A mama-san or mamasan is usually a woman in a position of authority, especially one in charge of a geisha house or bar or nightclub in East Asia.
[1] In Southeast Asia a mamasan is a woman who works in a supervisory role in certain establishments, typically those related to drinking places.
The term is a combination of the English word "Mama" and the Japanese suffix -san which is a polite honorific attached to a person's name or title, coined by U.S. soldiers in Japan after World War II.
In Thailand and the Philippines, mamasan is commonly used to describe a woman who manages the female workers in bars and brothels.
Mamasan (sometimes abbreviated MMS) is also used in the United States to refer to the woman managing the staff of Asian massage parlors.