>>75131139Japan hit its loneliness epidemic decades before the west did and hostess/host clubs catered to that by creating a space where a woman/man respectively seems to care about what you think and that you have a shoulder to cry on. Hostess clubs are ultimately a symptom of a very isolated, lonely society where people desperately want that human connection but the rules of their social contract make it so that you can't just say, chat up the cute girl at the cash register at Starbucks.
People who act like it's a PG version of a strip club or a brothel don't get it. These people aren't looking for sex, they can just go to a soapland if they want that. What they want is the feeling of companionship. The fact that they exist is a sign of a bigger, unspoken problem, and it's very sad.
