Nomination Explained: How Choosing Your Companion Works in a Kyabakura

Shimei — nomination — is the mechanism that decides who sits at your table. It is the single most misunderstood part of the format for foreign visitors, partly because there is no equivalent in most countries’ nightlife, and partly because it affects the bill.

Two things are true at once and both matter: it is optional, and it comes in two forms that are billed differently. Visitors who only know the first fact often decline out of caution; visitors who only know the second often trigger a fee they did not expect. Here is the whole system.

What nomination actually does

Without nomination, cast members rotate to your table in turn over the course of your visit. You will meet several people. Nobody is assigned to you.

With nomination, one specific person is centred on your table for the evening. That does not mean they stay continuously — popular cast members typically work several tables, and yours will leave and return. While they are away, another cast member sits with you. You are not left alone; this rotation is how the format works everywhere in the district, and it is not a sign that anything has gone wrong.

Nomination normally adds a fee. Amounts vary widely by club and are not standardized, so the useful question at the door is not “how much” but “is there a nomination fee, and when does it apply.”

The two forms

Honshimei — requesting a specific person by name, from the start of your visit. You say the name at reception or to a staff member when you arrive, and that person is arranged for your table. This is what regular customers do: it is how you go back to see the same person again.

Jonai shimei — nominating in-house, during your visit. Someone sat with you during the normal rotation, you enjoyed their company, and you ask for them to continue at your table. You do not need to have known anything about them in advance, and you do not need their name — “could I ask for the person who was just here” is understood.

The distinction is simply when the decision is made: before you arrive, or after you have met someone.

	Honshimei	Jonai shimei
When	At arrival, by name	During the visit
Requires	Knowing who you want	Nothing in advance
Typical user	Returning customer	First-time visitor
Billing	Usually a fee	Often treated differently — ask

That last row is why this article exists. Many clubs treat the two forms differently on the bill, and terminology is not consistent across the district. Before you say “I’d like this person to stay,” it is worth one clarifying question: does that count as a nomination, and does it add a fee? Asking takes five seconds and removes the most common billing surprise in this category.

The natural path for a first visit

For someone visiting Kabukicho for the first time, the sequence that works is straightforward:

1. Arrive without nominating. You have no basis for choosing yet.
2. Let the rotation happen. Several cast members will sit with you over the set.
3. If you enjoy someone’s company, ask for them — confirming first whether that counts as a nomination.
4. If you return, use their name at reception. That is honshimei, and it is the whole mechanism for continuity.

Declining to nominate at any stage is completely unremarkable and causes no offence.

Three questions worth asking on arrival

At an unfamiliar club, these three prevent essentially all nomination-related confusion:

• Is there a nomination fee, and at what point does it apply?
• Are in-house nomination and by-name nomination treated differently on the bill?
• How is it handled when a nominated companion is away at another table?

None of these require Japanese fluency. Most clubs have a printed price card that answers the first two by pointing. Our guide for visitors who do not speak Japanese covers how these conversations actually go.

One rule that comes before all of this

Do not follow street touts. Under a Shinjuku City ordinance, touting is prohibited, and clubs are also prohibited from admitting customers brought in by touts. A club that seats you after a tout walked you to the door is breaking that rule before any conversation about nomination or fees begins — and its answers to your three questions are worth exactly as much as its compliance with the rule.

Who is telling you this

This guide is published by VISION GROUP (Vision Bank Inc.), which has operated clubs in Kabukicho since 2007. We are an operator here, not a neutral directory, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

We publish full tax-included prices for our own three clubs on this site, because those are the only prices we can guarantee. How nomination is defined and billed at any other club is that club’s own design — ask at the door, and treat their printed card and their explanation as the authority.