, 1840 From the 15th century,
Chinese,
Koreans, and other
East Asian visitors frequented
brothels in Japan. This practice later continued among visitors from "the
Western regions", mainly
European traders who often came with their
South Asian
lascar crew (in addition to
African crew members in some cases). This began with the arrival of
Portuguese ships to Japan in the 1540s, when the local
Japanese people assumed that the
Portuguese were from , the ancient
Chinese name (and later
Japanese name) for the
Indian subcontinent, and thus assumed that
Christianity was a new
Indian religion. These mistaken assumptions were due to the
Indian state of
Goa being a central base for the
Portuguese East India Company at the time, and due to a significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships being
Indian Christians. Hundreds of Japanese people, especially women, were sold as slaves. Portuguese visitors and their
South Asian and African crew members (or slaves) often engaged in
slavery in Japan. They bought or captured young Japanese women and girls, who were either used as
sexual slaves on their ships or taken to
Macau and other
Portuguese colonies in
Southeast Asia,
the Americas, and
India, where there was a community of Japanese slaves and traders in Goa by the early 17th century. Anti-Portuguese propaganda and exaggerations were actively promoted by the Japanese, particularly with regard to the Portuguese purchases of Japanese women for sexual purposes. In 1505, syphilis started to appear in Japan, likely because of Japanese prostitutes having sex with Chinese sailors. In
Sakai and
Hakata ports, Japanese brothels had already been patronized by Chinese visitors far before Europeans came to Japan. When the Europeans () came to Japan, they too patronized Japanese prostitutes. Traders of the various European East India Companies, including those of the
Dutch and
British, engaged the services of prostitutes while visiting or staying in Japan.
Edo era In 1617, the
Tokugawa Shogunate issued an order restricting prostitution to certain areas on the outskirts of cities, known as . The most famous of these were
Yoshiwara in
Edo (present-day
Tokyo),
Shinmachi in
Osaka, and
Shimabara in
Kyoto. Pleasure quarters were walled and guarded for taxation and access control.
Prewar modern era The
opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of
Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the
Meiji period. Japanese novelists, notably
Higuchi Ichiyō, started to draw attention to the confinement and squalid existence of the lower-class prostitutes in the red-light districts. In 1872, the
María Luz Incident led
Government of Meiji Japan to enact new legislation, emancipating
outcasts, prostitutes and other forms of
bonded labor in Japan. The emancipating law for prostitution was named . In 1900, the
Japanese Government promulgated Ordinance No. 44, , restricting the labor conditions of prostitution. The restriction neither reduced the total number of prostitution nor granted more liberty to women. Instead, prostitution thrived under the Meiji government. The name was to describe Japan during the Meiji Period. Due to the development of the modern transportation system, the demand and the supply of prostitution increased, and the female population drastically increased. The government, therefore, with the legislation, could legally collect taxation from prostitution. Rather than improving human rights or liberty, the legislation intended to facilitate government revenue. The prostitution industry contributed a large part of government revenue from the late Tokugawa period to the Meiji period. In 1908, the Ministry of Home Affairs' Ordinance No. 16 penalized unregulated prostitution. ======== was the name given to Japanese girls and women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were trafficked from poverty stricken agricultural prefectures in Japan to destinations in
East Asia,
Southeast Asia,
Siberia (
Russian Far East),
Manchuria, and
India to serve as prostitutes and sexually serviced men from a variety of races, including Chinese, Europeans, native Southeast Asians, and others.
Postwar era s in
Recreation and Amusement Association during the
occupation of Japan Immediately after
World War II, the
Recreation and Amusement Association was formed by
Naruhiko Higashikuni's government to organize brothels to serve the Allied armed forces occupying Japan. On 19 August 1945, the
Home Ministry ordered local government offices to establish a
prostitution service for Allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the Japanese race. This prostitution system was similar to the comfort system, because the Japanese police force was responsible for mobilizing the women to serve in these stations similarly to the way that Japanese Military during the Pacific War mobilized women. The police forces mobilized both licensed and unlicensed prostitutes to serve in these camps. The official declaration stated that "Through the sacrifice of thousands of '
Okichis' of the
Shōwa era, we shall construct a
dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future." Such clubs were soon established by cabinet councilor
Yoshio Kodama and
Ryoichi Sasakawa.
SCAP abolished the licensed prostitution system (including the RAA) in 1946, which led to the so-called system, under which licensed nightlife establishments offered sexual services under the guise of being an ordinary club or cafe. Local police authorities traditionally regulated the location of such establishments by drawing red lines on a map. In other areas, so-called "blue line" establishments offered sexual services under the guise of being restaurants, bars or other less strictly-regulated establishments. In
Tokyo, the best-known "red line" districts were Yoshiwara and Shinjuku 2-chome, while the best-known "blue line" district was Kabuki-cho. In 1947, Imperial Ordinance No. 9 punished persons for enticing women to act as prostitutes, but prostitution itself remained legal. Several bills were introduced in the Diet to add further legal penalties for soliciting prostitutes but were not passed due to disputes over the appropriate extent of punishment. On 24 May 1956, the
Diet of Japan passed the Anti-Prostitution Law, which came into force in April 1958. The Anti-Prostitution Law criminalized the act of committing sexual intercourse in exchange for actual or promised compensation. This eliminated the "red line" and "blue line" systems and allowed a number of paid sexual services to continue under "sexual entertainment" regulations, such as "
soaplands" and "
fashion health" parlors. In 2013,
Toru Hashimoto, who co-leads the
Japan Restoration Party proposed "There are places where people can legally release their sexual energy in Japan", and "Unless they make use of these facilities, it will be difficult to control the sexual energies of the wild
Marines." The
U.S. Department of State later criticized Hashimoto's remarks. ==Religious connotations==