Prostitution in Japan
Encyclopedia
Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history
.
While the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it," various loopholes, liberal interpretations of the law, and loose enforcement have allowed the sex industry
to prosper and earn an estimated 2.3 trillion yen ($24 billion dollars) a year, which accounts for 2 to 3% of the nation's GDP.
In Japan
, the "sex industry" is not synonym
ous with prostitution. Since Japanese law
defines prostitution as "intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment," most sex clubs only offer non-coital services to remain legal. This has led Joan Sinclair, the author of Pink Box
, to observe that the sex industry in Japan ironically "offer[s] absolutely everything imaginable but sex."
faith does not regard sex
as a taboo
, while Buddhist
teachings regarding sex, often strict, have been limited in their impact in practice.
From the 15th century, Chinese
, Koreans and other East Asian visitors frequented brothel
s in Japan.
This practice later continued among visitors from "the West
ern regions," mainly Europe
an traders who often came with their South Asia
n lascar crew (in addition to Africa
n crewmembers, in some cases). This began with the arrival of Portuguese ships to Japan in the 16th century, when the local Japanese people
assumed that the Portuguese
were from Tenjiku
("Heavenly Abode"), the Japanese
name for the Indian subcontinent
(due to its importance as the birthplace of Buddhism
), and that Christianity
was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken assumptions were due to the India
n city of Goa
being a central base for the Portuguese East India Company
and also due to a significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships being Indian Christians
.
Portuguese visitors and their South Asia
n and African crewmembers often engaged in slavery in Japan
, where they bought or captured young Japanese women and girls, who were either used as sexual slaves
on their ships or taken to Macau
and other Portuguese colonies
in Southeast Asia
, the Americas
, and India
, where there was a community of Japanese slaves and traders in Goa by the early 17th century. Later European East India companies
, including those of the Dutch
and British
, were involved in prostitution while in Japan.
, masterless samurai, were not allowed in and neither were the prostitutes let out, except to visit dying relatives and, once a year, to see
the sakura
cherry blossoms.
into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period
. Japanese novelists, notably Higuchi Ichiyō, started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts. In 1908, Ministry of Home Affairs Ordinance No. 16 penalized unregulated prostitution.
and Southeast Asia
in the second half of the 19th century to work as prostitutes. Many of these women are said to have originated from the Amakusa Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture
, which had a large and long-stigmatized Japanese Christian community.
Many of the women who went overseas to work as karayuki-san were the daughters of poor agricultural or fishing families. The mediators that arranged for the women to go overseas would search for girls of appropriate age in poor farming communities and pay their parents, telling them they were going overseas on public duty. The mediators would then make money by passing the girls onto people in the prostitution industry. With the money the mediators received, some would also go on to set up their own overseas brothels.
The end of the Meiji period
was the golden age for karayuki-san, and the girls that would go on these overseas voyages were known fondly as joshigun (女子軍), or "army of girls." However, with the internationalisation of Japan things began to change, and soon enough karayuki-san were considered shameful. During the 1910s and 1920s, Japanese officials overseas worked hard to eliminate Japanese brothels and maintain Japanese prestige. Many of the Japanese prostitutes returned to Japan, but some ended up staying on.
, the Recreation and Amusement Association
was formed by Naruhiko Higashikuni's government to organize brothels to serve the Allied armed forces occupying Japan. On 19 August 1945, the Home Ministry
ordered local government offices to establish a prostitution
service for Allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the "Japanese race". The official declaration stated that "Through the sacrifice of thousands of 'Okichis' of the Shōwa era, we shall construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future..." Such clubs were soon established by cabinet councilor Yoshio Kodama
and Ryoichi Sasakawa
.
However, SCAP
abolished the licensed prostitution system (including the RAA) in 1946. In 1947, Imperial Ordinance No. 9 punished persons for enticing women to act as prostitutes, but prostitution itself remained legal. Only the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 (No. 118, passed May 24, 1956)—reportedly spurred by alarming rates of sexually transmitted disease
s among troops—made organised prostitution illegal, at least in some forms.
After the Pacific War
, the topic of -san was a little known fact of Japan's pre-war underbelly, but in 1972 Tomoko Yamazaki published Sandakan Brothel No. 8
which raised awareness of karayuki-san and encouraged further research and reporting.
