Mizu shobai

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Mizu shōbai (Japanese: 水商売), or the water trade, is the traditional euphemism for night-time entertainment business in Japan, provided on varying levels of illicitness by geisha, hostess or snack bars, bars, and cabarets. Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo is Japan's most famous area where one can patronize the water trade, as well as its more erotic counterpart Fūzoku (風俗, Fūzoku^?) — the sex industry composed of soaplands, pink salons, health, and image clubs.

While the actual origin of the term mizu shōbai is debatable, it is likely the term came into use during the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). The Tokugawa period saw the development of large bathhouses and an expansive network of roadside inns offering hot baths and sexual release, as well as the expansion of geisha districts and courtesan quarters in cities and towns throughout the country.

A nation famous for its onsens (natural hot springs), recreational sex has long been associated with water in Japan. Bearing relation to ukiyo (浮世 and 憂世), or "the floating world", mizu shōbai is a metaphor for floating, drinking and impermanence. Rising up with the tide, the floating world, then receding again, the fundamental nature of water is to flow uncontained, to never rest. Such characteristics are virtues in the pleasure industry — a fluid and constant place of commodity and exchange, of blurred boundaries and ever-shifting rules. However, the fluidity and unpredictability of water brings with it the risks, where the success of business greatly depends on the quality of service, the capriciousness of the guest, and even the weather.