Working as a hostess/Model.

[Anonymous]

I am a 19 year old girl currently living in Melbourne, Australia and am wishing to become a permanant resident in Japan. I wish to model part time and hostess the rest of the time. I already have accomodation in Japan but I have no idea where to begin or what a hostess is expected to do. Also if anyone can give me information on a working visa or modelling in Japan. My friend that currently lives there said I will make an assault on Japan, but as it is all new for me I would appreciate any advice I can get.



If anyone can help me, please do so as I am clueless.

[Anonymous]

u sound clueless! are u sure u want to be a permanent resident?

[Anonymous]

Maybe not a permanant resident but I will definately be there for 6 months. If you can give me any advice or information it would be appreciated. Kylie

[Anonymous]

Just give it a try.

Didn't Your friend tell You about it?

Don't You beleave Her/Him?



From, Secret.

[paul]

You will be expected to work as a prostitute and all that entails.

[Me]

She will not be expected to work as a hooker!!

[nami]

i'm not trying to scare u but have u heard about lucy? in england? she went missing after working in japan as a hostess. she's probably got killed. the media is saying that she's been transported to china as sex slave. there's really dodgy people there. there's 2 world. the normal one and mizu shobai where money and people's lives are just flying all over the place. if u do decide to do it, take care.

[Anonymous]

Although I have not worked as a hostess here I know a lot of people who do and have. As you have probably realised from some of the ridiculous replies you have had to your email, there are so many stupid people here making good money - and they dont deserve it.



Every job has its positives any negatives. It depends where you work and what you are prepared to do. Some hostessing jobs are just being a waitress.....other do expect you to be a prositute. Really, the same way that there are normal bars in Australia and strip joints as well. Japan is a wonderful. Dont let all of the immature morons put you off.



Another thing is. Dont come here just for the money. You can also make good money in Australia. Come here for the cultural experience.



Good luck



Regards



Nicole

[Anonymous]

Hei, are you crazy? "Hostess" is the name for a prostitute here. And although it is a safe country, working as a hostess could be quite dangerous, the recent example is the disappearance of Lucy Blackman. I read in a Japanese journal that this was not the first example of hostesses being abused/injured/raped. My advice: forget about it and find a moral job, it could be more difficult and could not yield so much easy money, but at least it will be moral.

[Jeffrey]

From living in Japan for 6 years and having many friends who have worked as hostesses here, I would definitely say that the most accurate posting here is that of Nicole's above. Take her advice. It's accurate.

[Anonymous]

I checked out work in Japan as a hostess when I was 17, unfortunatley I wasn't old enough, and I'm now working and living in Austria.

What I did find out was that hostesses make good money, and the job IS safe, as long as u get the right job.

The woman I spoke to was really cool, she had been working in the same hotel near where I live for like 15 years, so she wasn't going to send me to some dive I'd never come home from.

She offered to meet my parents, showed me photos of the people + places. She was really nice, and as I'm 19 now, I'm seriously considering going out there in March with another friend.

If you're interested in the womans name + number u could call and ask her for some details.

But what all these people posting mail say is pretty fair, I think u can probably land yourself in deep water, by taking the wrong job.



Rebeckah

[Anonymous]

I find this quite interesting. I am NOT planning to go to Japan anytime soon as i am only 16 years. I am however very interested in finding a career in Japan when i am older. I love the culture and i wouldn't mind hostessing(the SAFE ones ONLY!!) or modeling since people suggest to me before, but a more stable job is ofcourse better.

IF i ever want to immigrate to Japan, is there a possible way in doing so? I am Hong Kong born, but immagrated to Canada when i was 4. I have citizenship in Canada and will get my Hong Kong one back when i turn 18. Do i have any chance at ALL into immagrating into Japan if i ever want to be a perminent resident? Thankyou!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you need to continue asking more questions here. There are some bars that hire "hostesses" to just wait on tables and other bars that hire "hostesses" to make the male customers REALLY enjoy their time patronizing the bars. Just find a good bar and check it out. Go there and "scope" out the people and I am sure you will get a good idea of what type of bar you are in.

