ABSTRACT
The current migration of female labour is by no means a new phenomenon. The import and export of female labour has been an integral part of Japan’s modernisation process. This chapter offers a preliminary analysis of female labour migration to Japan set within the broader context of genderised labour migration in Pacific Asia. Japan’s current experience of labour immigration is characterised by the overwhelming presence of migrant women in the sex and entertainment industry. The engagement of female migrant workers mainly in the Japanese entertainment and sex industry reflects both the dominant gender ideology and notions of sexuality in modern Japan. The chapter demonstrates that until the mid-1980s there was little official recognition of international labour migration in Japan despite the presence of a considerable number of female migrants. The Japanese state’s passivity in confronting the reality of trade and trafficking in Asian women, however, expresses its androcentric and racialised character.
