#头条创作挑战赛##夏日生活打卡季##万能生活指南#
Written by Yu Simba
Many people have heard of the Japanese cowherd, a male publicist who hangs out at night clubs, who specializes in drinking and chatting with lonely urban women and inducing them to spend high-priced drinks in the store.
But do you know the "cowherd mania"?
This is a group of young women who are almost obsessed with the Cowherd, and are willing to give up their wealth for each other.
Some people have spent more than 20 million yen in half a year, and some people have committed suicide for their beloved cowherd...... They are not rich daughters, most of them are ordinary women, in order to save money to go to the cowherd shop to patronize, some women do not hesitate to enter the customs industry to sell themselves to the sea.
On June 8, CNN published a special report revealing that more than 300 nightclubs in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, were bustling with all their lives, and that some Cowherd clubs even half-lured and half-coerced prostitution when female customers could not afford the huge purchases in the store.
NHK also reported that last year, Tokyo police arrested 140 suspected prostitutes in Kabukicho, about 40 percent of whom were women, who paid off their debts after spending all their money at the Cowherd Club.
The moment they stepped into the cowherd shop, the girls were bewitched by the rhetorical cowherd and paid their hearts, thinking that they had met true love, but they were lured to sell themselves into the sea. Women were deceived into the custom industry by the Cowherd and became a hidden underground industrial chain. Behind this chaos, it is even more important to ignore the long-term existential poverty crisis faced by Japanese women.
The girls who are obsessed with the cowherd
In the wake of the pandemic, more and more Japanese women have fallen into the Cowherd Club debt trap and are actively or forced to engage in sex work.
Kabukicho is one of Japan's most famous red-light districts, home to Okubo Park, known as Tokyo's "Tourist Mecca". Since last year, there have been three times as many street girls in the park as usual, and many women have taken up this business to pay off their debts at the Cowherd Club.
Screenshot of Japanese media reports, the number of women selling spring around Okubo Park has increased
With the depreciation of the yen, some Japanese women choose to go overseas to sell their prostitution.
Earlier this year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested three people suspected of selling prostitution in Las Vegas, USA. After investigation, it was found that there are a number of criminal groups in Japan that sell sex overseas, and some of these women go overseas to sell their bodies, also for the sake of cowherds.
Source: Japanese magazine "Weekly Women" reported
In Japan, there is a huge number of women who have incurred huge debts due to their addiction to cowherds.
In a documentary titled "Do You Know the World of the Cowherd", which was posted by Internet celebrity Tomohiro Yamashita, the phenomenon of "Cowherd Mania" in Japan was mentioned, and they were not the rich women rumored on the Internet, but ordinary women who were trapped in their livelihoods. Under the high pressure of urban life, in order to relieve their loneliness, these women try to find companionship and love in the cowherd, and they are deeply trapped in it and cannot extricate themselves.
An online video posted by Tomohiro Yamashita
"This love is fake, although I know it, I am still obsessed with the cowherd"
23-year-old Xia Mei is a member of the "Cowherd Mania" group.
She met a cowherd named May, who chose to work in a custom shop in order to earn money to spend money in a club, and occasionally took a higher amount of money to go out to work (in this case, going out to the hotel to provide dispatch services for male guests).
Xia Mei usually lives a frugal life, lives in a rental house of less than 10 square meters, eats only one meal a day, and tries to save money. But every month she would take the Shinkansen to the Cowherd Club in Tokyo to find May, and spend all her savings on each other.
The end of the month is the performance appraisal period of the Cowherd Club, and it is also the day when customers spend money for their favorite Cowherd. In order to rush the performance for May, Xia Mei usually "goes out to make money" in advance, and then spends the hard-earned money from selling herself on buying sky-high champagne without thinking.
In the four months of the year that she met the Cowherd, Natsumi spent a total of 40 million yen on him, which is a staggering amount.
In the face of Xia Mei's dedication, Cowherd May described her as "an ATM machine that will pay if you knock it"
In order to support the face of the cowherd, there are not a few Japanese women like Natsumi who work in the customs industry.
AOI, a frequent guest of variety shows and a female Internet celebrity, has been obsessed with the Cowherd since she was 18 years old, and spent 50 million yen for the Cowherd in six years, and finally had to borrow loan sharks to barely support it. According to her, many of her friends are frequent customers of the Cowherd Shop, and they rely on part-time jobs in the custom shop to cover the high expenses.
