Dohan (同伴, sometimes written douhan) means “accompanying”. In Japanese nightlife it is when a guest meets a hostess before her shift, usually for dinner, and then they go to the kyabakura or club together. It is an arrangement between a regular guest and a hostess they usually nominate, and the club charges a fee for it.

How it works

1. A guest who already knows a hostess, usually one they nominate, arranges to meet her before the club opens.
2. They have a meal together. The guest normally pays for it.
3. They arrive at the club together, and the evening continues at the club’s normal prices.
4. The club adds a dohan fee to the bill.

For hostesses, dohan counts towards their performance at the club, which is why some hostesses invite regular guests. A guest is never obliged to accept.

What it costs

From the published price lists of the venues we checked in October 2026, the dohan fee had a median of ¥3,300 across 94 venues (range ¥2,000 to ¥5,500). That is on top of the meal, the set charge and the nomination fee, and service charge and tax usually apply to it too. See hostess club prices for the other lines.

What a visitor should know

• Dohan is something regular guests arrange. A first-time visitor does not need to think about it.
• It is a meal before work, arranged with the venue’s knowledge. Treat it as part of the club evening, with the same courtesy.
• Ask the venue how the dohan fee and arrival time work, because some venues set a time by which you must arrive.
• If anyone you meet on the street invites you for a “dinner first” and then a bar, that is not dohan. It is a common way into bottakuri.

In short

Dohan is dinner with a hostess before the club, followed by going in together. It is arranged by regular guests, has its own fee of a few thousand yen, and is not something a first-time visitor needs to do.

Also written as: dohan / douhan / 同伴 / 同伴出勤 / 동반