Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club

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Men that go to the hostesses' clubs make commentaries, they may say they are being forced to be there, etc. Don't speak lots of stories of men trying to flirt with hostesses, though. For that, maybe a book or a TV drama will do a better job. Nov 24, Ulrike rated it liked it Shelves: Finished this a long time ago. I just handed in the thesis I used this book for, haha! This was an interesting read. There is just so much information and perspectives in here and it made me think a lot.

Some of the chapters couldn't really keep me interested but that might have been due to my personal interests. In any case, if you're interested in the workings of hostess clubs and how it relates to Japanese businesses, this book is amazing! Nov 24, Kazen rated it liked it. Nightwork is a good book in that it does exactly what it says on the tin - discuss hostess clubs in Japan from a sociological and anthropological standpoint. The problem is that it's hard to recommend to almost anyone. First, the subject matter. Hostess clubs are establishments where groups of men, usually on company expense accounts, go to socialize with colleagues and potential business partners.

Hostesses are assigned to each table to light cigarettes, pour drinks, and keep the conversation go Nightwork is a good book in that it does exactly what it says on the tin - discuss hostess clubs in Japan from a sociological and anthropological standpoint. Hostesses are assigned to each table to light cigarettes, pour drinks, and keep the conversation going.

It is not a place of prostitution or a sex club, and the better the establishment the less the chance of anything outside a casual touch. They don't sell sex, they sell the idea of sex. The hostesses and "mama" club owner make men feel smart and sexy and desirable for a hefty hourly rate. I picked up this book because I've heard about hostess clubs the entire time I've been in Japan, but I've never known anyone who has been to one.

They're not as common as they used to be, I gather, and I'm not friends with any management types who have an excuse to visit on their company's dime. A few early chapters outline what a usual visit is like, how the clubs are arranged, and why companies see visits as an investment in their employees.

The book carries a huge caveat with it, though - it has become extremely out of date. The author spent a few months as a hostess in , and the book itself was published in Many of the cited works are from the 70s and 80s, and I'm sure research has advanced in the intervening 30 years. Textbook-y and sometimes dry writing aside, that time disconnect makes this book hard to recommend. If you don't know what Japan looks like now you may be tempted to apply everything to the current day, but you can't.

Some insights carry over, but not all of them. There's no way to suss out which is which unless you're already at least knee deep in the culture. However those with a more casual interest would do better looking elsewhere. Sep 14, Nicki rated it liked it. I did realise what I was getting into with this one, at times very dry reading.

Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club

I picked up a few new words too as I am learning Japanese. Probably not ones I had better repeat in front of my sensei! Definitely not a book I would recommend to everyone. The Japanese work culture and attitude to work is something I will probably never really understand, honestly it seems awful, but this book does partially explain.

Dec 21, Patrick McCoy rated it really liked it Shelves: Even though a lot of the fieldwork was during the heady bubble days when corporations had these enormous entertainment budgets, I think Allison has a lot to say about work, play, sexuality, marriages, and Japanese society. I have to admit it is one of those largely Asian customs that I always found somewhat baffling, why would you pay an exorbitant price to be indulged by women who were clearly only doing so because they were paid and think Allison has done a remarkable job of explaining the appeal of such institutions.

One of the greatest cultural differences between Americans and Japanese can be seen by the lines that separate work from play and public from private in the two cultures. The roles of husband and wife are much more clearly drawn in Japanese society as well where the male is only responsible for working and being the breadwinner, while women are solely responsible for the household and the raising of the children.

They rarely spend leisure time together, and Allison quotes many men who say that they cannot relax at home, thus they need somewhere outside the office and home to do so. Allison also looks the extremely strong between mother and children, especially men.

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I found this to be a well-researched and fascinating look at male and female roles in society, as well as an understanding of the role the mizu shobai Water trade plays in society. It is written in academic style, however, it is not complettely unreadable and quite provocative in several sections.

Sep 27, Nikmaack rated it did not like it. The only people who will ever successfully read this book are being forced to do so by cruel anthropology professors. I got through the introduction. It took me a long time. And I told myself, it can only get better from here.

Quite honestly, I told myself I would keep reading and I never did. I just can't do it to myself. Hilariously, the author writes this in the The only people who will ever successfully read this book are being forced to do so by cruel anthropology professors.

Hilariously, the author writes this in the introduction: I have attempted to make this section as readable and accessible as possible, assuming that many readers who are interested in the phenomenon of company-paid entertainment at hostess clubs will be uninterested in certain debates, theories, and discourses within the discipline of anthropology.

The sentence is unintentionally hilarious. Jun 07, Chelsea Szendi rated it really liked it Shelves: This is a nice companion piece to Allison's "Prohibited and Permitted Desires," since it examines the male gender expectations and privileges of contemporary Japanese society. It is a little dry however, but the last part is so so so dog-earmarkable.

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Dec 31, Bob Newman rated it it was amazing. Massage Parlors of the Ego For many years, Japan's hardworking salarymen men working in middle and large size companies engaged in various businesses have repaired to special clubs after hours to drink and be entertained by women of a demi-monde.

Geishas worked in this way in their day, but now, the traditional aspects of Japanese culture that were personified in the geisha are outmoded. The salarymen want or at least get a more modern style woman.

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What goes on in such clubs? What is the re Massage Parlors of the Ego For many years, Japan's hardworking salarymen men working in middle and large size companies engaged in various businesses have repaired to special clubs after hours to drink and be entertained by women of a demi-monde. What is the relationship of businesses to the clubs? How do such clubs fit into the overall picture of Japanese culture?

