The Suspension
Nanae, a high-end hostess club in Tokyo's Ginza district, is closed for business from October 30 through December 28, 2026. That is a 60-day order covering the year-end party season, which the owner calls the club's busiest months.
The club's owner, Nanae Karasawa, disclosed the suspension in a video posted to her YouTube channel on October 29. She is widely known as "Nanae Mama" and is a recurring investor-judge on the online business-pitch show Reiwa no Tora ("Tigers of the Reiwa Era"), SmartFLASH reported.
On November 3 she posted a follow-up. She put the cost of the closure in plain numbers: "November and December are the months when sales go up. You can assume we will have no sales of about ¥300 million over these two months," she said, according to Tokyo Sports Web (Tōspo Web). "Honestly, part of me doesn't know what will happen."
What Triggered It
Karasawa described the trigger herself, as reported by both outlets. In January 2026, a staff member working for the club under an outsourcing (gyōmu itaku) contract approached a woman on the street to recruit her. Police then investigated the staffer for violating Tokyo's nuisance-prevention ordinance (meiwaku bōshi jōrei), which bans street solicitation and scouting in public places.
Karasawa said the staffer and the company's representative director were later questioned. The 60-day suspension followed.
Neither outlet published the text of the administrative order or a statement from the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission, the body that licenses and disciplines nightlife businesses under the fūei-hō (Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act). Both reports rely on the owner's own account of the case. Neither outlet reported any criminal charges against the club or its management.
The Owner's Response
In the October 29 video, Karasawa apologized. "As the owner, I take this matter very seriously," she said. She acknowledged that she should have understood the laws governing her business and made sure each staff member knew the rules. "I deeply regret my lax awareness and management as owner," she said, according to SmartFLASH. She pledged ongoing legal training for staff.
In the November 3 update, she said she would keep up her YouTube appearances and promote Enzai no Tsukurikata ("How to Manufacture a False Accusation"), a film she produced that opens November 6. She also said she wanted to spend the two months on volunteer work, including soup kitchens, children's cafeterias and disaster-relief areas, Tokyo Sports reported.
Backlash Online
The response on social media has been largely critical. After the initial announcement, users on X called the club "outdated beyond belief," SmartFLASH reported.
Criticism sharpened on November 3. Karasawa posted on Instagram that the YouTuber Tenchim had visited the shuttered club with a "surprise present" and teased a reveal "after we reopen." Tenchim is a former Nanae hostess. Users accused the owner of playing "the tragic heroine" and acting like a victim while under a sanction for wrongdoing, SmartFLASH reported on November 4.
Tenchim worked at Nanae for about one year and two months under the stage name "Ai Tenka" and left in January 2022, according to SmartFLASH. She took the job to fund refunds to buyers of a bust-enhancement product she had promoted while concealing that she had had breast-augmentation surgery.
Why It Matters
Nanae opened in Ginza's 8-chome district in 2018. It became one of the few Ginza clubs with name recognition outside the nightlife world, helped by a Fuji TV documentary feature on The Nonfiction and by Karasawa's online presence.
The case shows a point that observers, including a fūei-hō specialist who commented publicly on it, have stressed: putting a recruiter on an outsourcing contract does not shield the venue. A licensed operator is expected to control what people working on its behalf do on the street.
Street scouting has been a central target since the 2025 amendments to the fūei-hō, which were aimed mainly at predatory host clubs and the payments they receive from scouts and sex businesses.
The two outlets have not reported which provision the order relied on. Nanae is scheduled to reopen on December 29.
Sources: SmartFLASH (Kobunsha), October 30 and November 4, 2026; Tokyo Sports Web, November 3, 2026 (all via Yahoo! News Japan). Details of the triggering incident and the suspension period are based on the owner's own statements as reported by both outlets; the order itself and any statement from police or the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission had not been published at the time of writing. Glossary: fūei-hō = Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act; meiwaku bōshi jōrei = prefectural nuisance-prevention ordinance; gyōmu itaku = outsourcing / independent-contractor agreement.