Dressed like the "men in black," they pose and play with their phones, twirl their transparent umbrellas and when girls walk by they pounce.
"Hi," they say and walk alongside the girls, striking up a conversation, touching them lightly on the arms, offering the familiar lines of formulaic seduction. "Nice to meet you. What are you doing? Are you free? Why don't you come to the club?"
Often enough the girls do go with them. Welcome to the world of "catch men," who ply their trade along the kilometer-long Namba Arcade near Dotomburi Bridge, in Osaka.
The Taipei Times approached a man loitering on the bridge and asked him about what was going on. It turned out that he was a private investigator and seemed to know all about the scene.
"They pick up girls and yes, they have sex with them. But they also try to involve them in the making of adult videos -- or to become showgirls," he said.
The investigator, who asked not to be identified, called them "scout men" because they scout for girls. He wrinkled his nose and said: "They impress young girls, but often involve them in the world of gangsters and prostitution."
"For some girls, it is just fun, they want a good time, but others, they are vulnerable and end up following bad ways."
Like his friends, Misaki, whose real name is Yasuhiko, dresses from head to toe in a late 1980s Armani-style suit, with black loafers, dark tie, white shirt and peroxided hair. He uses his umbrella as a prop when he assumes a batter's pose in the middle of the alleyway, presumably to attract girls.
He is 20 years old and originally came from Nagasaki. He studies commerce at the prestigious Kyoto University and travels one-and-a-half hours on the train, three to four days a week, to walk the streets of Osaka after 9pm.
He said he found the job in the classified section of a magazine, which was advertising for "cool guys" who are good-looking and like talking. "I like this job because I can communicate with many people. This is a good way to meet new friends."
He said he had a lot of free time at college and had been doing the job for five months. He said his close friends knew about it, but not his parents.
"Of course, my father and mother don't know about this, they would not like it. People think that this is not good. If your daughter was a showgirl, would you like it?"
So, you're a kind of showgirl?
"Yes, I guess so, a showman."
He also calls himself a host. "We treat the girls like special guests, we look after them and make them feel good -- this is our job."
"It's called catch because we do the catch. These girls know what we are offering and some of them just want sex, it happens. We are cool guys and that is why they want to talk to us," he said and laughed.
If a girl is tempted to string along with Misaki, he will take her to his bar, where they will drink Jinro, which is like Korean Soju, strong and cheap. He calls it brandy.
He tells the girl the drinks are free, but they must pay "free time." This is ?3,000 (US$25) an hour, plus 20 percent tax, a total of ?3,600 per hour. Extra drinks must be paid for, at around ?1,000 each.
He said that he makes an average of ?12,000 per day, but it can be much more. "Occasionally a girl will want champagne and other things and she will spend ?130,000. This has happened sometimes."
All the money goes through the bar and Misaki's take is 40 percent. "But sometimes it can be zero. It is a very, very difficult job."
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