ABSTRACT
Almost two decades before the immigration of male migrant workers began to be perceived as posing a ‘problem’, Asian women started coming to Japan (often through targeted recruitment and trafficking) in order to find employment in the so-called ‘businesses affecting public morals’ (fūzoku eigyō), for example, entertaining restaurant customers and sex-related trades. I must be brief and selective in describing the conflicts involved, since this topic is not the theme of this study although it is inseparably connected with it.