The main destinations of karayuki-san included China
, Hong Kong
, the Philippines, Borneo
, Thailand
, and Indonesia
. They were often sent to Western colonies in Asia where there was a strong demand from Western military personnel and Chinese men. There were cases of Japanese women being sent to places as far as Siberia
, Manchuria
, Hawaii
, North America
(California
), and Africa
(Zanzibar
).
Non-Japanese Asian women working in Japan as dancers, singers, hostesses, and strippers from the second half of the 20th century are called japayuki-san (ジャパ行きさん, lit. "Miss Gone-to-Japan"), and have become the subject of much controversy
. The word itself is derogatory.
The definition of prostitution is strictly limited to coitus
. This means sale of numerous acts such as oral sex
, anal sex
, intercrural sex
, and other non-coital sex acts
are all legal. The , amended in 1985 and 1999, regulates these businesses.
The sex industry in Japan uses a variety of names. Soapland
s are bath houses where customers are soaped up and serviced by staff. Fashion health
shops and pink salon
s are notionally massage or esthetic treatment parlors, and image club
s are themed versions of the same (see Cosplay
). Call girl
s operate via delivery health
services. Freelancers can get in contact with potential customers via telekura
(telephone clubs), and the actual act of prostitution is legally called enjo kōsai
or "compensated dating" to avoid legal trouble. Kabukicho
, an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, measures only 0.34 km2, and has approximately 3,500 sex parlors, strip theaters, peep shows, "soaplands", 'lovers' banks, porno shops, sex telephone clubs, karaoke bars and clubs, etc.
Over 150,000 non-Japanese women are in prostitution in Japan. According to National Police Agency
records, out of 85 non-Japanese people arrested for in 2007, 37 (43.5%) were mainland Chinese
and 13 (15.3%) were Thai
, while Taiwanese
and Korean
s made up 12 (7.2%) each.
, prostitution
dates back several hundred years. In the early 17th century, first attempts were made to criminalize prostitution in Yoshiwara
in Edo (present-day Tokyo
). A law was passed which required prostitutes to register and work in secured facilities, its main purpose being for tax collection. Prostitutes were divided into classes or ranks, and the men of society would use the services of those afforded to their position in the city.
In modern times, Tokyo's prostitution trade is well regarded for its high class of services and large customer base
. Because of Tokyo's position as a top 5 global business and trade city, prostitution continues to thrive in Tokyo. Clients on business trips or trade conventions, along with traditional tourists
, continue to provide demands for Tokyo's sex industry, providing economic benefits.
s for the sex industry in Japan:
, literally "selling spring" or "selling youth", has turned from a mere euphemism into a legal term used in, for instance, the name of the 1956 Anti-Prostitution Law ; the modern meaning of the word is quite specific and is usually only used for actual (i.e., illegal) prostitution. The word for "prostitute" in Japanese is "baishunfu".
, the "water trade", is a wider term that covers the entire entertainment industry, including the legitimate, the illegal, and the borderline.
, literally "public morals", is commonly used to refer specifically to the sex industry, although in legal use this covers also e.g., dance hall
s and gambling
and the more specific term , "sexual morals", is used instead. The term originates from a law regulating business affecting public morals.
is a top destination for victims of human trafficking
, according to a report produced by the UNODC.
Women and children from East Asia
, Southeast Asia
, Eastern Europe
, Russia
, and Latin America
are trafficked to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation.
History of Japan
The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...
.
While the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it," various loopholes, liberal interpretations of the law, and loose enforcement have allowed the sex industry
Sex industry
The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...
to prosper and earn an estimated 2.3 trillion yen ($24 billion dollars) a year, which accounts for 2 to 3% of the nation's GDP.
In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the "sex industry" is not synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
ous with prostitution. Since Japanese law
Japanese law
-Historical Developments:Pre-Modern History The early law of Japan was heavily influenced by Chinese law. Little is known about Japanese law prior to the seventh century, when the Ritsuryō was developed and codified. Before Chinese characters were transplanted and adopted by the Japanese, the...
defines prostitution as "intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment," most sex clubs only offer non-coital services to remain legal. This has led Joan Sinclair, the author of Pink Box
Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs
Pink Box is a book by photojournalist Joan Sinclair, chronicling her exploration of the secret world of fuzoku in Japan.Sinclair was joined by contributor James Farrer, a sociologist, who attempted to "place[s] the images in the context of contemporary Japanese culture."The book is 192 pages long,...
