The Tragic Tale of a Tokyo Hostess

Feb. 17, 2006 — -- Lucie Blackman's story begins as an adventure -- one that many young women would find glamorous and exciting.

A beautiful 21-year-old woman from England, Blackman traveled to Tokyo in May 2000 and found what she thought would be a fun job at the center of the city's night life. Three months later, Blackman's story ended tragically, in a grisly crime that exposed the dark underside of the exclusive clubs in Tokyo's Roppongi district.

Many of Japan's nightspots are in the business of triggering fantasies and stirring desires. Nestled among those bawdy temptations are more reserved and respectable places called hostess clubs. These clubs deal not in overt sex but in illusions of intimacy.

At some clubs, an evening's agenda may include a little karaoke and some friendly dancing. And that, we're told, is the end of it. Hostess clubs are a normal part of sophisticated social life in Japan. In Tokyo alone, there are about 11,000 of them.

"Japanese people work a lot. And at the end of the day, you know, they'd like to have a drink. They'd like to, you know, have a chat with some ladies. … So they just pay to always have their drink looked after and always have their cigarette lit and, you know, a lovely lady by their side to talk to," explained Petrea, a former hostess at Club Outline.

A smart, lively blonde, Blackman found work as a hostess in one of these clubs.

A club provides a certain amount of security and protection to their hostesses through a female manager known as a "Mama-san," who watches over the hostesses like a taskmaster and a den mother.

"If we have any problems, it all goes through Mama, all of it. She's here every night. She is -- I don't know, she's like the manager, but she's Mama. She's like the owner, but she's Mama," Petrea said.

The young hostesses are made to feel protected from any inappropriate behavior they may encounter among clients. But in July 2000, that sense of security was shattered when Blackman disappeared from her job at Casablanca.

"It's so bizarre. The scary thing is that it could have been any of us," said Michelle Joyce, a former hostess.

Dai Davies, a private investigator and former Scotland Yard official, was hired by Blackman's family to find out what had happened to her. When Davies took a closer look at hostess clubs and the women who worked in them, he discovered a dark underside to Tokyo's glitz and neon that many young people find so attractive.

"There's a huge naivete. They're 21 years of age. They arrive here because it's glamorous. They think they're going to be, I don't know, bar stewardesses, bar maids. And I think very quickly they get sucked into an environment where it's high life. It's fun. You get smart men chatting you up. You get alcohol given to you," he said.

Joyce emphasized, however, that there was a strict protocol for the hostesses.

"Although we're supposed to appear available for these men, we would actually get fired if we slept with one of them. It's weird. It's kind of this fuzzy line between reality and fiction, and there's alcohol flowing. And it's just a very surreal environment," she said.

Sexual liaisons with customers are forbidden because, despite the come-ons, the clubs don't make money selling sex. They make money selling alcohol. The hostesses are just the hook.

"The whole structure's designed to get men in there, to take their money off them, to sell them as much alcohol, to get them to return. I've heard of people spending 2,000, 3,000 pounds a night. You pay a large sum of money just for the initial entry, where you are then presented with girls who actually sit there and -- and ply the men with drink. They chat, they smile, and they talk. They titillate their fancies, as it were," Davies said.

While the flirtation is supposed to be innocent, some say hostess jobs can take a toll.

"There's something that eats away at you. I don't know quite what it is. It's easy. You know, you talk, sort of like conversation prostitution. You know? Something about that bothers me," Petrea said.