Lock please

[groink]

Don't know why people got so worked up with this article.

[Sayumi]

in 'Brother Beat' the middle brother also joins such a host club to earn a tremendous amount of money
honestly, it doesn't surprise me anymore... if there's a big moneymaking-thing as Johnny's entertainment, why wouldn't there be host clubs like this?

[LoveWillB4U]

for 1-5k a night... where do i sign up? lol crazy rich people...

[puffin]

hah actually there is already a drama based on this called Yaoh
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Yaoh

and of course the great documentary "The great happiness space" (great being severely depressing :p)

guess the western media is finally picking up on all this.

[Puppet Princess]

It quite obviously was a slow news day at CNN as host clubs and animes, mangas, movie, and TV shows about them... are not exactly new.

[groink]

It quite obviously was a slow news day at CNN as host clubs and animes, mangas, movie, and TV shows about them... are not exactly new.

Well, let's understand something here:

- 90-percent of D-Addicts knows about it.
- 99-percent of Japan knows about it.
- 98-percent of Eastern Asia knows about it.
- 90-percent of all of Asia knows about it.
- 0.05-percent of the U.S. knows about it

Despite being on the Internet, CNN is a U.S.-based news network. People on D-Addicts keep forgetting - Americans are not in-tune with pop culture in other countries. Once everyone understands this, then everything regarding us Americans' ignorance of Asian pop culture falls into place.

--- groink

[Tenguman]

Very true. Although it could have been reported more accurately by just talking about the phenomenon and not calling it the "latest" anything since host bars have been around for quite some time. This piece is like a report talking about the "pet rock" as the latest American trend.

[Puppet Princess]

^^ Exactly my point. Americans knowing about it or not.... it's isn't NEW. As far as informing Americans of Japanese pop culture it fails in that sense. It leads them to believe this is a new trend as apposed to something that's been around forever.

And it would still need to be a slow news day for them to find a report about host clubs in Japan a hot new topic.

[2triky]

For a more personal view on the world of male hosts in Japan, I recommend the documentary "The Great Happiness Space - Tale of an Osaka Love Thief" which exposes the world of male host clubs in Osaka. It is subbed in English. According to interviews given during the documentary some of these male hosts admit they can make up to 50,000 USD PER MONTH.

[Peggy]

Did not see this CNN report. Bit out of date aren't they.... Actually Takuya Kimura and Goro Inagaki have been doing a parody of host clubs (Hostman) for a long time. It is very funny and Kimura wears the sparkling white suit of the top guy. There was also a drama quite a long time ago of a host club with the drummer from Tokio playing a down and out who became a top Host. Think his name is Masahiro..but not sure. He was also the beautiful samurai in 'Mushashi'. Rather beautiful himself I used to think. Have not seen him lately.

No-one in US knows anything about Asia and probably could not even point to Japan or S.Korea on the globe. Cultural and entertainment stuff is like outer space....unless you know from places such as D-addicts etc.

Peg

Puffin..Just checked your post and found Yaoh. this is the drama I was mentioning. It was pretty interesting.

[doink-chan]

Honestly, host clubs aren't that new, as other people have said. I've known of them for several years now. Even though the average CNN reader probably doesn't know about them, CNN shouldn't have said that they're a new thing.