Who are these men in black in Shinjuku ?

Yesterday night, my boyfriend and I were very intrigued by all those young men all dressed in black in front of what seemed like clubs in Shinjuku. They didn't look at us tourists at all so I couldn't bring myself up to ask them any question, but we were wondering, because they looked as they "owned" these streets. Do somebody know about them ?

Where they rather god looking, with longish hair ot short fancy hairstyles?
they could be looking for;
1-naive young girls from the suburbs that they will befriend..and.... or
2-middle-age women who need someone to make them feel good, flatter them etc. for a fee.
I have seen Japanese magazines with pages and pages full of photos of well groomed young men offering their services.
If they looked like virgins they could be Mormons, or some other religion, trying to convince people not to go to clubs and do sinful things like smoking, drinking beer.
If they were tough looking, muscular, they could be junior gangsters.
I have seen guys like that in red light districts in other countries too..you were right not to talk to them.

Catherine,

They are most likely scouts trying to entice girls to work in the sex industry or trying to entice girls into host bars.

If they were standing in front of clubs, they were probably trying to get more customers into the place they work for. In Shinjuku, there are a lot of sex industry related places where only men are allowed to get in, or where certain types of customers are appreciated (like those with cash and speak the language, etc.), then they wouldn't pay attention to young and foreign couples.

Another possibility is that they were guides that guide tourists to clubs but mainly sex-industry-related ones. However these people would usually stand at a square and not in front of specific clubs, plus it is not legal to do this any more.

Scouts usually stand near the station or a crossing.

Do they own the streets? Practically yes. I'm sure they bribe the yakuza gansters once in a while or have a contract with yakuza-related associations so that no one would come to kick them out from the traffic.

But if they were standing very close to their specific club and not looking like they "own" the streets, then I suppose it's within legal service.

Shinjuku has a huge industry for those men in black, but if you go to smaller towns, the men call up to males saying, "Hey president! We got cuties for you!" and call up to females saying, "Hey sweety! We got a job for you!" but they're usually joking :)

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I thought this was going to be about actual BLACK men in Shinjuku.. The thing is I myself have been wondering about this group of black men in Ikebukuro ^^; When I was in Tokyo I often went to Ikebukuro and on wednesday evenings (or was it thursday? i dont remember well , but it was definitely 1 specific day of the week) at 9pm , we would suddenly see a big group of black men walking around there. I had no idea what it was about hehe, and i thought this thread would have something to do with it :p

In Harajuku, they are Jamicans that try to pull people into their stores to buy things from them. Most likely the "rapper clothing"

i think your talking about the gigolo's but there are well know as host, they work for the club, they make millions a day. look gooding, in a black suits a lot of the time, the club manager is the pimp, they are the bitches, who sale themself for money, these are good looking guys. choosen because of they good looks. they could do so much better, i find them sad for some reason.

interesting...probably i should date a host...haha!

For a good inside look at the host industry watch "The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Theif" (you can find it online, just google it). It shows how strange, sad, and circular the industry is, with hosts being paid huge amounts to lie to women who are mostly hostesses and hookers, and prostitutes paying their whole salaries thinking these guys could some day really fall in love with them.

I've been to host clubs and it's fun, but in a lot of ways it's exploitative (though still more for the women than the hosts I think)