5 - The Politics of Sexual Labor

Summary

Chapter 5, “The Politics of Sexual Labor,” describes the various manifestations of and shifting attitudes toward sex work in the archipelago, from the “flower and willow world” of bygone times to today’s “soaplands.” Leaving behind centuries of thriving “pleasure quarters” – whose most prominent courtesans and geisha were the object of countless works of art and literature – the modern nation-state increasingly attempted not to suppress the trade but to control and manage it. Though the Anti-Prostitution Law was implemented in 1956, its impact on the sex industry in Japan has remained contested; given the weak legal barriers to what is a segregated prostitution system, customers continue to flock to a range of establishments brimming with sexual services and catering to numerous fantasies