By Kyung Lah
CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2008/W...index.html

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs.

Businesswomen in Japan pay up to $50,000 a night for male companionship from "hosts" like Yunosuke (IS THIS PRONOUNCED HOW IT LOOKS???? *DEAD*).

This isn't a date, though. It's business.

The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship.

They meet their "hosts" in hundreds of clubs that have sprung up around Tokyo - the industry says only compliments are exchanged. The women pay for a man to lavish them with undivided attention.

"There's nothing wrong with a woman paying to be entertained by a man," one female client says. "It's just another step in equality."

It's a dizzying reversal of traditional gender roles in a country long known for geishas pampering male clients with conversation, singing and dancing. Now a new breed of entertainer has cropped up -- think of them as male geishas.

"I give women things that men normally don't do, like complimenting their appearance," says one host, 24-year-old Yunosuke, who only goes by his single host name. "I make women happy."

And they make him happy: Yunosuke says he earned more than $200,000 last year, enough to let him visit a salon once a day to have his hair dyed and blow-dried.

"Women see us as one of their accessories," he says. "They like to wear nice things, so I try to look prettier for them all the time."

What drives the business boom is an increase in the earning power of Japanese women, according to Air Group, a company that owns a chain of "host" clubs.

"Japanese women are now working hard and making more money," says Yuko Takeyama, a woman in her early 30s who manages Air Group. "They see this as a way to de-stress."

Women love being treated well without the pressures that come with dating, she says.

Yunosuke's customer from the nightclub agrees.

"This is a gift for myself," she says. "It's the same as spending money on a trip or buying

i want one!

Time 2 move 2 Japan. I need a higher paying gig.

evenstar said:

Another?

Graycap23 said:

You can be my Geisha Guy

PANDURITO said:

i'm greedy.

Christ, I am in the WRONG line of work.

VoicesCarry said:

Mach said:

I'm off 2 buy some new robs.....

evenstar said:

You'd get a freebie.

VoicesCarry said:

awesome!

This is a dude?

JustErin said:

Yunosuke!!!

VoicesCarry said:

I like 'em pretty but not prettier than me.

JustErin said:

But you could share lip gloss!

What does one have 2 do 2 EARN $50,000 in one night?

VoicesCarry said:

worst.nightmare

I seriously doubt WOMEN are paying these men and they aren't getting that much damn money. Up to 50k a night my ass, more like up to 50 dollars a night and a bottle of gel. Someone needs to send these metrosexuals back to the stroll and tell their pimp to stop trying to sell these diseased ladyboys to women.

VoicesCarry said:

i'll share eyeliner with a boy, but lip gloss is pushing it.

Dance said:

looks like someone's feeling threatened

You, Dance, are sorely mistaken.

Male hosts, as they're called, are a REAL and freakin amazin phenomenon.

They do indeed make money more ludicrous than you would believe.

Seoul, Korea has the same phenomenon...I know, I was offered work as a 'host'.

And ya know what...???

I'm gonna do it; learning Korean now.

Before you knock it as well, why not look into it? I'm Aussie, and while many of the hosts in Seoul were Korean, I was told they love foreign pretty boys as well.
But you do need to speak Korean (or Japanese in Japan of course) and be very good looking. It doesn't hurt if you're a model either, as many hosts are.

And not all hosts are pretty boys, either. I'm certainly not effeminate, but I have been called cute all my life.

And you don't have to bang the women (although many do if the price is right), all you have to do is pour their drinks, light their smokes, laugh and flirt with them, and match them drink for drink.

Yes, peeps, I have found my dream job.

BTW, Korean women are unbelievably beautiful...I just could not believe the caliber of the girls in Seoul. Fucking unbelievable.

Imago said:

i wonder if there's a market for this in the uk

evenstar said:

Nope, very unlikely. At least not for the female equivalent hostess bar. After being introduced to this phenomenal world last year, I looked into the prospects of opening up a club in the States, Australia or the UK and this is what I found:

Western men (and most likely women)will simply not pay these exorbitant fees, when they could go to a brothel for a hundreth of the cost.

It is most definitely exclusively an Asian thing in the rich cities of Tokyo and Seoul, where men and women are happy to drop tens of thousands at a club just to bond with their business partners. It's a very, very interesting cultural phenomenon.

But so true.

Bull. Absolute bull.

Dance said:

You speak with such certainty, but are oh-so-wrong.

Why not get your facts straight before making such bold statements?

Just a thought...

And I'd be happy to PM you any info concerning my near-future career if it will convince you...

purplemoonkitten said:

o RLY.

What is RLY????

But yeah, dude, why not do some research? It might be your calling as well as mine...hehe

evenstar said:

At least I could scrape together a living for love