Now Hiring: Hostess with the Mostest

I reported earlier that our economic woes have forced American women to take jobs that might not be acceptable to everyone, including the women taking them. There’s been a boom in the sex business, attracting women from all walks of life and all educational backgrounds.

According to the New York Times, there’s a Japanese version of this happening as well. The once-scorned job of hostess at Japanese gentlemen’s clubs is looking better all the time. A Japanese hostess pours drinks, offers attentive (even profuse) conversation, and accompanies a male client on dates off premises. A hostess is paid well, making between $100,000 and $300,000 per year, depending on her popularity.

According to the gentlemen’s clubs and the hostesses, part of the deal is not having sex. In Japan, if you want sex, you go to a prostitute. If you want the company of a glamorous woman, you go to a hostess. Although those who still look down on hostessing say that it leads to Japan’s huge underground sex industry, hostesses say that’s rare. They say a more common hazard in their profession is exhaustion from a life of partying night after night.

Some hostesses have moved on to be TV and fashion celebrities. Clearly, there’s a lot of age discrimination occurring in the hostess business. You have to be young. But I don’t think Japan has an age discrimination law.