到底有多少人投入其實並不太清楚，但是光東京一地就有13,000間的夜店或娛樂場所是有這種公關公主(部份有男公關)的服務。
這也是一種新經濟嗎？舊行業與生意賦予新的定義，這也是一種創新。而已受過較好的教育的女孩子而言，投身酒店公主的行列，不就是避開了競爭激烈而且獲利微薄紅海的藍海策略嗎？撇開這些商學院裡談論的名詞，能打扮得光鮮亮麗，夜夜笙歌，跳舞喝酒，人生得意時不也才過這樣的日子而已嗎？還有甚麼工作可以讓自己在年輕時就過著時尚又奢華的生活呢？
工作會很難嗎？不就是盡情施展女性魅力，裝扮性感，嬌羞，撒嬌，甚至有些任性...或許不容易，但是當個辦公室助理就會比較輕鬆嗎？可以有一般上班族三到四倍的收入(酒店小姐年薪可以輕易的達到USD100,000)，就算真得比較困難，似乎也是合理的。一個OL要當上部長可真是困難，但成為一個紅牌的公主機率可是大多了！以收入、物質生活的光鮮程度、達到目標的時間與受歡迎的程度，一個紅牌的公主不亞於部長。
有越來越多日本年輕女性把酒店公主當作偶像，因為可以打扮漂亮、輕鬆賺錢，甚至媒體把酒店小姐描寫成在經濟不景氣下，力爭上游的灰姑娘。而闖出名號的酒店小姐，就仿若明星一般，甚至出書教大家談話與社交的藝術，還有日本電視台把這些投入酒店業的人描繪成力爭上游的灰姑娘，其中電台爭相邀請的桃華繪里這麼說道：「我常收到念小學的小女生的信件，說她們長大以後想跟我一樣，對小女生而言，酒店公主就是現代公主。」
這位桃華繪里，到底是不是這麼紅呢？索性Google 看看－
約有37,400項符合Momoka Eri的查詢結果
約有20,700項符合桃華繪里的查詢結果
甚至 Acer Aspire One 都還有 Momoka Eri Edition 呢!
日本文化研究院對東京1,154位女高中生的調查，酒店小姐在最受歡迎職業排行榜中，排第12，比18名的公務員或22名的護士還高。
看完這篇報導，心裡五味雜陳。這些女孩目標清楚，策略得宜，也可以說逐夢踏實。價格是由供給和需求決定的，她們顯然選了供給較少，需求還很強勁的產業。
像桃華繪里這般的女子，在台灣，前幾年常上電視節目的凌葳葳或許是晚近的代表吧！我是不知道日本有甚麼名藝妓，不過從中國的歷史來看，是有不少：梁紅玉、蘇小小、李詩詩、陳園園、賽金花、小鳳仙、魚玄機 ... 等等，她們的故事或傳奇也常成為電視或電影的題材。這也是一種復興嗎？甚至是Renaissance (因為有再生也有新生)?
不知道女性主義者對這樣的現象有何感想呢？或許只是我男性沙文主義作祟，我真的討厭資本主義：不管是什麼問題都是用市場經濟來解釋！有需求就會有供給，有交換就是市場，有市場就用的到行銷與管理。沒所謂道德，人本精神，傳統價值觀... 這些都是沒用的廢物，因為沒有經濟價值。我也討厭名詞的美化，君子所爭，名實而已。不論是Hostess 還是酒店小姐或公主，不就是「妓」的一種嗎？
這會是五或十年後的台灣社會嗎？亦或者是現在進行式呢？或許因中國的崛起，台灣的需求面會小一些。或許因對中國的持續開放，供給面也會大些.......
Yuli Weeks for The New York Times
Eri Momoka is a single mother who turned her hostess career into a lucrative fashion business, where she designs and sells hostess clothing and often appears on television. More Photos >By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: July 27, 2009
TOKYO — The women who pour drinks in Japan’s sleek gentlemen’s clubs were once shunned because their duties were considered immodest: lavishing adoring (albeit nonsexual) attention on men for a hefty fee.
But with that line of work, called hostessing, among the most lucrative jobs available to women and with the country neck-deep in a recession, hostess positions are increasingly coveted, and hostesses themselves are gaining respectability and even acclaim. Japan’s worst recession since World War II is changing mores.“
More women from a diversity of backgrounds are looking for hostess work,” said Kentaro Miura, who helps manage seven clubs in Kabuki-cho, Tokyo’s glittering red-light district. “There is less resistance to becoming a hostess. In fact,
it’s seen as a glamorous job.”
But behind this trend is a less-than-glamorous reality. Employment opportunities for young women, especially those with no college education, are often limited to low-paying, dead-end jobs or temp positions.
Even before the economic downturn, almost 70 percent of women ages 20 to 24 worked jobs with few benefits and little job security, according to a government labor survey. The situation has worsened in the recession.
