Voices that Open the Door to Desire - Testimonies of Living the Shinjuku Nights 1990s-2000s

Voices that Open the Door to Desire - Testimonies of Living the Shinjuku Nights 1990s-2000s

In the 1990s and 2000s, Kabukicho in Shinjuku was enveloped in an unusual feverish atmosphere at night, even as the aftermath of the bursting of the bubble economy lingered in the air. In daytime society, the financial crisis symbolized by the collapse of Yamaichi Securities and Taku Bank, restructuring, and rising unemployment were crushing people, and their depression flowed into the nightlife, making the neon lights even more vivid. The prosperity of consumer finance, which facilitated debt, also became a source of funds to support the adult entertainment and host industries.

Scouts approached women wandering the streets and lured them into the nightlife, using such cloak-and-dagger tactics as "catch a swallowtail butterfly" and "you can make money if you change boxes. The tightening of regulations in 1999 and the "Kabukicho Purification Operation" in 2003 reduced the glamour on the surface and further strengthened the ties with the underworld.

Meanwhile, the hosts were determined to get their hands on "fat princesses," and champagne towers were erected in the clubs. In the early 2000s, Kabukicho was the subject of TV and movies, and its image as a town where danger and glamour coexisted became socially fixed. The 2004 fight in front of the Koma Theater and the "scout hunting incident" in 2007 made this tension a reality and cast a heavy shadow over the entire town.

The stories of scouts and hosts thus left behind are not mere boasts or rumors, but are the very breath of Kabukicho in this era. The economic turbulence, tightening regulations, contacts with the entertainment industry, and gang wars are intricately intertwined and etched in the voices of each and every one of them.