If you want to go to Japan and become a "hooker", then do it. Work in a bar that caters to males who wish to have sex with foreign women. I am sure you will make a lot of money. And if you want to go to Japan and work in bars that do not demand the waitresses serve "sex" along with a few cool beers, then work at those ones. The choice is up to you.

Just remember that the Japanese government doesn't give out work permits to go to Japan to become hookers or waitresses.

Good luck!

[s.]

One of the reasons Lucy's case was given so much air-time was that she was British and her parents were actually looking for her. I suspect the same has happened to many other women, but because they weren't white (but were other Asians or Japanese) the truth never came out.
Maybe it's a better idea to stay in your own country and do. . .whatever you want to do. . .in the "entertainment" business.
If you don't have a proper visa, you're invisible, in a sense. So if you were to disappear. . .it would be very difficult for your family to find out what happened to you.

[trip_hop]

Try reading, "To Japan and Back" by Caouette and Saito on Thai women forced into prostitution in Japan, or "The Traffic in Women - Human Realities of the International Sex Trade" by Skrobanek, Boonpakdi and Janthakeero.
That will wake you up to how the Asian's are treated here; Europeans, North Americans and Oceanians have it lucky.

Trip Hop

[Anonymous]

Kylie, if I were you I will go to TAFE college or continue furture education and get a better job. Australia is a best country on earth. Why do you want to come here? I have lived there for 10 yrs. I reckon if you came here you will not want to live in Japan. There is many reasons I am lazy to explain!
Hostress in Japan are very bad reputation I heard a lot of scary stories. Also, There is some discriminate against people`s who are working in entertainment industry. I am Thai women living here, I have never work in the hostress bar. However, when they know that I came from Thailand they always give me a dirty look and they think I am here for working at bar. You know it`s really hurt! I don`t want every women on this planet will have that kind of feeling. You come to Japan to teach English is better than working in the bar. By the way, trip hop said is the true. Yakusa! they are real!

[Anonymous]

I mean hostess not hostress!! I miss my spelling Please don`t abuse me!!!

[Chris]

Hostesses are not prostitutes. Some bars push girls into doing extra work as prostitutes, but a lot don't. I have known ex-hostesses make plenty of cash from giving no more than a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

[Anonymous]

Dear Janice,

Club An in Akasaka has Chinese hostesses. However I would recommend getting a college degree (or buying it and saving your money and time, I know people in Japan who have). Then get an English Teaching job it's equivalent to prosititution of foreigners without the risks of dealing with the underworld. Keep in mind both jobs entail entertaining genetic rejects. So only one question remains do you want to talk dirty for a living or act stupid for a living. The choice is yours....

Best Regards,
Dave Grummer

[Anonymous]

Dear PJ,

> Just remember that the Japanese government doesn't give out work
> permits to go to Japan to become hookers or waitresses.

Actually thats not entirely true, its called an entertainment visa. How do you think Phillipinos and Russians women get into Japan? For a day trip go to Otemachi Immigration Department (right next to Otemachi eki) and find the entertainment visa section. Look around you. the Japanese man with a fist full of passports and group of around 10 sexually charged Phillipinos is a Yakuza. They import Phillipinos and others foreigners as sex toys.

Welcome to Japan. There are no rules nor laws here. There's only out of control capitalism.

Best Regards,
Dave Grummer

[Anonymous]

Same in the Yokohama Immigration office, you can see them in banks as well.

[Anonymous]

Kylie,

I am an Australian female working in Nagano as an English Teacher. I have never and will never work as a Hostess. Do you know that dirty men have stopped me in the street and handed me money for sex!! Salary men whisper "Russian" or "How much?. when I walk in public! It's damn right disrespect!!

So many Japanese people (especially men) think that every young foreign woman is a prosititute here! They refuse to believe we serve another purpose! !Do you really want to be treated as scum and abused at your own free will????Then, if you do, you must have no respect for yourself.

My dear, you are a BIMBO and if you want to persue this hostess dream you deserve to be exploited! You have neither the ambition nor intelligence to make anything of yourself!

I really can't stand women like you who give us moralistic hard working foreign women in Japan a BAD NAME!

Stay IN OZ-You'll get more respect there even if you are a BIMBO!

[Forsight]

I have thought myself as working as a host before but passed the idea.

