The Struggle of Cabakura Union – Union of Cabaret Hostesses

Issue No : 76  July - September 2010

By IINO Ayumi, Translated by CHIJIWA Gen

The Precariat Union (Freeter Zenpan Rodo Kumiai) was established in 2004. As of October 2010 the membership is approximately 250 people. Members are for the most part non-regular workers (Editor’s note: Regular workers are generally those with full-time continuous employment and standard legal benefits; the term ‘regular worker’ is commonly used in Japan and South Korea). The general tendency of workers in Japan has been to join established unions within their respective enterprises. For this reason, non-regular workers and regular workers in small to medium scale enterprises have been excluded from unions. These are the workers who come together to constitute the Precariat Union. Their occupations and sectors vary widely, including call-centre workers, programmers, janitors, coffee shop workers, caretakers, drivers and security guards, to name a few. 

The Precariat Union launched the Cabakura Union (‘Cabauni’ or ‘CU’) on December 2009 as an industrial branch of the union. The Japanese neologism cabakura stands for ‘cabaret club’, the official term being ‘Catering Establishments for Social Intercourse’. Under the ‘Act Regulating Adults Entertainment Business’, businesses must be registered with local authorities such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission. According to surveys conducted by the Tokyo municipal government there were 9,264 such establishments in 1998 and 9,486 in 2008 within its jurisdiction. 

Prior to the establishment of CU, women from the industry had been calling the union more frequently and some cases had led to victories. On 22 December, a press conference was held to publicize the formation of CU. CU also designated the day of 27 December for receiving telephone consultations from cabakura workers. The number of calls received exceeded the union’s own expectations and some workers immediately joined the union.

Briefly described, a cabakura is where female hostesses are seated beside male clients to enliven the conversation and cater to their needs. The hostess would increase her sales by encouraging clients to order drinks for themselves and from clients ordering drinks on her behalf. Male clients have the option of ‘shimei’, which is to demand that a hostess of their liking take a seat beside them – although depending on the establishment, hostesses may be paid some amount as incentive in addition to their hourly wages for doing shimei, and may receive a wage increase when many clients make this demand. 

Hourly wages vary according to the locality of the establishment but are found to be between 2,000-5,000 yen (equivalent to US$ 25-60). The most important part of her work is enlivening the occasion and attending to the clients. In principle, bodily contact is prohibited. It can be said that the work of cabakura hostesses is a form of affective labour demanding significant psychological input outside of work hours to maintain a degree of intimate contact with clients. This could be keeping in touch through frequent exchange of email and text messaging, catching up on the clients’ personal tastes and profiles, and ‘douhan’, which is to meet clients in another location before work for a dinner date and accompanying them to the cabakura afterwards. Often hostessing is a means of supplementing underpaid daytime jobs, paying for tuition, or supporting families as single mothers. 

The occupation of hostess became a hot topic of the mass-media well before the Precariat Union started receiving calls in 2009. Hostesses who have made successful careers in Kabuki-cho, the largest entertainment district in Japan, began appearing on television programmes which highlighted their astonishing annual incomes. A magazine specializing in the topic came out and soon became popular. These channels helped establish the popular perception of cabakura hostessing as that of a glamorous job, where young women while dressed in beautiful attire could bypass the usual barriers such as educational qualifications, and still make large salaries. One ranking showed the job of cabakura hostess to be among the most popular career aspirations among junior high-school and high-school students. 

Members of Cabauni parade through Yasukuni Dori, Shinjuku, on 26  March 2010. Dressed as cabakura workers, or as each saw fit!  The placard reads ‘Fines are Prohibited’. Photo: Shimizu Naoko

 And yet, very few hostesses are able to earn high incomes regularly. In reality, thousands of yen are illegally deducted from paychecks each time for missed workdays and tardiness. Likewise fines are imposed and hourly pay reduced without due process for not having fulfilled the expected quota of ‘shimei’.

Fees which supposedly go towards improving ‘employee welfare’ are deducted from pay without due explanation. Because of such schemes, workers are often put in a position where their livelihoods are at risk, as opposed to living the good life.

The grievances being brought to the attention of CU revealed the negative aspects of the industry which had remained hidden beneath its glamorous image. Unpaid wages are by far the most common of grievances. According to the Labor Standards Law workers are entitled to resign from their jobs without being penalized by giving fourteen days notice to employers. Where actual working conditions are not the same as conditions presented to the worker beforehand, an immediate withdrawal from the workplace is a right. In spite of these legal rights, cabakuras claim to have ‘local rules’ obligating a one month notice prior to their departure. When this is not followed, as when unbearable conditions force workers to flee or leave on short notice, heavy penalties are imposed or wages are calculated at a rate substantially lower then the actual rate. The resulting payment could be next to nothing for the number of hours worked. In the worst cases, pay calculations have resulted in negative figures. Another frequent pattern is dismissal with neither due process nor payment, the reason given being that ‘she did not bring in sales’. Cases brought to the CU also revealed that sexual harassment and power harassment¹ are rampant. 

In addition to female hostesses, cabakuras also employ male staff also known as ‘boys’ or ‘black shirts’ who perform the work of waiters, making and serving drinks and running the cashier. These workers have also joined the cabakura union. Some have reported being physically abused by employers on a daily basis, including being struck or kicked. Fearing further violence and retribution, they have sought the union’s assistance in order to ‘quit the job safely’. 

When confronted with this situation of lawlessness, managers claimed to have their own ‘rules of the night, which goes without saying’. They have asserted that ‘there are no reasons’ for taking the unions demands into consideration, and that they are ‘being ripped-off’.

