With all the negative news about hosts right now (especially related to the way that the clubs leave clients in debt and some even force vulnerable women into prostitution), the industry needs some good news. But this might still be bad news for the flamboyant guys.
How come? Because it seems that some of the most popular hosts right now are actually women.
No, they’re not hostesses. They’re women dressed up as hosts.
According to an article in Weekly Gendai, Nia Amatsuka (天使ニア) is leading the trend.
As a woman (and as a lesbian), she understands her female clients better — and also what they want to see in a man, which she can then become.
We’ll presume Amatsuka is fine with conventionally female pronouns, since she has said in an interview with Daily Spa! that she does not regard herself as a man.
Formerly a member of a genderless idol group and a worker at a cosplay cafe, the Tochigi native became a host three years ago. She quickly became the top earner at her club and was selected to head a new club.
Amatsuka is now 30 and makes monthly sales of a cool ¥100 million for her club, Blue Rose (part of the Fuyutsuki group) in Kabukicho.
One client even paid for the notoriously expensive luxury item in any host club, the champagne tower, which cost ¥40 million — simply because it was Amatsuka’s birthday and she wanted to reward her favorite host!
Amatsuka is now pretty famous and enjoys a strong following on social media, so at one point her club was too busy with clients who wanted to meet her. She tells Gendai that they had to ask people to leave after just five or ten minutes, it was so busy!
Is this the brave new world of host clubs? Well, yes and no. Amatsuka’s popularity is arguably much of a muchness with long-standing aspects of gender fluidity in Japanese culture, not least the Takarazuka Revue with its perfect-looking maidens and handsome male leads — all played by women and adored by legions of female audiences.
