Source: Originally published in Daily Shincho, one of Japan’s major weekly magazines. The following is a faithful English translation for international readers.
This article examines the stark differences between Chinese and Japanese business attitudes toward money and power, as revealed through firsthand experiences in Chinese high-end karaoke bars. Drawing on the testimony of Kunihisa Matsubara, author of China Harassment: How Japanese Companies Are Stripped by China, it exposes a culture of extreme demands, sexual exploitation, and ruthless transactional logic. The article argues that this “no-limits” mentality extends far beyond nightlife, reflecting a broader pattern in Chinese business practices—characterized by fraudulent contracts, arbitrary regulations, and the normalization of anti-Japanese sentiment. For international readers and business leaders, it offers a rare, unfiltered look at the realities facing foreign companies operating in China.

The following is from an online article published just moments ago by Daily Shincho.

“The ‘Outrageous’ Flesh-for-Cash Services of Chinese Karaoke Bars:
The Terrifying Reality of China Harassment (Part 4, Full Text)” | Daily Shincho

How fundamentally different are Chinese and Japanese businessmen in their attitudes toward money? Kunihisa Matsubara, author of China Harassment: How Japanese Companies Are Stripped by China, explains one aspect of this difference through contrasting behaviors observed in karaoke bars.

On one occasion, Matsubara was taken by a Chinese friend to a high-end karaoke bar frequented by Chinese patrons. The first shock awaited him at the entrance. The welcoming greeting consisted of the “mama-san” opening her jacket and greeting customers with a hug—bare breasts exposed.

The surprises did not end there. In high-end Chinese karaoke bars, it is common for women to sit beside customers. At this particular establishment, however, when a customer selected a woman, the chosen woman would lift her skirt, pull her underwear down to her knees, and spin around once in front of the customer.

The Chinese friend, clearly accustomed to such entertainment, would respond “no” when the mama-san asked, “Is this girl okay?” and took pleasure in changing the girl. When asked, “Don’t you feel sorry for the women?” he showed no shame whatsoever and replied, “We’re paying 300 yuan (about 6,000 yen), so of course this is to be expected.”

Given that such “services” are provided from the outset, what follows afterward is easy to imagine.

In fact, at karaoke bars frequented by Japanese customers, the standard tip is also around 300 yuan. However, in Japanese-oriented karaoke bars, at most, some degree of “touching” is tacitly tolerated. There is a world of difference between this and Chinese-oriented karaoke bars, where customers demand “services commensurate with 300 yuan.”

“I feel that this difference in severity—this difference in sheer ruthlessness—also exists in the world of business,” Matsubara writes.

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In China Harassment: How Japanese Companies Are Stripped by China, the former China representative of Suzuki, who witnessed three decades of change since the era of Reform and Opening, provides a thorough explanation of the fraudulent contracts routinely encountered in China, arbitrary and nonsensical regulations, and even the introduction of “anti-Japanese” sentiment into inter-company transactions. He also details the “cold-blooded strategies” required to conduct business in China.