Session Abstract

In recent years, there has been a remarkable outpouring of scholarship on the history of prostitution in Japan. In this roundtable we will describe how this came about, discuss where we go from here, and consider how we can connect with counterparts working on related subjects in the rest of the world. To address these questions we have scholars working on periods beginning with early modern Japan in 1600 and ending with the present. Our research reveals that Japan had systems to regulate sex that were far more variegated and complex than previously understood, and that interaction with outsiders – most dramatically during the Allied Occupation after 1945 – brought about fundamental changes that continue to resonate with contemporary controversies over sex trafficking and sex tourism. How can we explain early modern Japan’s “floating world,” with its different realms and different rules, written or unwritten, for cities, castle towns, and remote villages all across the archipelago? At different historical moments not only regulated prostitutes but also hot-spring geishas, bath attendants, maids, dancers, waitresses, streetwalkers, and others sold sex and erotic labor: who counts as a prostitute and how should we refer to her (or him)? Considering how outsiders bought sex since the 16^th century, and influenced state regulations, what does the study of prostitution tell us about transnational networks and Japan’s changing place in the world? Finally, how does this work change the way we understand the larger history of sex work and erotic labor worldwide?