For that reason, a growing number of Japanese women seem to believe that
work as a hostess, which can easily pay $100,000 a year, and as much as $300,000 for the biggest stars, makes economic sense.
Even part-time hostesses and those at the low end of the pay scale earn at least $20 an hour, almost twice the rate of most temp positions.
In a 2009 survey of 1,154 high school girls, by the Culture Studies Institute in Tokyo, hostessing ranked No. 12 out of the 40 most popular professions, ahead of public servant (18) and nurse (22).“It’s only when you’re young that you can earn money just by drinking with men,” said Mari Hamada, 17.
Many of the cabaret clubs, or kyabakura, are swank establishments of dark wood and plush cushions, where waiters in bow ties and hostesses in evening gowns flit about guests sipping fantastically expensive wine.
Some hostesses work to pay their way through college or toward a vocational degree, or to save up to start their own businesses.
Hostessing does not involve prostitution, though religious and women’s groups point out that hostesses can be pressured into having sex with clients, and that hostessing can be an entry point into Japan’s sprawling underground sex industry.Hostesses say that those are rare occurrences, and that exhaustion from a life of partying is a more common hazard in their profession.
Young women are drawn nonetheless to Cinderella stories like that of Eri Momoka, a single mother who became a hostess and worked her way out of penury to start a TV career and her own line of clothing and accessories.
“I often get fan mail from young girls in elementary school who say they want to be like me,” said Ms. Momoka, 27, interviewed in her trademark seven-inch heels. “
To a little girl, a hostess is like a modern-day princess.”
Even one member of the Japanese Parliament, Kazumi Ota, was a hostess. That revelation once would have ignited a huge scandal, but it has not. She will run for re-election on the leading opposition party ticket, the Democratic Party of Japan, in the national election next month, and the ticket is expected to unseat the ruling party.
It is unclear how many hostesses work in Japan. In Tokyo alone, about 13,000 establishments offer late-night entertainment by hostesses (and some male hosts), including members-only clubs frequented by politicians and company executives, as well as cheaper cabaret clubs.Hostesses tend to drinks, offer attentive conversation and accompany men on dates off premises, but do not generally have sex for money. (Men who seek that can go to prostitutes, though prostitution is illegal.)
Hostesses are often ranked according to popularity among clients, with the No. 1 of each club assuming the status of a star.
Mineri Hayashi has made it to the top of her club, Celux, six years after coming to Tokyo from northern Japan. One recent evening, she readied herself for an elaborate birthday event her club was throwing in her honor.
Outside the club, bigger-than-life posters of Ms. Hayashi adorned the street. At the club, a dozen men put up balloons and lined up Champagne bottles.
The club’s clientele is diverse, including workaday salarymen, business owners and other men unwinding after work.
Celux hopes to make more than $60,000 on Ms. Hayashi’s birthday party, which will be attended by scores of regulars.
“Life has been fun, and I want to keep on having fun,” Ms. Hayashi said, placing a tiara in her hair. She talks of plans to retire next year and travel abroad.
Her 17-year-old sister, who also wants to be a hostess, may succeed her. Ms. Hayashi is supportive. “I just want her to be happy,” she said.
Popular culture is also fueling hostessing’s popularity. TV sitcoms are starting to depict cabaret hostesses as women building successful careers.
Hostesses are also writing best-selling books, be they on money management or the art of conversation.A magazine that features hostess fashion has become wildly popular with women outside the trade, who mimic the heavily made-up eyes and big, coiffed hair.
But Serina Hoshino, 24, another Tokyo hostess, is exhausted from the late nights and heavy drinking.
Slumped in her chair at the M.A.C. hair salon, she talked about endless after-hours dates with clients. Stumbling back home at dawn, she sleeps the rest of the day. On her days off, she hardly leaves her apartment.
Her reward is about $16,000 a month, almost 10 times the salary of most women her age.
“It’s nice to be independent, but it’s very stressful,” Ms. Hoshino said, speaking through a cloud of hair spray and cigarette smoke.
In recent months, clubs have also started to feel the squeeze of the bad economy. Hostess wages are starting to fall to as little as $16 an hour. Still, that rate remains above many daytime jobs here.
So, the young women keep coming. The Kabuki-cho district is lined with dark-suited scouts recruiting women. One club recruiter said some women turn up to interviews with their mothers in tow, which never would have happened when the job was less respectable.“Women are being laid off from daytime jobs and so look for work with us,” said Hana Nakagawa, who runs a placement agency for higher-end clubs in Tokyo.
She gets about 40 inquiries a week from women looking for hostess jobs, twice as many as before the downturn.
Atsushi Miura, an expert on the issue, says hostessing will be popular among Japanese women as long as other well-paying jobs are scarce.
“Some people still say hostesses are wasting their life away,” he said. “But rather than criticizing them, Japan should create more jobs for young women.”
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/28/business/20090728-HOSTESS_index.html
The story was taken from the New York Times, the copyright remains with its original owner. The author of this story and the New York Times are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
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