In Tokyo's Ginza, Seoul's Gangnam and Beijing's Chaoyang financial district, a familiar scene plays out almost every night of the work week. As dusk falls, businessmen flock to karaoke and hostess clubs to close deals and build relationships in the liquor-lubricated intimacy of young women.
Call it bonding over vice. It's a culture that sits uneasily with the #MeToo movement that has swept across Europe and the U.S. In parts of Asia, corporate men continue to openly drink with colleagues or business clients at venues where female escorts are paid to consume alcohol, sing karaoke and — often illegally — perform sexual favors, according to interviews with men and women, including Regina Yuan, who works at a Shanghai-based startup.
For 27-year-old Yuan, her job entails entertaining clients from out of town — often for several evenings in a row — sometimes drinking with them while picking up the bill, and shouldering most of the burden for her own safety. She said the roster of clients who visit such clubs includes prestigious Chinese investment banks, insurance and finance companies and, increasingly, venture capital funds.