At the current exchange rate, 50 million yen is equivalent to about 2.25 million yuan
Even Japanese female civil servants with high education and decent jobs can't resist the temptation of a cowherd. According to NHK, in 2022-2023, the Tokyo National Tax Bureau dismissed three female employees in a row, and these three employees went to the custom shop at night to work part-time in their spare time to earn enough money to spend money at the Cowherd Club.
Being cheated out of money is only the smallest loss paid by the "cowherd maniacs". There are also some women, in the romantic fantasies woven by the cowherds, who gradually lose themselves and pay an even more painful price.
There is a building near Kabukicho that is home to many cowherd clubs. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, in October 2018 alone, seven people jumped into the building (including suicides and suicide attempts), most of whom were women who had emotional entanglements with the Cowherd.
This building is also known as the "Cursed Building"
After the romantic illusion of the Cowherd was shattered, some women pointed the tip of the knife at themselves, and some chose to die with the Cowherd.
Five years ago, there was an "Immortal Bird Cowherd Assassination Incident" in Japan that shocked the whole country.
Yuka Takaoka, a 21-year-old girl, assassinated a cowherd named Ryuki in her apartment. Previously, in order to make Ryutsuki the top brand of the Cowherd Club, she spent at least 1 million yen a month, and when her savings were exhausted, she turned to work in a custom shop, and participated in "Daddy's Work" to accompany older uncles to travel to make money.
She decided that the cowherd Ruzuki was the future marriage partner, rented an apartment in Shinjuku, and invited the other party to live with her.
However, Ryutsuki only treats her as a cash cow, while enjoying Yuka Takaoka's efforts, coaxing her to "quit in a few months", while maintaining an affair with other female customers.
On the day of the month's performance, Yuka Takaoka found out that Ryutsuki went to a love hotel with a female guest, so he was completely enraged. On the pretext of inviting Ryutsuki to help tidy up the furniture, she took the opportunity to stab the other party with a kitchen knife. She felt that only by dying together could the two of them be together forever.
In the month of the incident, Liuyue's performance rushed to the top of the store
Liuyue saved her life after rescue, and changed her name to "Immortal Bird", and announced her return to the Cowherd Shop; And Yuka Takaoka's mother paid Ryutsuki 5 million yen in compensation in order to get her daughter a suspended sentence. After obtaining the latter's forgiveness, Takaoka Yuka was still sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison.
In November last year, also in Kabukicho, a woman in her twenties stabbed the tip of her knife at the Cowherd because she spent a huge amount of money on the Cowherd and did not receive the same emotional feedback. Under this news report, some netizens sighed, "In the past, it was female guests who jumped off the building, but now it is finally the turn of the cowherd to be stabbed." ”
The real world of the cowherd:
Hunting the emotional traps of women
Everything starts with the particularity of the profession of the cowherd.
In the past, the Cowherd was beautified by film and television dramas and the media.
The Cowherd in the film and television drama is handsome, always thinking about the guests, like a perfect partner tailored for women, and the actors are usually high-value male stars, such as Takuya Kimura, Shun Oguri, and Kento Yamazaki, which leads to the public's impression of the Cowherd as gentle, considerate and romantic.
"The Night King", a Japanese drama set in the background of the growth history of the Cowherd,
The male protagonist is not a cowherd for money, but for "the happiness of all women".
Chinese's understanding of the cowherd may come from the news report on Roland, the "first cowherd in Japan".
He has appeared in variety shows, filmed magazines, and published biographies, and is no different from a star. Roland even opened a Weibo account to set off a craze on the Chinese Internet.
At one point, he became a high-quality male representative in the eyes of women: emotionally intelligent, profitable, and emotionally valuable.
"If I had 1 hour, I would be able to make all the women in East Asia happy."
But in recent years, after news reports and witnesses continue to break the news, the dark and erosive side of the Cowherd group has gradually been restored.
The main job of the cowherd is to accompany the female guests to drink and relieve their stress. Their income is divided into three major parts, Taiwan fees, roll call fees, and wine fees. Among them, the commission on the sale of alcohol is the main source of income.
Female guests need to pay dozens of times more than the value of the product to buy cheap and unpalatable drinks in the club. This means that the relationship between a female customer who needs emotional companionship and a cowherd who wants to sell alcohol is not destined to be an equivalent transaction.