, to observe that the sex industry in Japan ironically "offer[s] absolutely everything imaginable but sex."
History
The ShintoShinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
faith does not regard sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
as a taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
, while Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
teachings regarding sex, often strict, have been limited in their impact in practice.
From the 15th century, Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
, Koreans and other East Asian visitors frequented brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s in Japan.
This practice later continued among visitors from "the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
ern regions," mainly Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an traders who often came with their South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n lascar crew (in addition to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n crewmembers, in some cases). This began with the arrival of Portuguese ships to Japan in the 16th century, when the local Japanese people
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
assumed that the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
were from Tenjiku
Tianzhu
-Locations in China:*Mount Tianzhu , in Anhui*Tianzhu County, Guizhou , in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou*Tenzhu Tibetan Autonomous County , or Tianzhu, of Wuwei, Gansu...
("Heavenly Abode"), the Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
name for the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
(due to its importance as the birthplace of Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
), and that Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken assumptions were due to the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n city of Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
being a central base for the Portuguese East India Company
Portuguese East India Company
- Background :Portuguese trade with India had been a crown monopoly since the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India in 1497-99. The monopoly had been managed by the Casa da Índia, the royal trading house founded around 1500. The Casa was responsible for the yearly India...
and also due to a significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships being Indian Christians
Christianity in India
Christianity is India's third-largest religion, with approximately 24 million followers, constituting 2.3% of India's population. The works of scholars and Eastern Christian writings and 14th century Portuguese missionaries created an illusion to convert Indians that Christianity was introduced to...
.
Portuguese visitors and their South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n and African crewmembers often engaged in slavery in Japan
Slavery in Japan
During most of the history of the country, the practice of slavery in Japan involved only indigenous Japanese, as the export and import of slaves was significantly restricted by isolation of the group of islands from other areas of Asia...
, where they bought or captured young Japanese women and girls, who were either used as sexual slaves
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
on their ships or taken to Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
and other Portuguese colonies
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, the Americas
Portuguese colonization of the Americas
Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Earth, outside Europe, in 1494 into Spanish and Portuguese global territorial hemispheres for exclusive conquest and colonization...
, and India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
, where there was a community of Japanese slaves and traders in Goa by the early 17th century. Later European East India companies
East India Company (disambiguation)
The East India Company, also known as the English East India Company and the British East India Company, was a historical English, and later British, company, founded in 1600, and chartered with the monopoly of trading with Southeast Asia, East Asia, and India.East India Company may also refer to...
, including those of the Dutch
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
and British
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, were involved in prostitution while in Japan.
Shogunate era
camper and access control. RōninRonin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
, masterless samurai, were not allowed in and neither were the prostitutes let out, except to visit dying relatives and, once a year, to see
Hanami
is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, "flower" in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms or ume blossoms. From the end of March to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan, and around the first of February on the island of Okinawa...
the sakura
Sakura
A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese . Many of the varieties that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit...
cherry blossoms.
Meiji era
The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influencesWesternization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
. Japanese novelists, notably Higuchi Ichiyō, started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts. In 1908, Ministry of Home Affairs Ordinance No. 16 penalized unregulated prostitution.
Karayuki-san
were Japanese women who travelled to East AsiaEast Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
in the second half of the 19th century to work as prostitutes. Many of these women are said to have originated from the Amakusa Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture
Kumamoto Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyushu Island. The capital is the city of Kumamoto.- History :Historically the area was called Higo Province; and the province was renamed Kumamoto during the Meiji Restoration. The creation of prefectures was part of the abolition of the feudal system...
, which had a large and long-stigmatized Japanese Christian community.
Many of the women who went overseas to work as karayuki-san were the daughters of poor agricultural or fishing families. The mediators that arranged for the women to go overseas would search for girls of appropriate age in poor farming communities and pay their parents, telling them they were going overseas on public duty. The mediators would then make money by passing the girls onto people in the prostitution industry. With the money the mediators received, some would also go on to set up their own overseas brothels.
The end of the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
was the golden age for karayuki-san, and the girls that would go on these overseas voyages were known fondly as joshigun (女子軍), or "army of girls." However, with the internationalisation of Japan things began to change, and soon enough karayuki-san were considered shameful. During the 1910s and 1920s, Japanese officials overseas worked hard to eliminate Japanese brothels and maintain Japanese prestige. Many of the Japanese prostitutes returned to Japan, but some ended up staying on.
