Tourism and Prostitution resources
"Women's Predicament: Why 1 oppose Kisaeng Tours: Unearthing a structure of economic and sexual aggression" Matsui Yayori, in Japanese Women Speak Out, June 1975 c/o PARC, P.O. Box 5250 " Tokyo International, Japan .
This is an eight-page article describing Kisaeng tourism (well advertised tours for Japanese men to come to South Korea for a "sex" holiday) giving some of the historical growth and clearly showing government involvement. Briefly describes some of the actions which women and other groups are taking to stop Kisaeng. A very impassioned article by a Japanese woman. The whole volume Japanese Women Speak Out is an impressive anthology of articles on different aspects of women's oppression not only in Japan, but in South Korea, Thailand, and other South East Asian countries, including ways in which women are building solidarity in their struggles.
Shameful Japanese: Prostitution Tourism
slide film, available from: Ms. Takahashi Kikue c/o Fuijin-Kyofukai 2-23-5 Hyakunin-cho; Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160 " Japan
Sponsored by the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Japan, this slide show exposes exploitative tourism. It shows Japanese tour groups composed almost entirely of men, and which inevitably include prostitute buying. In Korea, part of tour package deals include what is advertised as "Kisaeng Party". Prostitute buying is, in many guises or openly, advertised in tour brochures and guide books .
The problem of prostitution looms large especially in countries such as Korea, Philippines and Thailand. Statistics show an abnormal growth of Japanese tourists visiting southeast Asian countries in the last few years and curiously, an exceedingly high percentage is male. But anyway, anybody walking down the main street of tourist belts in the above mentioned countries, especially in hotels and coffee shops, will not fail to be aware of the extent of prostitute buying by Japanese male tourists. Many very young girls are forced into prostitution because of poverty. The double jeopardy committed is realized when the aggressive rise in economic activity of the Japanese in these same countries is understood as one contributing factor to why the people of these countries involved remain in poverty. The Japanese, once labelled the "economic animal" has now come to be called the "sexual animal".
In the Korean situation, centuries-old superior attitudes and
discriminatory practices by Japanese toward Korean people compound the feelings of resentment of the past into the present.
Many women's groups in Japan and Korea have started action: researching, protest action to government and tour agencies, and demonstrating and passing out leaflets at Haneda and Kimpo airports respectively.
These slides with text in English and Japanese are available for rent or sale.
Olongapo's Rest and Recreation Industry, Slide film Asian Social Institute 1518 Leon Guinto St. Malate, Manila Philippines .
Once a small fishing village in the Philippines, Olongapo today is a city based on the rest and recreation industry. A network of 503 clubs, bars, hotel, restaurants, sauna baths, massage clinics and other recreational and entertainment centers services the "needs" of visiting military and civilian personnel from the adjacent US Naval Base in Subic Bay. A n estimated average of 7,000 servicemen and civilian personnel come to Olongapo everyday for "rest and recreation" where some 9,056 registered hostesses and other entertainment employees are waiting to serve them.
This slide show, produced by Leopoldo Moselina and available from the Asian Social Institute in Manila, illustrates the operations of the industry and its causes. Most of the women who are exploited by the industry come from poverty stricken areas and many of them were victims of rape or abandonment. The film concludes that prostitution at Olongapo is not a "moral" problem but a constituent part of an exploitative economic system.
Olongapo's Rest and Recreation Industry: A Sociological
Analysis of Institutionalized Prostitution ~ With Implications for a Grassroots-Oriented SociologyLeopoldo Moselina Asian Social Institute 1518 Leon Guito St. Malate, Manila Philippines
This 24-page manuscript is a lecture delivered at the Asian Social Institute, 18 August 1979. The author studied the prostitution industry in Olongapo, Philippines primarily by working as a waiter in three different clubs and as boy in a sauna bath and massage clinic for a period of six months. He discusses the phenomenon of prostitution as a structural problem, emphasizing the economic exploitation of sex. After giving a summary of the development of the rest and recreation industry around the US Naval Base at Subic Bay and statistics on the number of US servicemen, money and entertainers involved in the business, he cites the exploitative working conditions of the women and how the government and the industry conspire to control them. Solicitation of customers outside of clubs, for instance, is illegal, thus insuring income to the club owners. Women must be certified free of venereal disease by a government-run clinic before they can work as prostitutes. A good economic analysis of the prostitution industry.
