I know that Japan does not have a tradition of tipping. In general, tips are not expected for servers in restaurants, tour guides, or hotel staff. Does this extend to boys from brothels? Do boys expect or appreciate gratuities? Thank you for your advice! 

I don't think I tipped beyond the quoted price

1 hour ago, asntp said:

I know that Japan does not have a tradition of tipping. In general, tips are not expected for servers in restaurants, tour guides, or hotel staff. Does this extend to boys from brothels? Do boys expect or appreciate gratuities? Thank you for your advice! 

Certainly tips are not expected. I recall my first-ever visit to Tokyo decades ago. I stayed at the huge Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku and had to have a lovely young porter bring the bag to my room. Stupidly i tried to tip him. He recoiled as if in horror and would not accept it. As for the boy bars, I expect most will not accept a tip, but a few will - and be embarrassed doing to. Personally I do not tip.

On 12/24/2025 at 1:59 AM, PeterRS said:

Certainly tips are not expected. I recall my first-ever visit to Tokyo decades ago. I stayed at the huge Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku and had to have a lovely young porter bring the bag to my room. Stupidly i tried to tip him. He recoiled as if in horror and would not accept it. As for the boy bars, I expect most will not accept a tip, but a few will - and be embarrassed doing to. Personally I do not tip.

Ditto, at the (late) Hotel Okura.

in case someone may be wondering the same thing and click on this thread, wanna share my experience, although I only had two occassions where I offered tip. First was with at HAKATA KIDS (Fukuoka). Had a great session with the boy, while resting before shower, the boy slipped my uncondomed dick in his hole. Very much appreciated, tried to tip, before parting, he refused. Second was at massage (+sex). Well built, very nice and polite next-door guy. Been traveling all day and was tired, had some difficulty to penetrate him (also condom may play a role). Ended up finishing in an hour and a half for an hour booking. Tried really hard to pay for the additional time, but the samurai honour would not have him accept it.

I think they understand foreign tip culture. I would say, if you want to show appreciation, try to tip them, in the off chance it's a person who wouldn't mind accepting. And if they don't want to accept, you could apologize and best case, they are understanding, worse case, they get offended but you will never see them again anyway.

In all my visits to Japan and China - sexual and non-sexual places - I have never tipped, and loved the clarity and transparency of their pricing.

4 hours ago, osce said:

best case, they are understanding, worse case, they get offended

That's an important point for others to remember. Why risk causing offence just because it's one's own culture to tip? Might that reveal a sense of superiority regarding one's own culture to try to apply it to others? Is it so difficult to adjust to practices and customs of the country one is visiting, as a sign of consideration and respect? Possibly, a subconscious detection of a sense of superiority was part of the reason for offence.

This reminds me of an incident when a tourist would not take his shoes off before entering a Thai temple. When reminded, he said something like 'in my country, we don't take off our shoes to enter places of worship.' His group-tour guide had to intervene. I have never seen a Thai person flip from being sweet and smiling to angry quite as fast.