Coffee $7.50 a cup at the Japanese ‘no-panties’ cafes

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 17

Coffee $7.50 a cup at the Japanese ‘no-panties’ cafes

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo

Mr Matsuakl Arita, who has a degree in electronics clears SUSIO,OOO in profits a day at his two coffee shops in' Osaka. He- has not equipped his coffee tables with “space-invader” slotmachine games. That craze went out last summer. This summer- the attraction is “No-pan kissaten” (No-panties coffee shops).

Television cameras zoom in on the 32-year-old entrepreneur. He- is telling Asahi T.V.’s “Tonight” show how it all began.

Seated in the studio are a doctor, to give medical advice, a pornographic movie director, to keep the snow alive with questions which would not be allowed in New Zealand; an Asahi interviewer, to keep order, and two giggling girls, to keep balance. •

"Everybody wants stimulation,” begins Mr Arita. The interview is cut, but not by the censor. There is no censor.

Into the living room flash frames of film which suggest

that Mr Arita is right. Businessmen are queuing up outside “No-panties” coffee shops in Osaka and Tokyo. The film crew explores one interior. Two famous television comedians lance out microphones and quiz blushing waitresses and bedazzled coffee-drinkers. Cameramen appear to be shooting from the floor. Mr Arita continues. His first newspaper advertisement for staff read: “Bright, clean girls with good busts wanted by fashionable coffee shop.” He pays his waitresses from $4O to $75 per hour, and after four months still attracts an average of 10 applicants a day, most of whom, he says, are university students and O.L.s (office ladies). An acceptable aspirant — by his standards, “young, good-looking and cute" — appears once every two days.

The doctor interrupts. “Isn’t this bad for the girl's health? They could develop haemorrhoids, you know, what with the air-condition-ing making those places so cool.” The girls, he advises, ought to work short shifts in rotation. “Have you ever been to one?” grills the pornography director. “No! Of course not!” the doctor retorts. “Oh, go on. Just once. Take a peep,” teases the director. “It’s not necessary,” the doctor insists. “I can see a naked woman almost any time I like.” Since Mr Arita founded his first “No-pan kissaten,” at least 200 such coffee shops have sprung up across the nation. “No-panties” is not in all cases a misnomer. The waitresses appear in scant uniforms, which usually comprise an ultra-miniskirt

and fishnet stockings. Sony go topless, others wear see through blouses, and some wear hats. All is legal.

The interviewer asks Mr Arita to explain the law. The two girls stop giggling, the doctor wakes up, and the movie director already knows.

In Japan, Mr Arita says, obscenity charges can be laid only if pubic hair is visible. He details in the most intimate terms a variety of methods he uses to make such invisible, and reveals that four lawyers are on his payroll to deal with police inquiries.

There are “specials” performed at Mr Arita’s shops which other “no-pan” proprietors do not seem to have had the courage to copy. As seen on the screen,, a willing waitress slips into her panties and then begins an auction. The highest bidder wins, and is permitted to remove and keep the panties.

“Don’t confuse this with stripping or live sex shows,”

says Mr Arita, defensively. “Our girls are waitresses, nothing; more. “At strip shows, you’ve just got to look. That’s what you pay to get in for. At my coffee sftops, the choice is yours. You may have come for the coffee. If you did, you can just sip.” The premised interview of a “no-pan” waitress on location begins. As the cameramen close jn, the customers, like movie-class spies who suddenly wish to conceal their identity, lift newspa-

pers to their faces. The waitress is a student training to become a computer operator. Since taking on the part-time coffee work, she has paid all her school fees and saved about $l5OO. Coffee where she works costs $7.50 a cup and she earns $lO an hour. She is not shy. Her boyfriend knows what she does and sometimes comes in for coffee. “Do the customers bother you?” "The men who come in by themselves don’t, but the

middle-aged men who’ve been drinking and arrive in groups get a bit vulgar.” “What do you do when that happens?” “I slap them hard in the face and they go home.” Viewers are taken to a “no-pan” coffee shop in Tokyo. The wide-eyed clientele, mostly businessmen, apparently have no desire to leave. They have their coffee, and at about $lO a cup (the price is $l5 after dusk) prefer to drink slowly. For this reason, some no-

pantie coffee businesses believe the boom will be shortlived. With such obviously languid sipping, and consequently a sluggish turnover of customers, some say the fad could peak this summer. Probably they are right. But Mr Arita is well prepared for that. Next month, he says to conclude the show, he will open a topless hairdresser’s shop. At his shop, a shave will cost $25. Mr Arita produces a sketch of what he has in mind.