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TERMS Many terms have been and are used 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 "water trade", is a wider term that covers the entire entertainment industry, including the legitimate, the illegal, and the borderline. , lit. "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; see Legal Status below.) HISTORY The Shinto faith does not regard Sex as a taboo, while the impact of Buddhist teachings regarding sex has been limited. Shogunate era In 1617 , the Tokugawa Shogunate issued an order restricting prostitution to certain areas located on the outskirts of cities. The three most famous were Yoshiwara in Edo (present-day Tokyo ), Shinmachi in Osaka , and Shimabara in Kyoto . Prostitutes and courtesans were licensed as , "women of pleasure", and ranked according to an elaborate hierarchy, with '' Oiran '' and later '' Tayū '' at the apex. The districts were walled and guarded to ensure both taxation and access control. Rōnin , masterless samurai, were not allowed in and neither were the prostitutes let out, except once a year to see the '' Sakura '' cherry blossoms and to visit dying relatives. Meiji era The Opening Of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes. Japanese novelists, notably Higuchi Ichiyo , 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. Escaping poverty in their own land, many Japanese women, known as (lit. "Ms. Gone-to- China / Korea "), worked (or were sold) as prostitutes into Southeast Asia (especially Singapore and the Philippines ), Siberia , Hawaii , Australia , and even some parts of India and Africa . 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. The recent surge in the number of Asian women who go to Japan to work in the sex industry has resulted in the neologism ''Japayuki'' being coined on the model of the older ''Karayuki'', who traveled in the opposite direction. War era : ''Main article: Comfort Women '' During World War II , the Japan ese military procured prostitutes for its soldiers in China. More than half were Korean, but the other were gathered from other countries occupied by Japan. Many if not most of these so-called " Comfort Women " were tricked or coerced into service. Some of them were kept until they contracted diseases and then discarded. Many survivors are still seeking compensation in Japanese courts. Postwar After the war, SCAP abolished the licensed prostitution system 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 Venereal Disease among troops—made organised prostitution illegal. PROSTITUTION TODAY Legal status Article 3 of the Anti-Prostitution Law 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. However, the definition of prostitution is strictly limited to Coitus . This means sale of numerous sex acts such as Oral Sex , Anal Sex , and other non-coital Sex Acts are all legal. The Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law Of 1948 (), amended in 1985 and 1999 , regulates these businesses. Types 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 fudged by terming it as '' Enjo Kōsai '' or "compensated dating". Over 150,000 non-Japanese women are in prostitution in Japan, mostly Thai , Filipino and Russian women. Japanese men constitute the largest number of Asian Sex Tourists . One "sex zone" in Tokyo, only 0.34 sq. km., has 3,500 sex "facilities"; strip theaters, peep shows, "soaplands," "lovers' banks," porno shops, sex telephone clubs, karaoke bars, clubs, etc. FURTHER READING
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