A Kabukicho host club has formed a pop band. Fronted by Yuga, formerly of the avex band Kids Alive, Club Prince released their first single, "Love Dokkyun," last week.
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Ha, Ha.. Great video. I think it's universal; needy women love cheese.

GJ

Call me ethnocentric, but I will never understand the Japanese concept of masculinity.

Love the Pink Salon soundtrack! Maybe they'll be the openers for the 2016 Olympics! BTW - are they from a gay host club?

They're not gay. Why would you think that? All that imagery they use is pretty standard in the biz.

Para Para was so 1998.

They broke one of the most important rules for J-pop. Insipid stuff like this should drag on no longer then 3 minutes.

Captain Japan wrote:They're not gay. Why would you think that? All that imagery they use is pretty standard in the biz.

I gotta go with SJ. They look like a posse of rope skippers to me! Capt'n, when you say standard in the Biz, I assume you mean J-biz.

Here's the story I wrote on Club Prince. You can click on those photos for bigger images.

gboothe wrote:I gotta go with SJ. They look like a posse of rope skippers to me! Capt'n, when you say standard in the Biz, I assume you mean J-biz.

If you crack open any one of those freepapers advertising the clubs you'll see that all these guys look nearly the same. There's very little difference.

It is a strange business. I still can't really understand why girls go. I did a few interviews but with all the ridiculous amounts of tatemae flying around it is really tough to get a feeling for what is going on.

You can find many, many articles talking about how the existence of these clubs shows that women are finally achieving some sort of equality in Japan (i.e. men are now serving them). But the whole process is so hopelessly fake - with both parties knowing such - that to me this kind of thinking is pure bullshit.

I think a lot of the appeal is simply prestige. If the prices weren't ridiculously high I don't think anyone would go. I think it is just another way for woman to feel important - very much in the way she might when buying an overpriced handbag. I guess there is the prostition angle to it as well. But when I showed ads for hosts to a hostess who goes to the clubs she very quickly said "kimochi warui" to each page. Even she couldn't give me a real good idea why she went to the clubs - other than to say it was something to do after work.

Host club manager arrested for forcing indebted client into prostitution
Mainichi

A host club manager and three other people were arrested on Tuesday for forcing a woman into prostitution after she couldn't pay her bills at the club, police said.

Yuichi Iseki, 35, manager of a host club in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Shinichiro Sugino, 44, who runs a "soapland" brothel in Tokyo's Taito-ku, and two others stand accused of anti-prostitution law violations.

They allegedly victimized a 20-year-old woman customer who rang up bills of some 8 million yen while meeting a 19-year-old host at Iseki's club. On one day alone her bill topped some 300,000 yen....more...

Captain Japan wrote:Host club manager arrested for forcing indebted client into prostitution
Mainichi

Well, into each life a little rain, make that soap, must fall!

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I saw them last week at Joule (night club in Osaka). It was better than Men's Egg night.

That Club Prince full-length that everyone on this board has been waiting for, Party Yaro, was released with a DVD in January.