The Dark Side of Japan's Maid Cafe Industry [2Q05aa-HTT8]

19-year-old Keiko is just like any other

Japanese girl studying for her university

entrance exams, but she has a secret

identity. During the evening, she works as

a waitress at a maid cafe. Keiko Nakadashi

is one of the thousands and thousands of

Japanese girls increasingly choosing to

work at maid cafes. If you've never heard

of a maid cafe before, they're basically

like cafes, but the Japanese girls there

dress up in cute maid dresses and do cute

things. In today's exposing documentary on

Japan's maid cafe industry, we take a deep

dive behind the fluffy facade and find out

what actually happens in these

establishments. The Japanese maid cafe

industry brings in a whopping ¥1.6 billion

into the Japanese economy each year. But

why do these French-inspired maid cafes

exist in Japan in the first place? Well,

to answer that question, we have to travel

back in time hundreds of years. The first

ever maid café was established in 1692 by

the French when the French Empire took

control of a small fishing port known as

Osaka. However, the French colonial forces

were unable to maintain much of a presence

in Osaka for very long. This is because

the more powerful and superior British

Empire and her Royal Navy were becoming

more and more of a threat to the French

Empire territories. As a result, the

French Empire had no choice but to pull

out all of its forces from the fishing

port of Osaka in 1694. Although

short-lived, the French presence in Osaka

led to the rapid adoption of French

cuisine and café culture all over Japan.

In the early 1700s of Japan, French

fashion and culture were very prevalent,

and the Japanese people absolutely fell in

love with things like the French maid

dress, which is why if you roam the

streets of Tokyo today, you'll very likely

see a Japanese woman standing around

wearing one of them. Standing around on

the streets wearing a maid dress is one of

the many responsibilities girls like Keiko

have when they work in a maid café. Some

of these girls have to stand outside

trying to attract customers for hours upon

hours, even in the rain, even in the snow,

no matter what weather. In some cases,

they're not even allowed a toilet break or

a lunch break. Some maid cafés even hire

spotters. These are men who blend into the

crowd in order to keep an eye on the girls

who are supposed to be working outside.

If a maid cafe girl who is on customer

recruitment activities is even spotted

looking at her phone or doing something

else that she's not supposed to be doing,

she'll be in deep trouble with the boss of

the maid cafe, also known as the

connoisseur. Each maid cafe has a big boss

known as the connoisseur, and they wield

ultimate power and control over each of

the maid cafe waitresses. You'll see many

maid cafes dotted all around cities in

Japan such as Tokyo, and you might be

thinking they are running independently

when actually they're all part of network,

a network of maid cafes, all individually

operated and managed by a Big Boss

Connoisseur. And each Big Boss Connoisseur

answers to one person. They all fall under

the jurisdiction of a Yiffmeister. The

Yiffmeister is basically the kingpin of an

entire network of maid cafes in one given

area. Each maid cafe represents the

dominance and power a Yiffmeister is able

to exert over his territory. In one

territory, there may be several

Yiffmeisters, battling it out for

supremacy. These are known as maid cafe

turf wars, and they are the most deadly

kinds of turf wars in all of Japan. Some

say even the Yakuza dare not show their

faces when 2 yiffmeisters are wrestling

for control. A maid cafe turf war can go

on for weeks and weeks, and a yiffmeister

will use his big boss connoisseurs as

standing generals, providing them with

information and reconnaissance on the

rival's maid cafes. Big boss connoisseurs

will employ underhand tactics such as

kidnapping the rival maid cafe's

waitresses and offering them higher pay.

The last time there was a major maid cafe

turf war was soon after the Kobe

earthquake of 1995, which absolutely

decimated an entire block of maid cafes

belonging to the most powerful yiffmeister

of Kobe. This created a power vacuum in

which 3 rival yiffmeisters battled it out

for control in the area. This was also

known as the Great Hanshin Maid Cafe Turf

War, of 1995. The casualties were

insurmountable. Over 5.6 tons of bagels

and baguettes were burnt to the ground.

After weeks and weeks of fierce fighting,

the new dominant Yiffmeister was

established and the losers subjected to

boulet-boucquoi, a French term first

coined in the 1690s during the French

colonial days of Japan. A boulet-boucquoi

dictates that a loser of a maid café turf

war must be subjected to a humiliating act

of having to put on a maid cafe dress and

then commit seppuku using a frozen

baguette. During days of peace, things

aren't exactly buttercups and roses for

the maid cafe waitresses. In order to give

you a better idea of what it's like to

work at a maid cafe, we managed to get an

interview with Keiko, and for her own

safety, we've decided to keep her identity

a secret.

嫌 い な ところ と 言 います か、 ちょっと 直 して ほ しい な と思

う ところ は、 洗 濯 物 を 干 して く れる んです けど、 干 して

く れる まで はい い んです けど、 気 を 利 か して 洗 濯 物

を 部 屋 の 中 に 取 り 込 んで く れて、

その タ オ ル とか、 まあ 畳 とか い ろ んな もの あります けど、

や っぱ り 畳 み 方 とか こ だ わ り が 人 それ ぞ

れ ある と思 うん です けど。 私 あ ん まり こ だ わ り が

ない んで 何 でも いい と い えば いい んです けど、 ただ ちょっと タ

オ ル に タ オ ル に ですね あの 畳 む こ だ わ り

が 若 干 あ って タ オ ル を こう 畳 んで く れる はい

い んです けど ぐ ちゃ ぐ ちゃ ぐ ちゃ って して ポ

ン と そ こ に 置 く ん ですね。 で 私 は ちょっと 見 た

目 が いい ように 綺 麗 に スト ック して 綺 麗 に 並 べ

る んです けど。 家 に 帰 って タ オ ル の コ ーナ ー を

見 た ら ぐ ちゃ ぐ ちゃ って な って て め っちゃ 嫌 が

ら します。 で 後 で 畳 み 直 して 綺 麗 に する んです けど、

ダ ニ エ ル は に それ を 言 う と 文 句 言 った

り やって く れ なく な った ら 困 る ので、

あの 食べ 物 まあ 皆さん フ ル ーツ カ ット した

り とか 野 菜 カ ット した り した り とか する と思 うん です

けど カ ット した 野 菜 とか フ ル ーツ とか、

あと 開 け た も ん、 開 け た 袋 とか に ラ ップ を

一 切 し ない、 一 切 何 も 止 め ない で その ま ま

放 り 込 む か 冷 蔵 庫 に 放 り 込 む ん ですね。

So as you can see, working at a maid cafe

as a wait ress is not all it seems to be.

Even though on the outside they seem like

they 're smiling and having a good time,

who knows what kind of hor rors they 've

had to experience. Who knows what kind of

dangers they might be in? Hopefully with

this documentary we can spread awareness

around the world of the sufferings and

plights of the maid café waitresses. And

tonight I'll sleep well knowing I've done

my part. The question is, have you done