It was Sakurai Ryo’s case which eventually led to the formation of CU. She had worked for several years in acabakura in Tokyo and hers was an extremely malicious case. When at one point she became psychologically unstable due to constant sexual harassment from the boss who oversaw the business, she was forced to take a leave of absence. The cabakura responded by withholding her salary. Sakurai first approached the Labor Standards Supervision Office for consultation and demanded her wages under their guidance. Following their advice she stated her demands in a letter and sent it through a delivery service which would give proof that the cabakura had received the letter. But the bosses told her ‘what you say doesn’t mean a thing’ and the officials did not intervene any further.

Sakurai then joined the Precariat Union in May of 2009 and arranged a session of collective bargaining (albeit not in the traditional sense of one union to one employer) with the managers of her cabakura.² The managers who attended the session displayed an utmost lack of sincerity. The sexual harasser of Sakurai had been drinking since the night before and this was visible to all. His supervisor, the district manager (overseeing several managers of individual cabakura), did not hide his contempt for the Labor Standards Act nor the Labor Union Act either. Later they shut down the business in order to flee from negotiations altogether. 

Under such conditions, Sakurai decided to form the Cabakura Union, and her move was supported by the executive committee of the Precariat Union. The mission of the CU was to specialize in and organize collective struggle against an industry ruled by unique conditions and malpractices. Its initial task was to bring Sakura’s case to a conclusion and respond to the increasing number of cabakura workers seeking consultation. One way to achieve this was to communicate and legitimize the union via press conferences and further exposure in the mass media. 

Sakurai’s case concluded in late March 2010 following the formation of CU. A series of direct actions toward cabakuras under the same ownership were taken in order to bring the management back to the negotiating table. This culminated in a demonstration through Kabuki-cho scheduled for 26 March. The managers were given a notice by the union, and the union soon received a reply indicating that they were willing to settle. 

The notification from the union explained to the managers that the demonstration would pass in front of a cabakura managed by the group, that this particular cabakura would be mentioned in the call-out made to publicize the event and would become the target of the sprechchoir (i.e., the message being amplified through speakers). 

On the scheduled day the demonstration was still carried out as part of the CU campaign to address industry malpractices. Approximately three hundred people participated and a large banner on which was written four bold letters indicating ‘Improve our Industry’ hung from an advertising balloon. The placards stated ‘Against Power Harassment’ and ‘Fines are Prohibited’. The demonstration turned out to be very effective. A case where negotiations had been going nowhere ended in victory. Sakurai’s boss agreed to give her her back wages, reparations for harassment and a formal apology. The CU had proven itself worthy in the largest entertainment district of Japan. 

Demonstration through Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku, on 26 March 2010.  The four characters on the banner read ‘Improve Our Industry’.   Photo: Shimizu Naoko

Sakurai’s is but one of many cases where workers had approached the Labor Standard Supervision Office prior to consulting the union. It must be said that the government office is also implicated for having discouraged workers from fighting, stating in veiled language that the ‘rules of the night’ are to be followed. As such, there is a need for negotiations with relevant government offices to hold them accountable. Meanwhile calls from distant provinces have been referred to allied unions in those regions. Negotiations have begun and in some cases they have been concluded. 

It remains a challenge that many businesses still refuse to respond when the union demands collective bargaining, or these talks are held but do not make progress. In such cases the union must be persistent and take disruptive action in the form of protests during business hours, uploading footage from these protests onto the web, and visiting the business owners at their homes. This serves to show the bosses that they will not escape from the union’s reach. There are also discriminatory sentiments deeply entrenched in Japanese society which must be corrected. They are felt acutely in remarks such as ‘Withstanding sexual harassment is part of the cabakura hostesses’s job’. 

There is no doubt that our struggle will continue to be a difficult one. And yet we are certain, that when people who are not considered to be workers raise their own voices, something is sure to change.
 

For more information (in Japanese), see:
Cabakura Union Blog: http://ameblo.jp/cabauni/
The Precariat Union (FZRK) Website: http://freeter-union.org/union/ 
and Blog:  http://d.hatena.ne.jp/spiders_nest/

Endnotes

1. Power harassment is defined as a case where standing and power relations within an organization are abused. Power harassment worsens the everyday work environment and increases the sense of job insecurity in the worker. It is too often justified on the grounds of training or guidance of workers.

Article 11 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law as amended in 2000 stipulates that employers are obliged to respond to workers’ claims and take preventative measures against sexual harassment, which is one form of power harassment. This means that companies must regard and concede to the survivors’ own claims. Although the legal basis for fighting other forms of power harassment is less established, it is very common for unions in Japan to hold companies accountable for power harassment based on Article 1 of the Industrial Safety and Health Law and Article 4 of the Labor Contract Act. The government has also issued guidelines about it. 

2. Although some cabakura are individually owned and operated, many are registered under ‘front’ companies and operated by other bodies. For example, the copy of the commercial registration would state that a company has a starting capital of 10,000 yen (US$120) or the owner can not be reached at the address indicated and it is often a difficult task to locate the people responsible. In Sakurai’s case the union’s actions at the cabakura – visiting in groups during business hours and filing for unfair labour charges with the Labor Relations Board – forced the managers responsible to attend negotiations. After Sakurai’s cabakura was closed, the union continued to hold the ‘group’ which had been posting advertisements for job openings at six cabakuras accountable again by visiting these cabakura during business hours. The ‘group’ would not acknowledge their having control over these six cabakura however. As such the exact scale and organization of the business remains unclear. Presumably, the managers decided to settle out of fear that the details of their business would be exposed.