Anne Allison became a hostess in one club for some months back in the s. She didn't hide the fact that she was an anthropologist, but was accepted as a hostess anyway. The result is this most interesting and well-written book which answers all three questions very ably. Not only is the description of the research engrossing, but the author contests or agrees with the views of Japanese sociologists very capably. It is a very good idea to discuss what Japanese intellectuals think about hostess clubs, though most such people disparaged her research plan and thought that she would learn nothing.

People like myself, who have not read such Japanese academics as Aida, Tada, Minami, Nakane, Ishikawa, Wagatsuma, or Yoda, but are interested in their arguments, will find the subsequent discussion most fascinating. Allison also weaves in some arguments from such theoreticians as Barthes and Lacan, but does not engage in the jargon which mars their work. Hostess clubs, while seeming an innocuous, if titillating part of Japanese culture, turn out to be a nexus where attitudes and expectations about work, play, sex, gender roles, identity and money come together.

The ethnographic descriptions of behavior and conversations in the club make fascinating reading.

Paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for short periods of drinking and mostly insubstantial chat with hostesses, Japanese companies believe that their business deals are enhanced and that human relations among bosses and workers are improved. Allison argues that in addition hostess clubs function as a place where men's egos but nothing else are massaged by the attentive, flattering behavior of the hostesses.

If you are teaching a course on Japanese culture or society, if you're a graduate student in Japanese studies, or if you are interested in gender and role formation in any society, this book is a must, so well-organized and clearly-written. Feb 03, Kayla Lessard rated it really liked it. Anne Allison successfully outlines in her book Nightwork, the intricacies of the hostess club experience during the s and how it fits into Japanese society.

She is able to show her readers the way that Japanese society talks about the clubs and how it is very different then what actually happens. The basic idea that society gives to why men need this kind of nightlife is that their men work very long hours and went through rigorous examinations before they even got hired and that they deserv Anne Allison successfully outlines in her book Nightwork, the intricacies of the hostess club experience during the s and how it fits into Japanese society.

The basic idea that society gives to why men need this kind of nightlife is that their men work very long hours and went through rigorous examinations before they even got hired and that they deserve to be taken care of. The clubs give these men an outlet to get their egos stroked.

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Japanese society is different than American society, bosses are suppose to care about their employees, it is a humanized hierarchy, which means the hostess clubs show these men that the company cares about them and their desires. However, Allison seems to be skeptical of the repercussions of this thinking. If the men decide to opt out of the hostess club scene they will not climb up the corporate ladder. Men in Japan are judged strongly on their ability to provide for their families, opting out is not a even a choice in most cases.

I think that is a very strong point, which gives power to the wives that are being ignored. In my opinion she is able to not judge the women through an American lenses but instead try to understand how they fit into their own world and in a Japanese contest.

This could be seen as manipulative and even immoral in western eyes but Allison is as un-bias as possible. Allison describes how the men are together all day at work and sometimes have little to talk about so the hostess is used to distract them and is seen as helping the conversation go smoother. Also, she brings sexuality into the conversation with flirtatious banter, teasing, and even making the men sing. Her ability to create an illusive relationship between serious and light is what men go to the clubs for.

Allison describes it as less about what she does for the men and more about what she is. Feb 17, Susan rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed this text! Readers should note that this text was published in and based on field work done in the s, back in the heyday of the Japanese economy and consumerism. The economy has since declined -- in curious to see how his has impacted the mizo shobai in the s. I would be interested to read a more current analysis, and I really enjoyed this text! I would be interested to read a more current analysis, and one that also explores the male led host clubs.

Jan 27, Sophia rated it liked it Shelves: Prices are often high and, as in many commercial fields, a wide range exists between low-prestige and high-prestige clubs, based on price and exclusiveness, often defined by the level of education of the serving women. Such clubs are part of the Japanese nightlife industry called the mizu shoubai , which also includes prostitution. Genital sexual activities at hostess clubs, however, is strictly prohibited. As one interview states, Nightwork counters the concept many Westerners have about Japan as "a well-ordered family-oriented society with no ostensible 'underworld.

The work also tells of gender roles in Japan and features of the contemporary Japanese family. Working men, due to their obligation to engage in socializing, are often absent from the home. The Japanese government in the s granted after-work entertainment such as hostess clubs tax-deductible expense status as a result of the idea that its integrality to corporate culture would help Japan's economic success.

Men were at home typically only on the weekends, a well-documented phenomenon, leading to the colloquial term for fathers and husbands in contemporary Japanese society, "our Sunday friend. Anne Allison, currently professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University in the United States, wrote Nightwork through participant-observation ethnography.

Allison, who received her Ph. She observed and interviewed hostesses and other club workers as well as wives of the men who frequented such clubs and others. The unique perspective developed in the work derives from the fact that the clubs are viewed through the eyes of a woman and feminist anthropologist, who actually worked in the environment on a daily basis. Some critics have suggested, however, that Allison insufficiently addressed the degree to which her identity as a Caucasian Westerner may have influenced the interactions she took part in and observed in the hostess club.

Nightwork: sexuality, pleasure, and corporate masculinity in a Tokyo hostess club

The book was published in , while the fieldwork was done in the mids. Some social changes occurred with the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy in the early s. As a result, some believe that the book was out of date even when first published. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.

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