「Gray generation puts 'pink' economy back in the black」の編集履歴（バックアップ）一覧に戻る
| The story below is originally published on Mainichi Daily News by Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi.jp). |
| They admitted inventing its kinky features, or rather deliberately mistranslating them from the original gossip magazine. |
| In fact, this is far from the general Japanese' behavior or sense of worth. |
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Gray generation puts 'pink' economy back in the black
Spa! (7/24) By Ryann Connell
Officially, Japan's economy is on the way back, but that's according to regular, respectable businesses.
To get a true indicator of whether there's a resurgence of Japan Inc., the most accurate way is to look at Japan Pink, according to Spa! (7/24).
"Business is definitely getting better," Spa! hears from a call girl performing enjo kosai, the euphemistic term to describe prostitution that literally translates as "compensated dating."
"At least it's become a lot easier to pick up clients in Tokyo through matchmaking sites, And I think business has really gotten better since April.
I've got a steady flow of repeat customers and even some customers who offer me pretty good money if I agree to meet them regularly.
Some girls are getting paid as much as 100,000 yen just for going to a love hotel once!"
Across the industry, however, feelings are a little mixed.
0f 28 women engaged in enjo kosai, 43 percent felt that the economy was improving, with regular users continuing their patronage and growing numbers of salarymen joining the game.
Also with mixed feelings about Japan's economy are nightclub hostesses.
"Traditional nightclub districts like Kabukicho, Roppongi and Akasaka have peaked.
Some places in Tokyo are doing all right, but a lot of clubs have been shut down and chains are downsizing.
There aren't as many great hostesses as there used to be and I don't think you could really say business is doing well in the capital," Takahiro Marui, managing editor of nightclub guidebook Club After, tells Spa!
Marui says it's a different story when it comes to the suburbs, where the nightclub caper is flourishing.
It's an argument borne out by a hostess working at a suburban club, "There's definitely been an increase in customers who really throw the cash around," she says.
"Some of them will put 500,000 yen in cash on a table and pay for drinks all around.
I heard one customer gave a girl a million yen in cash to go for a drive with him after she'd finished work and he bought her a really expensive Hermes handbag and stuff from a Don Quixote store."
High class soapland brothels are also seeing an improvement in their fortunes.
"Soaplands are not just about the (sexual) services we offer.
One of our sales points is the importance we place on human relations.
And it's the customers who have realized this that are the ones that are still using high class soaplands now.
Shooting straight, I'm talking about old guys.
We get some old gentlemen come into our soapland just to have a chat and a bath and they go home without doing anything sexual," a sex worker from Tokyo's Yoshiwara soapland district says.
An operator of a high-class call girl service also agrees the graying population is making business good.
"All my regulars are retirees.
The guys who try once just to see what it's like are always young and it's the old guys who keep coming back," the operator says.
"This business is splitting between ultra-high class services and ultra-cheap stuff.
The foreign girls are doing all the cheap work.
There was a rush of arrests late last year, but things are now back on track.
We pull in about 13 million yen a month now.
Whether the economy is good or bad, old guys will always make sure the cash keeps flowing in."
The Yoshiwara soapland brothel worker also has little time for younger clients, regardless of how much they may flash the cash.
"We have rich young clients who come in and throw their money around, offering hefty sums if I agree to go out with them after l finish work," the brothel worker tells Spa!
"What a nerve! I'm not so cheap as to be lured by a wad of cash." (By Ryann Connell)
（Mainichi Japan） July 23, 2007
