Meet Japan’s Number One $200,000-A-Night Gigolo

There’s a thriving industry in Japan that’s causing a lot of buzz nowadays: it’s the male hosting business. Yes. In Japan, Japanese women hire male hosts to flirt with and talk to them. And it’s serious business: it’s a multi-million dollar industry.

The Vocativ documentary takes us into the lives of the Japanese male hosts, most particularly the life of Hikaru Aizawa. Aizawa is supposedly the most famous and best male host in all of Japan. He even said that he’s earned up to US $200,000 a night!

Male hosts are basically paid by women to go on dates with them — going out for dinner, drinking and other activities. The woman pays for everything, of course. If she’s lucky, the host may decide to have sex with her — but it’s not guaranteed. Japanese women who use these services mainly do so to fill emotional voids.

Aizawa takes us to his posh home, where he said everything in his house are gifts from his clients: luxury watches, jewelry, shoes, furniture and a $7,000 bottle of soju. His watches are special edition, owned by the likes of Brad Pitt and David Beckham — one of the watches even retails for a whopping $50,000. He tells us that when his clients decide to give him presents, he doesn’t ‘like surprises’ and tells them what he wants. He doesn’t want to receive gifts he won’t use or like.

Hikaru Aizawa, a former salesman, learned that “people do not buy your product because they’re good. They buy because they trust you”. This is the secret to his successful hosting career, and applied the lesson in selling himself to female clients.

Maybe it’s time for us to move to Japan and make a potential career change?