But, I know a few Japanese females who were once hostesses... Now they are married, have a nice place, and have children. As far as I know, they were never prostitutes. I think you can find a good hostess job in Tokyo if you are carefull, stay away from Shinjuku and Ropungi.

But, don't put too much hope on being a model... You may get a few gigs, but there are a lot of other foreigners here that aren't ugly trying to do the same thing you are.

Sincerely,

Joey Hibbard

[Anonymous]

Hi. I was a hostess in Japan for around 10 months and worked in a few places in Osaka. I initially went as an English teacher for one of the big companies and soon discovered that teaching English meant I couldn't really experience Japanese culture or learn the language. Being surrounded by English all day and English speaking people made me feel as though I had never left my home country. If you find a good hostess bar and mama san, I promise you'll have a wonderful experience: good money, good fun, good food and you'll get to practice Japanese and be involved in the culture.
A chance for a gaijin to be on the inside for a change! The majority of bars expect you to pour drinks, chat to customers, sing karaoke and generally be friendly. That's it! You'll probably also be expected to do douhan, which means going out with the customer for dinner in the area of the bar and bringing them to the bar afterwards. Yes, of course you can get into prostitution if you want, but most bars are fine.Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

[Anonymous]

Hi Donna,
How do you know which bars are Ok? I am applying to do hostessing from abroad and have no way of checking out the bars on foot. Can you recommend any agency that is reputable?
Thanks
maggie

[Anonymous]

Hi Maggie,

It's really difficult to do from abroad. I only know of one bar that used an agency and this is really rare. These agencies tend to deal only with girls from Eastern Europe etc. The only way to do it is to come here, stay in a gaijin house where there's likely to be other hostesses living and find out through them. Otherwise, what I did is just go to bars advertised in the gaijin magazines, have an interview and speak to the girls there. That will usually give you an idea of what the place is about. it will be impossible to find a hostessing job from abroad unless you know someone who is working in one of these places already. Probably half of the places expect you to have a little Japanese too. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hostess jobs and prostituting is different. Genuine hostess is a job that you have a friendly talk with the customers and sing songs and have fun. It often provides you with deeper cultural understanding. But obviously there are bars that enforces hostess to be envolved in prostituting. If you are serious about working as hostess, you should not be employed to the bar without obtaining some information before hand. That is, you or someone who you can trust go and see the place and talk to the people working there.
However, often the times, you do not have a friend to look for a safe GAIJIN bar in Japan. Then you yourself should definitely come to look for the job before hand. Usually GAIJIN bar pay you well so you can get your little investment back soon.

Anyway I think you should never enter this country ilegal rout. You might end up being exploited by the broker, and in that case you will most likely be prostituting.

And if anything goes wrong, you should definitely call for help who can speak Japanese. In big cities, usually there are several GAIJJIN supporting group who are dying to help foreigners who are in trouble. You should look up couple of them before you leave.

[trip_hop]

Exploitation is the right word, if you are here illegally. If you get into trouble, into the business of forced prostitution, where you can quickly become "in debt" to your employer, you face a number of challenges - 1) your employers, who will want you to return to work to pay off your real or imaginary debt; 2) the police, who generally work closely with your employer, and will return you to them if they find you (in many cases); 3) your own embassy, who are aware that in half the of the cases where they help people leave that business, they return to a similar job within a year. Having helped in the past, this is my personal experience.

The only support group that may help is called "akahige", and I am not sure if they are still going. The only person that you can trust is yourself, and once your passport is gone, your induced debts mount up, and you are isolated, it is very hard to get out of the vicious circle. If you are obviously non-Asian, it is harder to be isolated and easier to be recognised, but for many Asians, and Japanese too, this is not an option, and historically, this type of work has been going on for a long time.

Look, before you leap!

Trip Hop (Ms.)

[Anonymous]

Kilie do whatever makes you happy. Do some research first and be adventurous. Every person that writes you will give you different opinions -positives and negatives. In my opinion as long as you don't sleep with someone for money, you are not considered a prostitute. Some women called themselves decent and when the door shuts, they cheat in their husbands, they sleep with professors... I think you should set your own standard and be true to yourself. Don't let women like Susan break your young spirit. People like Susan don't have any options but call themselves "smart" because they are normally danm ugly. I believe you can be both; Beatiful and Smart. I think there is a reason of why men are disrespecting Susan. What are you wearing to go out darling?