Shōwa era
Immediately after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Recreation and Amusement Association
Recreation and Amusement Association
The , or more literally Special Comfort Facility Association, was the official euphemism for the prostitution centers arranged for occupying U.S...
was formed by Naruhiko Higashikuni's government to organize brothels to serve the Allied armed forces occupying Japan. On 19 August 1945, the Home Ministry
Home Ministry (Japan)
The ' was a Cabinet-level ministry established under the Meiji Constitution that managed the internal affairs of Empire of Japan from 1873-1947...
ordered local government offices to establish a prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
service for Allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the "Japanese race". The official declaration stated that "Through the sacrifice of thousands of 'Okichis' of the Shōwa era, we shall construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future..." Such clubs were soon established by cabinet councilor Yoshio Kodama
Yoshio Kodama
was a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous 'kuromaku', or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and criminal underworld from the 1950s to the early 1970s....
and Ryoichi Sasakawa
Ryoichi Sasakawa
was a Japanese businessman, politician and philanthropist born in Minoh, Osaka. He was accused but acquitted of being a Class A war criminal after World War II, was a self-proclaimed fascist, kuromaku , and the founder of The Nippon Foundation...
.
However, SCAP
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
abolished the licensed prostitution system (including the RAA) in 1946. In 1947, Imperial Ordinance No. 9 punished persons for enticing women to act as prostitutes, but prostitution itself remained legal. Only the Anti-Prostitution Law of 1956 (No. 118, passed May 24, 1956)—reportedly spurred by alarming rates of sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
s among troops—made organised prostitution illegal, at least in some forms.
After the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, the topic of -san was a little known fact of Japan's pre-war underbelly, but in 1972 Tomoko Yamazaki published Sandakan Brothel No. 8
Sandakan No. 8
is a 1974 Japanese film directed by Kei Kumai. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.-Plot:A young female journalist is researching an article on the history of Japanese women who were forced to work as prostitutes in Asian brothels during the early 20th century...
which raised awareness of karayuki-san and encouraged further research and reporting.
The main destinations of karayuki-san included China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the Philippines, Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. They were often sent to Western colonies in Asia where there was a strong demand from Western military personnel and Chinese men. There were cases of Japanese women being sent to places as far as Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
(California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
), and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
).
Non-Japanese Asian women working in Japan as dancers, singers, hostesses, and strippers from the second half of the 20th century are called japayuki-san (ジャパ行きさん, lit. "Miss Gone-to-Japan"), and have become the subject of much controversy
Ethnic issues in Japan
- Demographic :About 1.6% of Japan's total legal resident population are foreign nationals. Of these, according to 2008 data from the Japanese government, the principal groups are as follows....
. The word itself is derogatory.
Legal status
Article 3 of the of 1956 states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it," but no judicial penalty is defined for this act. Instead, the following are prohibited on pain of penalty: soliciting for purposes of prostitution, procuring a person for prostitution, coercing a person into prostitution, receiving compensation from the prostitution of others, inducing a person to be a prostitute by paying an "advance," concluding a contract for making a person a prostitute, furnishing a place for prostitution, engaging in the business of making a person a prostitute, and the furnishing of funds for prostitution.The definition of prostitution is strictly limited to coitus
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
. This means sale of numerous acts such as oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
, anal sex
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...
, intercrural sex
Intercrural sex
Intercrural sex , also known as femoral/interfemoral sex/intercourse, is a type of non-penetrative sex, in which a male places his penis between his partner's thighs , and thrusts to create friction.-Heterosexuality:The sex education and sexual experimentation of adolescents may feature intercrural...
, and other non-coital sex acts
Human sexual behavior
Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...
are all legal. The , amended in 1985 and 1999, regulates these businesses.
