People across Japan have been urged to practice self-restraint and stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak, so visits to prime potential cluster establishments such as hostess clubs are not understandably not a recommended excursion at the moment. Japanese company C.C.A is developing a system for fans of hostess bars to still scratch their itch with a new remote hostess club service called "SmaCaba".

SmaCaba is a mashup of "smartphone" and "kyabakura" (which itself is a portmanteau of "cabaret" and "club"). At hostess clubs, patrons pay to drink with women and enjoy their company. C.C.A is currently recruiting hostess clubs to sign up for their SmaCaba service that makes use of LINE, Skype, and Zoom to let patrons "attend" the clubs remotely via smartphone video meetings. Customers will be billed via an online ticketing system.

The service is currently under construction (at the time of writing), but aims to make home drinking more fun, while providing the entertainment factor of a hostess club safely and at different times of day.

By - grape Japan editorial staff.