New law means that one of the host club industry’s standard marketing ploys is now illegal.
In May, the Japanese government passed new ordinances regarding host clubs, bars where women pay for the privilege of having handsome men sit, drink, and chat with them. The changes were prompted by recent increases in instances of women falling into heavy debt at host clubs and then being pressured to take on work themselves at hostess clubs or other sexual entertainment providers in order to pay back the money they owe.
This wasn’t a case of politicians punting the issue into the far future for other administrations to deal with, either, as the amendments to the Entertainment Business Law are already in effect. As of June 28, it is now illegal for hosts to exploit customers’ romantic feelings as a means to coerce them to spend more money at their club. More concrete amendments to the law also make it illegal for host clubs to allow customers to drink on credit (thus going into debt to the club), and the system of “scout back” payments, in which host clubs would receive payments for referring in-debt female customers to hostess club owners, adult video producers, and other adult entertainment employers.
There’s one other major change to the law, and it affects how host clubs are allowed to advertise. As it so happens, SoraNews24 headquarters in Tokyo isn’t that far from the section of the Kabukicho neighborhood that has one of Japan’s largest number of host clubs, and well as one of the densest concentrations of horst club billboards. So now that the Entertainment Business Law revisions are in place, we decided to stroll on over and see what’s changed, and sure enough, the place is looking different these days.
We’ve blurred the faces and names of the hosts/host clubs in these photos, but the large and numerous blacked-out sections? That’s not photo editing on our end – that’s how host club ads in Shinjuku actually look right now.
The above photo was taken at the Ecolo Park Kabuki-cho 21 parking lot corner, which has been covered in host club ads for many years. About a third of the space now is solid black, with entire advertisements entirely removed or completely covered.
▼ A Google Street View screen capture showing what the place looked like in December of 2024
So why the change? Under the new laws, it’s now illegal for host clubs to publicize an individual host’s earnings for the club, either in numerical terms or relative references like “our club’s number-one host,” in its advertising. References to things such as being the club’s most often requested host from customers is also banned, as are both titles and pseudo-titles, such as “the million yen-a-night player.”
Broadcasting an aura of success has long been a major part of host club marketing, as creating the mystique that a host is in high demand makes time with him feel like a previous commodity, and a host who’s then skilled enough to make the customer he’s talking to at that moment feel like he’s especially fond of her gives her an additional ego boost by making her feel like she stands out from the rest of his admirers. It can also act as lucrative leverage in convincing customers to spend beyond their budget, because of course they don’t want their favorite host to lose his status as one of the club’s brightest stars, do they?
Now all of that is off the table in terms of allowable advertising though, which means that there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be covered if host clubs want to keep their existing signs up. While wide strips of black tape is the most common way host clubs are complying, some have picked other colors top try to blend into the ads background better or tried to do a street art-style paint-over.
With the short time between when the new ordinances were announced and when they went into effect, odds are all the self-censoring tape is just a temporary response while waiting for new signs to be printed that are compliant with the new law, but host club advertising is going to look a little different going forward.
Screenshot: Google Street View
All other photos ©SoraNews24
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