Miniskirts Steal Limelight (Article from Reuters)
Hey everyone. Here is a must read. I didn’t write this one but I thought it should be posted.
By Mayumi Negishi
CHIBA, Japan (Reuters) - Forget the giant flat-screen TVs and snazzy mobile phones.
At Japan’s biggest technology trade show on Friday, Wataru Tatebayashi, 35, aimed his camera at the women in miniskirts lining up in front of the gadgets to wave visitors goodbye.
“Someday these photos will be worth good money,” he said, shifting his weight to put down his tripod. “I’m putting some of these on my blog, but the best ones I’m saving for myself and for when the women become famous.”
For fans like Tatebayashi, the “companions” posing next to some of Japan’s most technologically advanced gear are far from gratuitous.
The mini-skirted women are the reason he took the afternoon off work and, his best cameras in tow, trekked out during a typhoon to the convention centre, a two-hour train ride from his home in western Tokyo.
“It’s a long-term investment,” he said. “Plus, maybe some of them will become my friends.”
For the women, too, events such as CEATEC, Japan’s biggest annual electronics trade show, are often more than just a decent paying part-time job.
Mitsuki Hoshikawa, 21, on duty at the Digital Living Network Alliance booth, kept interrupting the picture-takers to tell them she was starting up a blog next month.
“Please remember to check out my site!” she said, writing down her name on trade show pamphlets.
Hoshikawa’s agency, Style Corp., would pay for her blogging operation once she could show them she had a good following of admirers, she said.
“I need more fans, so I can get more gigs, and someday become a race queen,” she said.
She declined to say how much she was paid, but said the top companions get more job offers from the big electronics companies and earn four to five times as much per gig.
She pointed to the adjacent booth, where one such “celebrity companion”, Rika Ando, walked back and forth in front of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.’s 103-inch plasma displays.
But what about the risk of stalkers?
Web sites list the names and pictures of some of the most popular companions, along with the dates of their next gigs. What happens if one of the photographers gets out of line?
Hoshikawa paused before motioning to other women lined up in front of the booth. “We look after each other,” she said, then flashed a smile at photographers, kneeling for a leg shot.