Types
Soapland
A ' is a Japanglish and indicates a paradise for men in Japanese. It is said, since in Japan prostitution is officially prohibited by the government, that it is a type of brothel in Japan where male clients can engage in sexual activity with female prostitutes, although officially the clubs do...
s are bath houses where customers are soaped up and serviced by staff. Fashion health
Fashion health
', or health for short, is a form of massage parlor which circumvents Japanese anti-prostitution laws by offering a range of services that stop short of sexual intercourse....
shops and pink salon
Pink salon
A ', or ' for short, is a type of brothel in Japan which specialises in oral sex.A pink salon is unusual in that the service is offered in small booths within a large open-plan room. The client is served soft drinks or alcoholic beverages by the "companion" who performs fellatio on him...
s are notionally massage or esthetic treatment parlors, and image club
Image club
An ', or ', is a type of brothel in Japan similar to fashion health parlors. They differ in that image clubs are themed along popular sexual fantasies such as an office, a doctor's surgery, a classroom, or a train carriage...
s are themed versions of the same (see Cosplay
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
). Call girl
Call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who is not visible to the general public; nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency...
s operate via delivery health
Delivery health
, also known as shutchō health or by the abbreviation "deriheru" , is a form of prostitution in Japan similar to fashion health, "health" being a term for sexual services...
services. Freelancers can get in contact with potential customers via telekura
Telekura
', an abbreviation for , are telephone-based dating services originating in Japan.In the original incarnation of the telephone club, popular in the mid-1990s, a male client would pay a fee to enter a booth with a phone. The phone would then ring with calls from women or girls willing to go on a...
(telephone clubs), and the actual act of prostitution is legally called enjo kōsai
Enjo kosai
means "compensated dating" and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship and, possibly, for sexual favors. The female participants range from primarily school-aged girls to housewives. A common misconception is...
or "compensated dating" to avoid legal trouble. Kabukicho
Kabukicho
is an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabukichō is the location of many hostess bars, host bars, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the "Sleepless Town"...
, an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, measures only 0.34 km2, and has approximately 3,500 sex parlors, strip theaters, peep shows, "soaplands", 'lovers' banks, porno shops, sex telephone clubs, karaoke bars and clubs, etc.
Over 150,000 non-Japanese women are in prostitution in Japan. According to National Police Agency
National Police Agency (Japan)
The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....
records, out of 85 non-Japanese people arrested for in 2007, 37 (43.5%) were mainland Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and 13 (15.3%) were Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
, while Taiwanese
Taiwanese people
Taiwanese people may refer to individuals who either claim or are imputed cultural identity focused on the island of Taiwan and/or Taiwan Area which have been governed by the Republic of China since 1945...
and Korean
Korean people
The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...
s made up 12 (7.2%) each.
Tokyo prostitution
In TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
dates back several hundred years. In the early 17th century, first attempts were made to criminalize prostitution in Yoshiwara
Yoshiwara
Yoshiwara was a famous Akasen district in Edo, present-day Tōkyō, Japan.In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to...
in Edo (present-day Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
). A law was passed which required prostitutes to register and work in secured facilities, its main purpose being for tax collection. Prostitutes were divided into classes or ranks, and the men of society would use the services of those afforded to their position in the city.
In modern times, Tokyo's prostitution trade is well regarded for its high class of services and large customer base
Customer base
The customer base is the group of customers and/or consumers that a business serves. In the most situations, a large part of this group is made up of repeat customers with a high ratio of purchase over time. These customers are the main source of consumer spending...
. Because of Tokyo's position as a top 5 global business and trade city, prostitution continues to thrive in Tokyo. Clients on business trips or trade conventions, along with traditional tourists
Tourism in Japan
Tourism in Japan attracted 8.3 million foreign visitors in 2008, slightly more than Singapore and Ireland. Japan has 16 World Heritage Sites, including Himeji Castle and Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto . Kyoto receives over 30 million tourists annually...
, continue to provide demands for Tokyo's sex industry, providing economic benefits.
Terms
Several terms have been used for as euphemismEuphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
s for the sex industry in Japan:
, literally "selling spring" or "selling youth", has turned from a mere euphemism into a legal term used in, for instance, the name of the 1956 Anti-Prostitution Law ; the modern meaning of the word is quite specific and is usually only used for actual (i.e., illegal) prostitution. The word for "prostitute" in Japanese is "baishunfu".
, the "water trade", is a wider term that covers the entire entertainment industry, including the legitimate, the illegal, and the borderline.
, literally "public morals", is commonly used to refer specifically to the sex industry, although in legal use this covers also e.g., dance hall
Dance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub...
s and gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
and the more specific term , "sexual morals", is used instead. The term originates from a law regulating business affecting public morals.
Human trafficking
JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
is a top destination for victims of human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
, according to a report produced by the UNODC.
Women and children from East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
are trafficked to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation.
