Empowerment or Exploitation: The experience of a white hostess in Japan

The recent TV series Tokyo Vice gives a dramatic glimpse into a lesser-known aspect of Japan society in the 1990’s. Set in the world of night work or Mizu Shobai, it features the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and gives a glamorous and somewhat dangerous portrayal of foreign women working as hostesses in a Tokyo bar.

This research examines that role of the white ‘gaijin’ (foreigner) woman who worked as bar hostess in Japan during this period, after the Bubble economic boom, how they lived this real-life scenario and why they were both revered and reviled.
This employment sometimes described as a modern day ‘geisha’ has been criticised as exploiting women and comes with a stigma in Japan. But could it also empower these foreign women within this historically patriarchal society?
This type of work is somewhat misunderstood and relatively unknown outside Japan and this research examines the hostess position from a sociological and historical point of view to understand it’s place in Japanese culture. From a feminist perspective, it explores why it has been undertaken by so many young women travellers and expatriates including some notable women of the arts & literature and the impact it had on their lives.

This discussion is part of wider research exploring the experiences of western women living in Japan, including this role. Through interviews, participant observation and personal narratives I am investigating the divergent relationship between these women and Japanese culture and how it can effect change in cultural understanding and potentially female empowerment. Within this area, I explore why these women, like many foreigners remained ‘outsiders’, in Japanese society and examines why this liminal state is restrictive due to discriminatory attitudes and polices but also allows a distinctive freedom and privilege to westerners including social and employment opportunities that would not exist elsewhere.