Explore everyday life in Japan
One thing that really surprised me when I came to Japan was learning that DJs often aren’t paid to perform in clubs.
In fact, from my experience, depending on the number of tickets that the DJs sell/the number of people that the DJs can recruit to their events, often times, the DJs organizing the event ending up paying a little to a lot of money out of their own pockets to perform.
Now, I can’t say for certain whether this is true for all of Japan, but from what I know, clubs are usually reserved for a fee by groups of people who want to perform at them. For example, if you and a few friends like to DJ and you want to set up a monthly party, you would most likely contact the owner of the venue you want to perform at, agree to rent the venue out at a set price (possibly $700 or more), and then keep whatever profits you can make at the door.
As far as I know, being paid, even $20 to $50, directly by the owner of a club to DJ a weekly or monthly event that the club hosts doesn’t exist in Japan. Generally, events are organized by groups of friends and acquaintances, and are more a labor of love than a financial enterprise.
Perhaps, though, that could be said about performing any kind of music in general.
Another thing that surprised me about clubs in Japan is that admission prices often include one or two drink tickets that can be exchanged at the club’s bar for Free drinks.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.