<p> Today, Group Dandy boasts the largest number of outlets, and Takami is the reigning &#8220;king of hosts.</p>
<p> Behind this success can be attributed to the ace host extraction strategy described in this paper and the development of multiple outlets. In the business world, the first company to break through the conventional wisdom of the industry and outstrip others at once will always be the leader.</p>
<p> For the details, please refer to the book &#8220;Dream City.&#8221; Group Dundee has been in the top position for about 30 years because no other restaurant has been able to come up with a new method that surpasses it. There are several other group restaurants, but none of them have been able to take the top spot because they are all second best to Group Dandy.</p>
<p> However, Kabukicho is currently saturated with host clubs, and the method of attracting customers is changing to one that uses social networking services. It is certain that a new wave of host clubs is on the way.</p>
<p> The next to rise to the top of this world will no doubt be the one that comes up with a new strategy that no one anticipated in these changing times and succeeds in changing the game.</p>


 Born in Tokyo in 1977. Nonfiction writer. He has reported and written about culture, history, and medicine in Japan and abroad. His books include "Absolute Poverty," "The Body," "The House of 'Demons'," "43 Killing Intentions," "Let's Talk about Real Poverty," "Reporto: Who Kills Japanese Language Ability," and "Children Hurt Each Other.

 Kota Ishii

 ZUMA Press/Afro

 Kabukicho host clubs have become a hotbed of social problems such as "stand-up" girls. Kabukicho in Shinjuku has become a mecca for host clubs. Nonfiction writer Kota Ishii reports on the "King of Hosts" who has risen to the top. Part 2" will be delivered in this issue.

Yoritomo and Ryusei reign…Kabukicho host club “taboo to pull from other establishments” new strategy of the “emperor”.

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