Cowherd shops usually have popularity lists,
The highly popular Cowherd has the absolute right to speak, and the unpopular Cowherd has to do chores.
The British "Guardian" exposed the Cowherd Club's money-making methods:
When a female guest visits for the first time, you can get an hour of unlimited drinking for only 2,000-3,000 yen. The cowherds ask them to come back to the store, and once the female customer comes a second time, the fee often rises 10 times, and the third visit, the woman who has developed feelings for the cowherd is charged 300,000 yen.
The Japanese drama "Tomorrow, Whose Girlfriend Will I Be" also shows the process of the cowherds gradually falling a sober-minded girl.
Xiaomeng is on the fat side, and she rarely meets boys at school to pursue, and her girlfriend calls her to come to the Cowherd store to play. Among the cowherds with different styles, Xiaomeng chose the gentle and shy Kaede.
He will tell Xiaomeng with a sincere face, "I think you are so special". Before leaving, he took the initiative to ask for Xiaomeng's contact information. After leaving the store, he insisted on texting every day, and took the initiative to invite Xiaomeng to dinner when she was unhappy.
The way he treats Xiaomeng is not like a guest, but like a favorite girl. This also made Xiao Meng, who was originally resistant to the cowherd, gradually unload his inner defense.
Kaede persuaded Xiaomeng not to order champagne for herself,
In fact, it is just to gain the trust of the other party
Xiaomeng has a crush on Kaede, but she gradually discovers that Kaede is not her exclusive escort, and will also go to other female guests to accompany the wine. This is a common "competition mechanism" used by Cowherd shops, taking advantage of customers' jealousy and desire to compare to lure them into spending more money.
In order to keep her favorite cowherd, Xiaomeng can only keep spending money, and finally falls to working in a custom shop.
Even if it's an audience from God's point of view,
will also mistakenly think that Kaede has true feelings for Xiao Meng.
Just as idols sell dreams, the Cowherd sells "virtual love", a pseudo-intimacy that can be sold. Their goal has never been short-term profits, but to squeeze female customers for a long time until they have exhausted their full value.
The less confident a woman is, the easier it is to take the bait. AOI, a Japanese Internet celebrity who fell into the trap of the Cowherd, said that she has always felt inferior to her appearance, and when she went to the Cowherd shop, their attitude was very gentle and they always encouraged her.
When women spend all their savings, the cowherds often do not change their faces immediately, but will point out the "clear way" with "kindness" and persuade them to sell themselves to earn money.
The Cowherd shop has a bookkeeping service. When the guests owe too much money to pay back, the club will force the female guests to take pictures of their identity documents, requiring them to borrow usury, sell themselves in custom shops or make adult movies, and take a cut of them, forming a complete industrial chain.
Natsumi at the beginning of the article was once pua by the cowherd: "Use your body to make money"
With the rapid development of the Internet, the channels for cowherds to attract customers are not even limited to the store, but learn to use dating software to let more women take the bait.
Xiao Yu in the CNN report, who was originally a clinician, fell in love after meeting a male publicist on the Internet. The latter not only told Xiao Yu that he was her boyfriend, but also promised to give her a ring.
Under the lure of the male publicist, Xiao Yu spent all his money in the club and soon went into debt. The male publicist said he could help deal with the debt, provided that Xiao Yu had to repay him through "sex work."
While being coaxed by the Cowherd, he sold his body to make money, and at the same time handed over all the money he earned to the Cowherd. Hidemori Gen, head of a charity center in Kabukicho, Japan, has said that the Cowherd Club is a vicious business model that is almost indistinguishable from human trafficking.
Japanese women caught in "spiritual poverty".
Knowing that the cowherds are acting on the spot, why do Japanese women step into the sweet trap in the name of love one after another?
"Tokyo Poor Girl" once conveyed a perspective:
Don't look at what women do, but why women do it.
Gender inequality, economic hardship, and social isolation make it easy for Japanese women to fall into invisible poverty.
There was a report on NHK that pointed to the "invisible poverty" of young women in Japanese society, describing those women on the margins of society, who fell into extreme material poverty after experiencing domestic violence, debt, oppression, and indifference, but on the surface they were dressed appropriately and lived like ordinary people.