[D]

Hmm, what do you want to be when you grow up little girl? Me? I want to be a hostess, and please drunk old men who like to harass me! I want to be all i can be and become a professional molestee! Where do you want to do this little girl? In Japan of course! Why Japan? Well because I want to show the Japanese that all us foreigners aren't the dumb slobs they believe! How will you show them? By making a living talking to drunk salarymen of course-

[tara]

I worked in Japan for 7 years during which time I worked as a hostess, the best job I ever had..met some great people..both foreign and Japanese..it was such a giggle..I got to see a side of Japan that remains hiden to the average foreign worker..it taught me a lot about Japan, both good and bad.
During this time I held a job as a secretary to the president and translator during the day and now work in a export/import company here in Australia, I return to Japan every year and still keep in touch with both the owner of the bar and the guests..
Sure there are bars to be wary of..personal introduction is the best..our club never advertised it was always through word of mouth..
A happy hostessxx

[mick]

Just let me know when you get here, Kylie. I`d be happy to take care of you. Just like those nice mama-sans. Everyone in Japan is nice. Very nice place, it is. Don`t worry that you won`t have a legal visa for working as a hostess. Or that if you complain too much there could be consequences. You know, of course, how to fight off large numbers of men don`t you? You know enough about the world to understand exploitation, intimidation, reward and response mechanisms of the human mind and how to do that with 10 whiskeys under your belt. Of course you do! You`re 19! Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Greed is very easy to manipulate, Kylie.
Why do you want to come to Japan?
Work up at the local RSL for sixth months and
a) make about the same amount of money, in the end.
b) see what happens to people when they hang around drink and ciggie smoke all day.
Come to Japan in control, because you`re educated, or you`ve got cash, or if you`re physically strong.
Are you any of those things? And are you easy to manipulate because of greed?
I don`t want to be mean, but Japan is quite possibly the rat race of all rat races, and if you`re a little cute teenage rat, with no education, no cash and no clue, you`re the prime target of every other rat in the joint. Good luck! Work on a collective in Hokkaido as an English teacher and have a ball, instead- they take anyone who`s a native speaker- I don`t have a degree and I`m making a packet as an English teacher. And go and buy some books on feminism. And I`m a bloke!

[Anonymous]

Thankx Mate,

even i am looking same job in japan. I have no job. but i am living in Nagoya city. it`s very nice country and people...

[Anonymous]

Hi Donna,

Ive got an interesting question for you. Im a 23year old Swiss heterosexual male, and will be going to Japan to teach English. Now, how easy is it for a Gaijin to make some extra cash on nights either as a barman, bouncer, male host or (escort). Do Japanese women contact foreign men for entertainment?. I look forward to hearing form you.

Lukas

[Anonymous]

From another thread - Hello Miss Tomo,(another sucker fell for it!)

"I have a degree in Human resources Management & Business Admiistration which reflects my personality as I have a skill to get along with people.
Iam very much interested in your email, so could you please reply and let me know of any other information regarding the job/position."

Your HR skills will help in your customer relations, though the job/position is usually on your stomach or back. Your Business administration certificate will ensure I get my 40% cut, and the punch-permed guys in the white suits their 30%.

Unfortunately, few Japanese girls like to pay for fun with foreigners, though the men do. It is usually the Japanese men who pay for them, and the foreigners are left to pay Koreans, chinese, thais, Filipinas, South Americans and Russians. Occasionally we get some older ladies (40s-60s) out on the town, and they like to have a young man for company, to keep them occupied. But as you seem to have no Japanese ability, it might be difficult to keep a conversation going. Best to just keep their cigarettes lit, and the brandy glass full.

Maybe better to try for a job at GasPanic or the other Roppongi gaijin bars, where you will welcomed for your modest ego and large shoe size.

reality check -
another cuckoo clockmaker, thinking his snowboarding certificate, passport and pectorals will get him into suzuki-san's panties. Better wise up that english teachers are close to the bottom of the food chain here, above iranian telephone card sellers, filipino stevedores and the USMC, but way below corporate managers, financial analysts and baseball players.

