Teddy Tomari comments

The average annual salary of government administrative positions, with workers aged 42.4 on average, will increase by 105,000 yen to 6,731,000 yen.

That isn't a lot of money in 2023. Japan is like an 80s theme park. Nothing has really changed in the past 40 years.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

The London Living Wage is currently £11.95 an hour -- that's roughly 2,150 yen. Tokyo workers feel lucky if they get 1,200 yen. A sad state of affairs.

"The hosts fawn on them and listen to their stories," Gen adds. "They might bombard the girls with 100 messages a day via the Line texting application. Some might go so far as to write, 'I've already got a marriage application for us. Let's submit it a year from today.'" I pity these women who are so starved of love that they are willing to pay 100,000 yen an hour to hear sweet nothings from some drunken bloke who probably won't even remember their name when he wakes up the next morning. It's easy to find sex in Japan; love is much more elusive.