Muscular Female Employee Slaps Customer's Cheek? ... Unique Theme Japanese Bar Gains Popularity

Service Where Employee Slaps Customer Upon Payment
Customers Say "A Unique Way to Relieve Stress"

A unique concept bar in Japan, where muscular female staff slap customers on the cheek, is gaining popularity.

On the 3rd, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a bar called ‘Muscle Girls Bar’ in Tokyo, Japan, is attracting people from all over the world.

The bar is decorated with a fitness theme and employs muscular female staff such as professional wrestlers, jiu-jitsu black belts, and fitness influencers.

The most notable service at Muscle Girls Bar is getting slapped or kicked by the female staff. Customers can use this service by exchanging cash for ‘muscle coins.’ Despite the high price, which can reach up to 30,000 yen (about 280,000 KRW), the service is popular.

There is also a service where customers can ride on the staff’s shoulders while they do squats. The fee varies depending on the customer's weight. Another popular menu item is a cocktail made by the staff crushing grapefruit with their bare hands.

Employees of Muscle Girls Bar [Image source=Captured from Muscle Girls Bar official website]

Hari, who runs Muscle Girls Bar, started the bar in 2020 after working as a fitness influencer on YouTube and facing gym closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said, “After slapping an Australian customer on the cheek, word spread, and his friends are deliberately coming to receive the cheek-slapping service.” Hari, who also played volleyball in his childhood, expressed confidence in his slapping skills.

Customers who visited the bar left reviews such as “Getting slapped made me forget all my worries” and “Being slapped is a unique way to relieve stress.” On the other hand, some expressed, “I don’t understand why people go to a bar to pay for physical pain.”

A female customer said, “The staff here break the stereotype that Japanese women are weak,” and “I feel a sense of liberation here.”

This is not the first bar in Japan to offer a cheek-slapping service. At the end of last year, local media reported that a bar called ‘Shachihokoya’ in Nishiki Sanchome, Nagoya, also provides a paid service where staff slap customers.

Opened in 2012, this bar almost closed due to poor business but reportedly flourished so much after starting the cheek-slapping service that they had to hire additional staff.