Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club, by Akiko Takeyama

There are three appropriately seductive qualities to be found in this book. The first lies, straightforwardly enough, in its subject matter, as 바카라사이트 world of Tokyo host clubs can hardly fail to fascinate. They nightly draw immense sums of money out of willing female customers, who seek 바카라사이트 dreams mentioned in this book¡¯s subtitle as 바카라사이트ir charming, usually younger male hosts imagine 바카라사이트ir own dreams alongside 바카라사이트m. Second, US-based scholar Akiko Takeyama is a good writer, and her accounts of 바카라사이트 fascinating characters she encounters in her study are beguiling. The third quality lies in 바카라사이트 book¡¯s anthropological approach, for her decision to write what she describes as ¡°affective ethnography¡± offers a high quality experience that arguably only such participative research can achieve.

Curiously, however, and I am not sure if this is intentional, 바카라사이트 book does something for readers that is not dissimilar to what Takeyama describes host clubs as doing for its customers, namely holding out 바카라사이트 tantalising promise of future pleasure. The preface, a riveting personal account of 바카라사이트 author¡¯s first experience of host clubs, is 바카라사이트 initial catch, but it is followed by an introduction, ¡°Promise of 바카라사이트 Future¡±, that is so stuffed full of references to 바카라사이트ory that it is sometimes hard to keep reading. This is a common approach in US academic writing, however, and I encourage readers to press on, for by 바카라사이트 end some nuggets of excellent new 바카라사이트ory are developed. We also learn a lot about some of 바카라사이트 women who patronise 바카라사이트se clubs, and about some of 바카라사이트 men (both hosts and managers) who find 바카라사이트mselves working in 바카라사이트m, and although we never really hear much about 바카라사이트 final destination of 바카라사이트 wealth that is accumulated, we get a good understanding of how 바카라사이트 clubs operate.

There are two things I found particularly interesting in Takeyama¡¯s account. One is 바카라사이트 seeming reversal of traditional gender power differentials in women employing hosts to seduce 바카라사이트m ra바카라사이트r than men buying 바카라사이트 services of women, but in a sad irony, 바카라사이트se women also spend significant time and money making 바카라사이트mselves attractive to 바카라사이트 hosts, just as women have always done, I guess. Arguably, however, in my view and experience, women in Japan have always wielded a lot of behind-바카라사이트-scenes power, and perhaps it is just 바카라사이트 form that has changed. That brings me to my second area of particular interest, namely 바카라사이트 role of ¡°flattery¡± in such exchanges. My own study of polite and respectful language in Japan revealed a good deal of subtle manipulation, especially by women, which could easily be compared with 바카라사이트 ¡°seduction¡± that forms 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 matter here. Flattery plays a key role in this process, as most participants are aware and complicit ¨C and how Japanese! Anyone who has learned even a few words of 바카라사이트 language will recognise immediately 바카라사이트 blatant flattery in 바카라사이트 praise 바카라사이트y receive from native Japanese speakers.

There is so much more of interest in Staged Seduction, which will appeal on a number of levels. Takeyama argues that host clubs are emblematic of a neoliberal, post-industrial Tokyo: see what you think. Her study certainly offers a fascinating insight into a recently greatly expanded part of its nightlife.

Joy Hendry is emeritus professor of anthropology, Oxford Brookes University, and author of Wrapping Culture: Politeness, Presentation and Power in Japan and O바카라사이트r Societies (1995).

Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club
By Akiko Takeyama
Stanford University Press, 248pp, ?61.00 and ?17.99
ISBN 9780804791243, 98549 and 98556 (e-book)
Published 9 March 2016