[jon]

This Girl broke all the rules of Hostessing in Japan, No 1 Do not fratanize with customers outside the club. Had she followed her club rules she would be still alive today. This is not to say that the person who killed her was wrong, he is guilty of the crime. However how many Hostesses have been killed in this way compared with the number of gaijins who have met there end through accidents in other Jobs

[trip_hop]

Is your last line a question?

"Do-han", or the practice of seeing customers outside of the bar is very popular, in fact an accepted practice; with the girl usually bringing their customer on to the club afterwards to get a part of the bar bill. Very few refuse it, and many mama-sans encourage it.

Very, very few European, North American or Oceanian hostess are killed. Probably 5-10 Asian hostesses a year disappear in Tokyo alone each year, same in Osaka, less in other cities. Quite a few also disappear when working in the brothels and bonded labour in the countryside. (2000 data) They are rarely mentioned them in the press. They are brought in illegally, from other countries. There are lots of data and reports on this.

To compound this, some 20-30,000 Japanese go missing each year, mostly deliberately, to hide from something. Some companies even specialise in "fly by night" removal service.

And other jobs? Many Asians and Africans are repatriated with severe injuries following work accidents, though as they were employed by Japanese without visas in the first place, their compensation is a pittance, compared to what Japanese would get for similar injuries. Again, well documented.

In construction alone, 2000+ Japanese die each year from work-related accidents, mostly Tohoku and Hokkaido farmers working in Kansai/ Kanto in the winter.

If her father had not raised a fuss, no-one would know. A family friend, bar owner in Yamagata, does not know where her own daughter, a bar hostess, is in Tokyo; but she shows little interest in finding out.

Different values?

[jon]

The statistics you have quoted make japan look a very safe place if you compare those with say The USA or Europe for that matter, I have not checked them my self but do you know how many would be illegal migrants are washed up on the shores of Spanish Beaches. Its in the Hundreds per Year, I know that since I once lived on the Costa Del Sol

How many illegal workers are killed in the USA either through work accidents or other kinds of Foul play. ????????????????

In one case in the UK at Dover port in One day 50 illegal immigrants were found dead in the back of a cargo truck suffocated , same as the number of Asian Hostesses that go missing over 5 years in Japan. For the number of Hostesses that go missing in Japan, compared to the number that go though Japan every day which must be at least 1000 a day the Job risk is low, if one has got there head screwed on right and stays totally aware of the situation around them and justs avoid any difficult situtaiion from arising, IE never be alone with a stranger or customer of a snack

[trip_hop]

Yes, even for an Asian, Japan is relatively safe.

However, you know little of the way the fuzoku related pubs and snacks work. Hostesses are taken to nearby locked rooms or apartments for sex, they often have no choice in the customer, compared to a Roppongi hostess bar, and there are numerous fines for bad behaviour, not bringing in customers, not taking care of them. They are guarded 24 hours a day, moved around frequently, and many do not even know where they are in Japan.

They have little choice but to be alone with a customer. The alternate is a beating and fine. And Asian girls corpses and torsos are found in rivers and docks in Japan regularly.

They are sold from bar to bar, as they become tired and less attractive. Even if they contract AIDS, they are just passed on and sold to another place. They are usually in debt, paying off their ticket to Japan and other expenses. These girls are virtually bonded labour, and are very different to the foreign girls working in entertainment areas of Tokyo or Osaka.

It is estimated that about 50-80,000 Thais alone work in the Japan sex industry, decreased quite a bit since 1998, and despite these conditions, more than 70% return for further work. Because back home, it is worse. And Chinese CSWs in Thailand and other Asian countries get treated very badly, as do migrants/ refugees from Myanmar and Cambodia. I have no figures for the US or Europe.

Your 58 immigrants suffocated at Dover were not all entering the sex trade.

The global figure for human trafficking is around 300,000 persons (ILO/ IOM), and would include forced industrial labour and mail order brides, as well as prostitution. Women outnumber men in the international sex trade.

[Anonymous]

Oh god, I'm very sad to hear that about 50-80000 Thais working in sex industry in this sex craze country. I wish that I can do something about it. No wonder why many people here have wrong idea about me. However, those figures not only Thais. Also the people from tripes lived at border of Northern Thailand and China.