Bald men in Japan are getting a lot of love from a Tokyo-based bar named Otasuke — a name that could be translated into English to mean “the baldie’s friend” — where patrons with receding hairlines are offered a bit of consolation to cover their loss: Discounted drink tabs.
“I don’t like to admit I’m going bald,” said Fumio Terashita, a businessman who has a receding hairline, CBS reported. “But the bald discount idea is fun.”
A note on the outside door of the bar includes a cartoon-type drawing of a bald guy next to the bar’s core message, CBS reported: “Baldness is a man’s badge of honor!”
Asian countries have among the lowest numbers of bald men, while Western nations don’t fare so well, CBS reported. The wig and hair transplant business is booming in select cities in the United States, which comes in at sixth in the world for populations of balding men — a bit more than 39 percent, CBS said.
In Asia, Japan has the largest balding population, at about 27 percent.
So pub owner Yoshiko Toyoda said she wanted to capitalize somehow on the statistic and possibly spread some good in the world.
“I wanted some kind of volunteer theme with the bar,” she said, CBS reported. “When I looked down from the second floor at the lunchtime crowds, I just noticed all the bald heads.”
And the idea was born, she said.
Balding customers are treated to a discount of about $5, she said. If a party of five balding men walk in together, one of them drinks for free.
“Customers have to ask for the bald discount,” Ms. Toyoda said, CBS reported. “We inspect them and decide whether they’re eligible.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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