See also
- AkasenAkasenis Japanese slang and a collective term which was used to identify districts in Japan where prostitution and the sex industry flourished until 1958.Akasen means literally "red-line". The districts were the designated regions for state-regulated prostitution...
- Geisha and prostitution
- Comfort womenComfort womenThe term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
serving in brothels of the Japanese military in World War II.
Further reading
- Araki, NobuyoshiNobuyoshi Arakiis a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname .-Life and career:Araki was born in Tokyo, studied photography during his college years and then went to work at the advertising agency Dentsu, where he met his future wife, the essayist Yōko Araki...
. Tokyo Lucky Hole. Köln; New York: Taschen, 1997. ISBN 3822881899. 768 pages. Black and white photographs of Shinjuku sex workers, clients, and businesses taken 1983–5. - Associated Press. "Women turn to selling sexual favors in Japan". Taipei Times, December 9, 2002, p. 11. Accessed 11 October 2006.
- Bornoff, Nicholas. Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage and Sex in Contemporary Japan. New York: Pocket Books, 1991. ISBN 0-671-74265-5.
- Clements, Steven Langhorne. Tokyo Pink Guide. Tokyo: Yenbooks, 1993. ISBN 0-8048-1915-7.
- Constantine, Peter. Japan's Sex Trade: A Journey Through Japan's Erotic Subcultures. Tokyo: Yenbooks, 1993. ISBN 4-900737-00-3.
- "The Day the Red Lights Went Out in Japan". MSN-Mainichi Daily News. April 1, 2008. Accessed April 2, 2008.
- De Becker, J. E. The Nightless City ... or, The "History of the Yoshiwara Yūkwaku.", 4th ed. rev. Yokohama [etc.] M. Nössler & Co.; London, Probsthain & Co., 1905. ISBN 1933330384.
- De Becker, J. E. The Nightless City: Geisha and Courtesan Life in Old Tokyo (reprint). Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2007. ISBN 0486455637.
- De Mente, Boye Lafayette. The Pleasure Girls and Flesh Pots of Japan. London: Ortolan Press, 1966.
- De Mente, Boye Lafayette. Sex and the Japanese: The Sensual Side of Japan. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0804838267.
- De Mente, Boye Lafayette. Tadahito Nadamoto (illus.). Some Prefer Geisha: The Lively Art of Mistress Keeping in Japan. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1966.
- Fitzpatrick, William. Tokyo After Dark. New York: McFadden Books, 1965.
- French, Howard W. "Japan's Red Light 'Scouts' and Their Gullible Discoveries". The New York Times. November 15, 2001. Accessed 11 October 2006.
- Goodwin, Janet R. Selling Songs and Smiles: The Sex Trade in Heian and Kamakura Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. ISBN 0824830687, ISBN 0824830970.
- Japan The Trafficking of Women.
- Kamiyama, Masuo. "The day Japan's red lights flickered out". MSN-Mainichi Daily News. February 25, 2006. Accessed 11 October 2006.
- Kattoulas, Velisarios. "Human Trafficking: Bright Lights, Brutal Life". Far East Economic Review. August 3, 2000. Accessed 11 October 2006.
- Longstreet, Stephen, and Ethel Longstreet. Yoshiwara: City of the Senses. New York: McKay, 1970.
- McMurtrie, Douglas C. Ancient Prostitution in Japan. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1425372066. Originally published in Stone, Lee Alexander (ed.). The Story of Phallicism volume 2. Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1927. Reprinted Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0766141152.
- MSN-Mainichi Daily News. "Ambiguous attitudes vex kiddy sex laws". MSN-Mainichi Daily News. December 20, 2001. Accessed 11 October 2006.
- Seigle, Cecilia Segawa. Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of ihe Japanese Courtesan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993. ISBN 0824814886.
- Talmadge, Eric. Getting Wet: Adventures in the Japanese Bath. Tokyo ; New York: Kodansha International, 2006. ISBN 4770030207.
- Yokoyama, M. "Analysis of Prostitution in Japan". International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 19, no. 1 (1995): 47–60.
- Yokoyama, M. "Emergence of Anti-Prostitution Law in Japan—Analysis from Sociology of Criminal Law". International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 17, no. 2 (1993): 211–218.
External links
- Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific Facts and Statistics Trafficking and Prostitution in Asia and the Pacific, See under Japan category. Accessed online 27 September 2007.
- Sex Industry category, Japan Subculture Research Center—a news blog on "the hidden side of Japan".