Japanese woman forced by host club debts to work as prostitute in Macau
The stories about the victims of male hosts’ exploitation seem to become more sensational week by week.
Last week, we wrote about the schoolgirl who was allowed to build up a huge bill at a host club and had to prostitute herself to pay off her debt.
Now comes a story in which this latest moral panic seems to dovetail with another recent trend: the tales of Japanese women going abroad to earn money as sex workers and take advantage of the weak yen.
This has become so common that a crackdown has started in the United States.
China, Hong Kong, and Macau remain popular destinations, however (including for Japanese porn stars who want to earn more money than a shoot).
The Sankei newspaper recently ran a story about a woman who built up a big debt at a host club and turned to working in Macau as a prostitute to pay it back.
The woman in her forties thought it would be impossible, not being able to speak the language, but she found herself with no choice but to travel to Macau last June.
She unknowingly racked up a debt of a ¥1 million at a club, which continued to serve the expensive “champagne towers.” Eventually, her debt grew so much that she had to take out as many as 30 credit cards to keep up with repayments on her debts of ¥25 million.
It was a host who suggested she work overseas as a prostitute and who introduced her to a middle man.
She was presented with several options but chose the Las Vegas of the Far East: Macau.
She worked from six in the evening until four in the morning. She would present herself to 40-50 customers at a “showtime” event on a stage. If she was picked by a customer, they would go to a booth for a session together. She earned around ¥30,000 per session and would service between five or six customers per day. Needless to say, this was physically and mentally very tough on her, and she eventually returned to Japan.
Back home, she was encouraged by the host to continue working as a prostitute, which she did at Yoshiwara.
She has now repaid the ¥25 million to the club but still has to pay off her credit cards.
“I lost my job, my money. All I have is regret,” she says.
4 Comments
this sounds like bullocks. are these “stories” ever independently verified? do journalistic ethics exist in Japan?
@Mike Travels – Not sure if this story has been checked, but theres heaps of girls working the night trade to either go to Host bars or buy high end designer goods. In the last five or so years the numbers have exploded, recently unconfirmed reports that there are now more girls plying the trade then customers. And yes the stories are true young J women have been turned around at the borders in both America and Australia.
what, even the famous girl scammer also is doing the scam because she addicted to host club, u probably never heard of these host club…
@jack from downunder – Well with the Yen being where it is now, those imported Dom Perignons that the host bars serve are certainly getting more expensive…..Everyone’s feeling the pinch with the higher costs of living in J land, and wages fail to keep up as people forget how to negotiate raises after 30 years of deflation.
As for Macau, it’s a haven of sin that serves both HK and China, and the HK Dollar is tied to the USD.