End of an era: Hiroshima Daiichi Theater strip club closes after 46 years

Old strip clubs were already on a downward, possibly terminal spiral even before corona hit. The pandemic then wiped out the intimacy-based business model for all kinds of strip shows, not to mention hostess and host clubs and even fuzoku sex services. But perhaps especially the vintage burlesque and strip clubs were more precarious than others, being frequented by older clientele and located often in small premises (and in regional areas).

We already reported in one long-running strip club in Ehime’s struggle to stay afloat during the crisis.

There are relatively few such old clubs left in major cities, where more recent strip clubs instead exist with more sophisticated venues and acts.

Now comes the sad but also inevitable news that the Hiroshima Daiichi Theater, a classic strip club and the last of its kind in the Chugoku region of Japan, has shut its doors for the last time.

Famed for its lipstick-marked walls from retiring dancers, the Hiroshima Daiichi Theater opened in the Yagenbori nightlife district of the city in 1975. This was the golden age of such strip joints; there were 320 across Japan in 1982.

The rise of adult video in the 1980s and 1990s, and then the internet after that, were the slow death knell of such clubs, along with pressure from police, who closed some clubs and frightened owners not to present “extreme” shows.

Now, only a couple dozen or so remain.

The pandemic was actually not the direct cause of this latest closure: the Hiroshima Daiichi Theater’s proprietor had already decided to close in 2017, but got an unexpected boost when the establishment was used to shoot a film that garnered some international attention.

For the final show on May 20, it was standing-room only but there was no going back, despite this flurry of interest. The demolition has already started and the site will become a hotel.