I’m looking for a baito and saw that concept cafes maid jobs payed well and seemed fun.
I don’t know much about it though so I wanted to know if anyone has insights on it, advice or anything I should be careful about ?
I’m half Japanese but I’m only learning Japanese since 2020 and got JLPT N2, is it enough to be holding good conversations with the customers and will the cafes accept a ハーフ staff?
I also saw that girls bars were often in the same category of job offers , is it a safe job to do?
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Of the two working at a maid cafe would be safer and have better hours. Hostess clubs (girls bars) would pay better but not as safe, terrible hours, and you’d spend your life in various states of hangover.
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(All second or third hand, I’ve only ever been a customer at these places)
The managers will be OK with it if you’re making your numbers. If you fit the “cute ハーフ” stereotype (or the “blond hair blue eyes Russian princess” one) you’ll be fine, if you’re not something that appeals to Japanese clientele you’ll be bullied out. Likewise with the language – you don’t have to be able to have complex conversations, but you do need the right specific bits of Japanese to charm customers.
A maid cafe in itself is fairly safe (though check whether you could end up working alone late at night), but you’ll be surrounded by people who are making more money by doing things one step down the slope, so there’ll be a constant pressure from that. Decide up-front what your lines are and stick to them, or it’s very easy to start working more bar-type jobs, doing photoshoots or paid hangouts with customers, and then you wake up one day and you’re a stripper/escort/hooker. (Which, no disrespect if that’s what you want to do, but don’t sleepwalk into it). Plenty of people work for years as a maid and age out of it without going any further, but those connections do exist, and girls bars are probably a half-step further in that direction.
(And I assume you have citizenship or a table 2 visa; if you’re on a table 1 visa, a maid cafe that strictly only sells food and drink is ok, but you can’t do any kind of companionship work, which a lot of maid cafes end up qualifying as if they have any kind of “talk to the maid for x minutes” or “play a game with the maid” options on the menu)
Maid cafe is the safest.
Why
With N2, you can get better jobs. Please try other jobs, don’t go for these cafe maid or bar hostess stuff.
Don’t. Do. It.
Let me guess; you are 20-21 isn’t it? 😃