The Tragedy of a Young Host - The Dark Side of Kabukicho in 2013 (2013)

The Tragedy of a Young Host - The Dark Side of Kabukicho in 2013 (2013)

In June 2013, a 25-year-old rookie host was found dead as a strange body in a "suicide building" in Kabukicho. This miscellaneous building has been called a "place of death" in the past due to a string of suicides of people involved. Despite the glamorous surface of the town, the incident symbolizes the chain of despair that engulfs young people. In the background was the harsh working environment caused by the sales quotas and competition for nominations characteristic of host clubs, which pushed the debt-burdened hosts into a corner, both mentally and physically. In particular, unsuccessful newcomers struggled to secure customers and often committed suicide after being driven into a corner. In addition, in the early 2010s, Japanese society was in a period when irregular employment and low wages made young people unstable, and more and more of them turned to night work. Kabukicho offered the illusion of a get-rich-quick scheme, but in reality it was a hotbed of exploitation
and violence. After the cleansing operation, the town was improved on the surface, but behind the scenes, it went underground, and incidents and suicides increased in the shadows. The Suicide Building became a symbol of this, a reminder of the "exhaustion and death of youth" that lurked in the shadows of the glittering city.