Several things caught my eye today that I wanted to share, haven’t had time till now.

Just returning from Japan, an article in the NY Times claiming that the hostess profession in Japan is now seen as a glamorous job and is attracting a wider variety of women. But, as the Times points out, one reason for that is that there are far fewer opportunities for women in business in Japan, yet another reason their economy remains in the shitter.

Even before the economic downturn, almost 70 percent of women ages 20 to 24 worked jobs with few benefits and little job security, according to a government labor survey. The situation has worsened in the recession.

For that reason, a growing number of Japanese women seem to believe that work as a hostess, which can easily pay $100,000 a year, and as much as $300,000 for the biggest stars, makes economic sense.

The funny thing (to me) is when I read something like this:

Young women are drawn nonetheless to Cinderella stories like that of Eri Momoka, a single mother who became a hostess and worked her way out of penury to start a TV career and her own line of clothing and accessories.

You might think it would occur to people that women like Momoka must be pretty freaking smart and that they ought to give more of them a chance.
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Hong Kong papers are filled with stories related to prostitution, “compensated dating” and violence.

A “Hong Kong resident of Pakistani origin” was convicted of murdering three women working in “one woman brothels” and received a life sentence.

Another life sentence was handed out to a 24 year old man who committed a most despicable crime. He hired a 16 year old girl for “compensated dating” (why this term gets used instead of prostitution is beyond me), brought her to his flat, killed her, chopped her into pieces that he could flush down the toilet and tossed her head in the sea. (Evidence against him included DNA collected from the pipes in his building.)

The Standard naturally goes into even more gruesome details about the crime than the SCMP, which I don’t think I’ll quote here because they are pretty damned gruesome.

The SCMP did run a second article on the topic, on how this “compensated dating” thing, which mostly consists of underage girls, is being taken over by the triads. They’re trying to stress the dangers:

“The way the young girl lost her life is horrible. We also use the case to demonstrate how dangerous this is when we counsel these girls. But many girls are not aware of their own safety. They will do whatever their clients tell them, such as anal sex or violent sexual acts, as long as their clients promise to pay them more,” Mr Tse said. “They think money is the most important thing and they do anything for money.”

But somehow that doesn’t seem to be working as the girls can earn up to HK$2,000 per trick, as an interview with a 16 year old would seem to indicate.

“I just wanted to make money to buy a mobile phone. I earned HK$400 to HK$500 for dating a guy and I got double that when I agreed to kissing and hugging. I could make HK$1,500 to HK$2,000 for sex services,” she said.

“I have had some terrible experiences. One time, one of my clients suddenly wanted to take off the condom when we were having sex. Another time, a client demanded anal sex and he became quite violent. It was really a painful experience,” Ah See said.

“But then I just thought I was unlucky. Not every client was as horrible as these two.”

This last one gives our officials license to not only talk about the evils of prostitution but also about drugs, since apparently the girl and the killer took drugs together before having sex.

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Sex, sex, sex. Attendance at this year’s HK Book Fair was up 8% over last year, with 900,000 people going. What helped account for this increase?

Wong Hing-hung, an assistant publishing manager, told local media that photo albums showing sexy teen models had boosted business volume by 40 per cent.

Go! Go! Pseudo-model!

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Regarding the Australian man involved in that accident with the taxi driver in Central, the one who tried to drive off and has been accused of murder, his parents are now in HK and trying to rally support for him, including having a Facebook group and a web site. But so far the police have failed to state why he is being charged with murder.

Mudd’s blood-alcohol level was determined to be 184 milligrams per 100ml, over three times the limit, senior court prosecutor Edmond Chan Pak-fai told the court. The maximum is 50mg/100ml.

But he was a passenger in the taxi, not the driver, so his blood alcohol level is irrelevant, right?

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Last but not least, following a series of well publicized accidents involving minibuses, including one last week where a speeding minibus plowed into the back of an overloaded truck, resulting in 4 deaths, apparently our official reaction “might” to be to require speed governors be installed in all minibuses, making it impossible for them to exceed 80 kph. Until the drivers take their buses to some local garage and pay mechanics to disable the governors?

The department said it hoped speed controllers would be installed in all minibuses in phases, starting with new vehicles, from the end of this year, while studies on installing “black boxes” in existing minibuses would continue.

Black boxes? In minibuses? Yeah, you read that right. We’re spending tax payer money to determine if we should put airplane-style black boxes in minibuses. And why? They won’t do a thing to prevent an accident. And usually after an accident, it’s pretty simple to figure out why the accident took place.

Now if I’m not mistaken, minibus drivers are paid all or in part on a commission basis? And if that’s the case, aren’t they speeding because they want to go around their route fast enough to get in another complete circle by the end of the day to make more money, because the money they make is shit? And if you changed the compensation system, maybe they’d no longer feel the incentive to drive so recklessly?

But of course that would mean cutting into the bosses’s profits, and that kind of regulation is anti-business, and in Hong Kong business is more important than life.