A major part of the appeal of events like the Tokyo Game Show and various car events is getting to see the slinkily dressed booth babes, known collectively as "companions" in Japanese. They stand at the promotional area, handing out flyers or otherwise attracting attention to the display with their bodies.
Sure, it's a deeply dated and sexist marketing technique, but it works, and the booth babes have developed their own fandom, with many attendees coming just for them. A small minority of companions even manage to move into gravure modeling, like Kanami Takasaki.
But like with cosplayers ...