"Survey Report: Women's Poverty: The Impact of the "New Chain"
Due to structural gender inequalities, women often face unequal pay for equal work and even lack of formal assignments. Once a marriage or family relationship breaks down, it is easy to fall into poverty.
In 2011, Japan's National Institute of Social Security and Population released data showing that one in three single women between the ages of 20 and 64 of the working age group fell into poverty.
Chizuruko Ueno once said, "Poverty and shame isolate women. "If the mother's living condition is unstable, how can the child born grow up healthily?
Yoko Suzuki, the heroine of the novel "Scream", is one such example:
Her mother was a housewife, patriarchal, and didn't love her since she was a child. After her father ran away from home, her mother lost her income.
Because of her mother's influence, Yoko tried to get married to seek a stable family, but was cheated on by her husband and abandoned her. In order to make money, she tried to work as a salesperson, but was suppressed by her boss and forced her to sleep with her to get results.
In the end, Yoko Suzuki, who was full of expectations for love, was forced to become a call girl step by step by her patriarchal mother, domestic violence father, and cheating husband, and finally gave all the money from selling herself to the cowherd who cared about herd, and went to a desperate situation.
Yoko Suzuki considers herself an "outcast", a marginal person who has been abandoned by society, and has been hunted by society.
Japanese women who consciously "abandon the people" generally feel spiritually isolated and helpless. And this is unavoidable even for girls with good material conditions.
Actress Anri Sakaguchi, once known as "the man born in heaven", his mother was Ryoko Sakaguchi, the queen of heaven, and his father was a wealthy construction businessman. However, after her father ran away and her mother died, she fell into a deep loneliness.
When she went to the cowherd shop, she felt the comfort she hadn't felt for a long time. For the sake of her beloved Cowherd, she spent all her mother's inheritance and even went into debt of millions. In order to repay her debts, she first took nude photos, took AVs, and later even embarked on the road of drug abuse.
Japanese student Narigasaki, after being admitted to the prestigious Keio University, was once madly obsessed with the cowherd. She used her spare time to work as a hotel lady and also worked as a mistress for a wealthy man, paying more than 10 million yen for the cowherd in two years.
Because of his understanding of the profession of "cowherd", Narosaki once published a paper "A Psychological Survey of Women Who Patronize Kabukicho Cowherd Shops and Cowherds Who Work There", and became a "Cowherd Researcher".
She once summarized the 10 female characteristics that are "most likely to fall into the gentle trap of the cowherd", reminding girls that "as long as you meet these conditions, it means that you can easily fall into the gentle trap of the cowherd." ”
These conditions also point out the reasons for many women's "cowherd addiction": being overprotected/permissive by their parents, having a low sense of self-affirmation, having no close friends, and being difficult to reject others......
Most women who are addicted to cowherds usually lack recognition of themselves and the care of the people around them, and they have a bottomless sense of despair in their hearts.
When the favorite cowherd proposed to let Xia Mei sell herself to make money, she didn't blame the other party at all, but was full of gratitude:
"Thank you for giving me the motivation to stay alive."
"As long as he can shine, I'm satisfied."
Only with the Cowherd can she feel that she is being "loved" and watched.
Ryomi Suzuki, a writer who has been an AV girl, once admitted that many girls who work night jobs in Japan have a tendency to be overly attached because of loneliness, such as visiting the Cowherd Club, taking drugs and becoming a shopaholic.
Isn't it ironic that the girls turn to rely on the Cowherd because of their loneliness, and in the end all the money goes into the Cowherd's pocket, but they push themselves into the abyss with their own hands?
Spiritual poverty is more insidious and dangerous than material poverty.
As it is written in "Beginning with the Limit":
"If a woman is mentally barren, obsessed with being loved, and too eager to be recognized, then no matter how much ability and resources she enjoys, it will be difficult to save her from the real predicament."
The cover is based on stills from "Fatal Kiss".
Resources:
1. Observer.com, "Scattered all their wealth for "male public relations", these Japanese women were forced to prostitute to pay off their debts"
2. Bilibili Tomohiro Yamashita "Japanese Wonderful Story—Do You Know the World of the Cowherd? 》
3. The Paper "Young Japanese Women Through the Lens of NHK: Invisible Poverty"
4. The Paper, "Gender Inequality, Economic Hardship and Social Isolation: The Mental Health Crisis of Japanese Women"
(Excerpted from the WeChat public account Ten Point Character Chronicles)