Voices in the Margins of the Kabukicho Night: Women's After Hours, 2005-2012

Voices in the Margins of the Kabukicho Night: Women's After Hours, 2005-2012

From the mid-2000s to the early 2010s, Kabukicho's cabarets reached a stage of maturity, and "after hours" after business became an important ritual. The time spent with customers at another establishment after closing is an extension of the in-store experience, but at the same time, it is a place where private true faces emerge. The after hours were a unique nighttime urban space where the boundaries between financial relationships and emotions blurred and blended.

Against the social background of the time, the prolonged economic downturn and the expansion of informal employment made the younger generation anxious, and many women sought income and approval in the nightlife that they could not obtain during the day. As the economic stagnation deepened after the Lehman Shock (2008) and cabaret club sales became unstable, after-hours activities to maintain relationships with customers gained weight as a survival strategy. The after-hours was the space between work and private life, an escape for the mind, but also a stage to perform on again.

Smartphones and social networking services became widespread during this period, and cabaret girls entered an era of self-branding, in which they transmitted their own stories. Photos and words were uploaded to social networking sites after business hours, and the after hours became part of the self-production process. The girls kept smiles on their faces, protected their egos, shared their solitude, and returned the next night.

In the margins of the night called "after," urban solitude and solidarity cohabit. Under the neon lights of Kabukicho, between laughter and silence, these women continue to play out their lives today.