Karayuki-san - Colonial-Era Prostitution

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Singapore's Japanese prostitute era paved over
What an overwhelming majority...don't know about Singapore...was the countless Japanese women who worked here as prostitutes...women who were referred to simply as "Karayuki-san." [They] were Japanese peasant girls -- mostly from the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki Prefecture and Amakusa Islands in Kumamoto Prefecture -- who were sold into the flesh trade in colonial Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. Japan...was a poor country a century ago, and women were one of its major exports, along with silk and coal. Karayuki-san, together with other Japanese women who served as prostitutes elsewhere, including Siberia, Hawaii, Australia and some parts of India and Africa, were said to be the third-biggest foreign currency earner for Japan at the turn of the 20th century. The existence of Karayuki-san in Singapore dates back to 1877, when there were two Japanese-owned brothels on Malay Street with 14 Japanese prostitutes, official Japanese data show...more...
Shohei Imamura's "Karayuki-san, the Making of a Prostitute"
Book Review: Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940

[L S]

Interesting stuff...

Have you read any of these Mulboyne?

[Buraku]

not shocking reallly
Women have had little say in Japan, with the ratio of women in cabinet, Japan ranks at about 95, there is a big Gender Gap in Japanese society for some time just check out the women only trains or Waseda Rape to scratch the surface the women's empowerment does a lot better in backward Arabic nations that it will ever do in Japan. However Japan is a lot richer and well off than these sandy corrupt Islamic places

[drpepper]

women's empowerment does a lot better in backward Arabic nations that it will ever do in Japan.

That is bullshit. How many women in the cabinet of Saudi Arabia? How many female captains of industry in Oman? Women are a fuck of alot better off here then in any fucking Arab nation. My wife makes more money and is in a higher position than most men her age in her field. Women are better off than the fucked gaijin by leaps and bounds.

[Mulboyne]

Have you read any of these Mulboyne?

I read Warren's book a while back. A bit dense but there was a lot I hadn't heard about before so it was worth a look. The "Karayuki" have obvious parallels with the "Japayuki" (see this FG Thread). I haven't seen the Imamura film.
It is interesting to realize how many Japanese moved abroad to live - willingly or unwillingly - in this period. When the story broke the other day about two apparent "former imperial army soldiers" in the Phillipines, there wasn't much in the domestic media considering the possibility that many soldiers decided not to return home. The image is always of a guy who doesn't know the war is over or is too ashamed to return. But generations of Japanese, especially farmers had been emigrating to the U.S., China and South America, so perhaps it wasn't too much of a mental leap for some to decide to stay - even allowing for the risks they ran with vengeful locals.

[gkanai]

I'm pretty sure that it was the turn of the century or a bit before when Japanese first started to move to Hawaii and the US in order to find a better life, so it wasn't just the women who moved.

[nullpointer]

not shocking reallly
Women have had little say in Japan, with the ratio of women in cabinet, Japan ranks at about 95, there is a big Gender Gap in Japanese society for some time just check out the women only trains or Waseda Rape to scratch the surface the women's empowerment does a lot better in backward Arabic nations that it will ever do in Japan. However Japan is a lot richer and well off than these sandy corrupt Islamic places

Dude, do you have any fucking clue how bad women have it in an average arab country? Forget about arab countries, do you know how bad some women have it in Pakistan/Bangladesh/India? Have you heard of rape as punishment handed down by a judge under sharia law? Quit making categorical statements like that. Women in Japan have it much better than most of the asian/gulf countries.

[Samurai_Jerk]

not shocking reallly
Women have had little say in Japan, with the ratio of women in cabinet, Japan ranks at about 95, there is a big Gender Gap in Japanese society for some time just check out the women only trains or Waseda Rape to scratch the surface the women's empowerment does a lot better in backward Arabic nations that it will ever do in Japan. However Japan is a lot richer and well off than these sandy corrupt Islamic places

Dude, do you have any fucking clue how bad women have it in an average arab country? Forget about arab countries, do you know how bad some women have it in Pakistan/Bangladesh/India? Have you heard of rape as punishment handed down by a judge under sharia law? Quit making categorical statements like that. Women in Japan have it much better than most of the asian/gulf countries.

Ignore him. He seems to get hard off of Japan bashing.

[Greji]

Excellent read, but dated. More updated information would be appreciated. The latest locations, prices, the going menu, how-to-get-there maps would assist those of us who have a purely educational interest in this topic

[Buraku]

I'm pretty sure that it was the turn of the century or a bit before when Japanese first started to move to Hawaii and the US in order to find a better life, so it wasn't just the women who moved.