Most cabaret clubs charge customers anywhere from a few thousand yen to 10,000
yen an hour, during which time they are plied with drinks by usually young,
cocktail dress-clad young women - the kyabajo. Extra money comes from such
charges as extending the standard time period, or for designating a particular
kyabajo to serve drinks. Kyabajo take a slice of each bill paid and charges can
soon run into six-figure sums. Top kyabajo, Kimura says, can earn in the
vicinity of 20 million yen annually.
Manami Moriyama, a former kyabajo who now writes on the business, says the
picture isn't quite so rosy. She argues that except for the very top workers in
the industry, the average kyabajo is working a 6-hour day at somewhere from
3,000 yen to 5,000 yen an hour and an annual income of 5 million yen is more
typical.
"And yet everybody working in the sex business or at nightclubs thinks working
at a cabaret club is a fun way to make big money," Moriyama says.
Whatever the fiscal merits of serving drinks may be, there's little doubt that
the kyabajo caper is a popular one, as a company called Comtech Japan can
attest. Comtech is Japan's largest employment agency specializing in finding
jobs for nightclub hostess and kyabajo. Comtech, which operates with the
approval of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, has partnerships with
about 550 nightspots across the country and more than 6,000 women have
registered on its books.
Wannabe kyabajo simply register with Comtech at no charge and the agency tries
to find a club that best suits her needs. Agency employees accompany hostesses
to job interviews, help with the purchases of cocktail dresses and in finding
housing, often a problem for those working in adult entertainment businesses.
The agency will also represent any women who have trouble with employers.
Moriyama, who has worked with Comtech in the past, has mixed feelings about it.
"It may well be a convenient service for women working in adult businesses for
the first time, but as far as the club hiring the woman is concerned, the
agency doesn't always provide exactly the type of person desired. It probably
only has a success rate of about 10 percent," the hostessing expert tells
Sunday Mainichi.
Even when a club does take on a woman introduced by Comtech, it has to pay a 10
percent commission to the agency, meaning that unless the kyabajo makes a lot
of money and fast, there's always a strong temptation to sack her.
Kimura, the cabaret club connoisseur, is also bearish about hostess job
agencies.
"There's always been a huge gap in the quality of kyabajo who volunteer and
those who are scouted off the streets," he tells Sunday Mainichi. "Hands down,
the ones picked up off the streets make loads more money for the clubs."
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