British documentary exposes risks for foreign hostesses in Japan

Working as a hostess in Japan remains a potentially unsafe job despite claims of better regulation in the wake of the Lucie Blackman case, according to a former police chief who helped the victim's family investigate her death.

Dai Davies found that bars in Tokyo are still prepared to employ young foreign women without proper work visas — as in Lucie Blackman's case — leaving them less likely to complain to police if attacked by clients because they are working illegally.

Davies made the discovery while assisting undercover Welsh TV reporter Sian Morgan who was making a documentary posing as a British hostess without a working visa.

He told Kyodo News that some of the bars were nothing more than "brothels." Making money is the most important thing for the bar owners, with the women given little or no protection and encouraged to go off on dates with strangers, he claimed.

Davies, who assisted Lucie Blackman's mother, Jane Steare, is calling for regular inspections of hostess bars and for the police to ensure that all the women have correct documentation. He said that while there may have been a crackdown in some areas, much more needs to be done, including increasing the police presence around the bars.

"My advice to any foreign girl thinking about becoming a hostess is: 'Don't even go there.' Things are no better than when Lucie Blackman was working in Tokyo," he said.

"I'm shocked that despite assurances that things are better, there was a complete non-inspection of many of these establishments which were bypassing the law. Many men were willing to break the law and pimp our reporter," Davies added.

In S4C's "Y Byd ar Bedwar" (The World on Four) program, Morgan tries to find work as a hostess and films her encounters using hidden cameras. The bars are places where Japanese and foreign women chat to male clients, who usually have to buy expensive drinks. The bars deny their hostesses are engaged in prostitution.

Morgan, who wore a blonde wig to boost her chances of finding work, was initially turned down by several bars because she only had a three-month tourist visa.

At one of the bars Morgan visited in Tokyo's Roppongi district, the manager said she might be able to get a job despite him knowing that she did not have a work visa. But he later said he did not have any work for her that month.

According to the program, the bars expect their hostesses to go out on "dohans" (paid-dates) with clients, as Blackman did before she went missing. The bars are keen for their hostesses to go on dohans because they receive money from the client and the hostesses bring customers to the bar at the end of the date.

Later, the reporter got a job as a hostess straight away at another bar. She was told to change her name.

Davies, who is now an international security consultant, went in masquerading as a client and was told by the mama-san (who oversees the hostesses) that he could go on a date with Morgan, even though it was his first visit to the club and he was not known to the management.

Morgan was also offered work at two other bars which were fully aware of her visa status. She was also told that she could make much more money by having sex with the clients.

When approached later, the mama-san denied meeting the reporter and said she never employed people without the correct documentation. The manager at the first bar said he had never heard of Lucie Blackman and said he had no comment to make before putting the phone down.

Davies said, "Foreign women must understand that hostessing has inherent risks. There are lots of magazines in Japan depicting the rape of Western women. If you go into this kind of area you are going into a grey area where wicked and unscrupulous men will take advantage of you and you have no protection."

He said that the hostess industry taints the image many Westerners have of Japan as a safe country which respects tradition and culture.

TV reporter Morgan concluded that while there are many hostesses who merely serve drinks and chat to customers, in some quarters a hostess could also mean a prostitute.

In the summer of 2000, Blackman disappeared after going out on a dohan with a client she met in a Tokyo hostess bar. Her dismembered body was later found in a cave in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Tokyo businessman Joji Obara was recently cleared of involvement in her death.

Davies said he does not think that Blackman was in any way engaged in prostitution. Instead, he believes that she was "naive" and just wanted to talk to the clients and pour drinks in order to earn money.

Commenting on the outcome of the trial, Davies said that if the case had been heard in Britain, the judge would probably have directed the jury to find the defendant guilty, given the strength of the circumstantial evidence.