Danica Davidson
May 20, 2025 
Last year, there were approximately 1,100 host clubs in Japan, with about a third of them in Tokyo. These are supposed to be fun, entertaining excursions, like we see in Ouran High School Host Club (and check out Otaku USA’s interview with Kyoya’s voice actor here). And most of them are just fun and safe. But a percentage of host clubs have been known to abuse their power, even to the point of forcing customers into sex work.
In 2023, there were 121 criminal investigations around host club workers, and that number went up to 207 in 2024. It’s enough of a problem it actually went before the Japanese government, where the law is being changed in an attempt to better protect customers from nefarious practices.
For example, some host clubs have made women buy food or drinks in order to see a specific host. This can potentially lead to a high bill that she has to pay off, and sometimes this happens through very exploitive means. So this action of forcing her to buy food and drinks to see a host will now be against the law.
The first time a club is caught doing this, they’ll be told to knock it off. If they get caught doing it again, they can lose their business license.
In addition, host clubs can’t pressure customers who owe them money to go into prostitution or pornography to cancel their debts. Likewise, prostitution rings can’t use hosts to lure women into working for them. Fines and prison terms are possible punishments for breaking these laws.
Managers overseeing corrupt host clubs can also face steeper punishments. Before they might get two years behind bars for the same crimes. Going forward, once the law is implemented within the next six months, they can get up to five years behind bars. Fines that were once stopped at 2 million yen (about $13,838.60) will soon be up to 10 million yen (about $69,193.00).
A whole establishment can also face a fine of up to 300 million yen (about $2,075,887.53).
Source: Kyodo News
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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