Subic Bay's Women of the Night,
Matt Miller Pacific News Service 604 Mission St., r o om 1001 " San Francisco, California
Written shortly after US withdrawal from Viet Nam, this 4-page article describes the effects of decreased US naval presence at Subic Bay on the economy of Olongapo - an economy based on the "rest and recreation " industry provided for US servicemen stationed there. A l t h o u g h there are fewer servicemen based at Subic Bay than during the war, the industry is still flourishing, however, as the other articles on Olongapo show.
Asian Women's Liberation c/o Goto Masako 147 Kenju-kosha, 112 Sakuragaoka Hodogaya-ku, Yakonoma-shi Kanagawa-ken, Japan
Materials on prostitution tourism f om Japan to South Korea may be obtained from the above two addresses in the Japanese language.
Sexual Exploitation of Women in a Third World Setting
Sr. Mary John Mananzan St. Scholastica's College P.O. Box 3153 Manila, Philippines
In her article. Sr. Mary John emphasizes that in an underdeveloped, exploited country, women tend to bear the burden of double exploitation because of their sex: " the possibility of coercion in the exchange of values or the power of intimidation of a superior strength make sexual exploitation doubly exploitative in situations that are compounded by economic, political and social coercion and intimidation by the strong of the weak which is the situation in the Third World countries". She goes on to illustrate how this works in the tourism industry which is being developed at the expense of women, and in the "rest and recreation" industry around the US military bases in the Philippines. She also emphasizes that sexual exploitation takes place inside the factories that are part of the growing industrial development an foreign investment by multinational corporations in a country like the Philippines. Women are also both economically and sexually exploited when they come to work as maids, cooks and laundry women for foreign managers of these firms.
Another aspect of the sexual exploitation of women in repressive states where dissent is suppressed is the rape of women detainees in addition to other forms of torture . She compares this to Susan Brown miller ' s analysis of rape in war.
Sayonara, Tsaichian, The review of this book by Kate Brady originally appeared in The Mainichi Daily News, Tokyo, Japan, 16 June 1978.
There has been mounting criticism of Japanese male tourists who travel abroad in search of what is euphemistically referred to in Japanese as bai-shun kanko (lit: spring-selling tourism), that is, prostitution . One of the most stinging rebukes has come in the form of a Taiwanese novel, recently translated into Japanese which satirizes the sex-seekers and exposes the tourist industry.
Organized sex-seeking tours have been a popular Japanese pastime for a number of years, accounting for a good portion of the foreign tour " buumu" , but it has only been in the past five years that this phenomenon has been denounced as an exploitation of Asians in general and Asian women in particular. The kisaeng party, a well - known form of sex tourism native to South Korea, is only the most notorious example of a trend that has also blighted much of Southeast Asia. Of the 73,983 Japanese tourists who visited Thailand in 1976, for example, 81.7 percent were men. And it is no secret that many of them were there to enjoy "night sightseeing" tours designed specifically to cater to the whims of the pleasure-seeking tourist . Indeed in some areas "sex animal " is rapidly replacing "economic animal " as an epithet for the Japanese.
Taiwan, in particular, because of its relative proximity and lesser expense, has become an increasingly attractive playground for the sex-seeking tourist. Each year about 600,000 Japanese tourists visit Taiwan. Of that number, more than 90 percent are men.
Sayonara, Tsaichian (lit: goodby in both Japanese and Chinese) is a short but pungent novel which ridicules the sex tourist . Authored by the young Chinese writer Huang Chuan ming, it was an unofficial bestseller in Taiwan in 1974. In addition t o its Japanese version, i t has also appeared in Korean and an English translation is under way.
The protagonist of Sayonara, Tsaichian is Huang, a young Taiwan-born intellectual. Huang is ordered by his company to entertain seven Japanese visitors whom he subsequently dubs "the seven samurai". Although disliking Japanese in general and torn by doubts about the propriety of his company's demand, Huang is neither sufficiently strong-willed nor economically independent enough to decline the request or to quit the company.
Thus begin the adventures of a group of self-styled Casanovas who call themselves the sennin giri kurabu - "club of thousand lays". The group behaves badly f r om the start, relieving themselves in public, ignoring local customs, and generally deserving of the label " ugly Japanese". They insist on going directly to a hot springs resort known for more than the salubrious of its mineral baths.
Huang, whose mission it is to "make arrangements" finds himself in the unaccustomed position of " procurer " . That evening as the party progresses, Huang is troubled by pangs of conscience and, disgusted, retires to his room to drown his self-loathing in drink.
The next day on the train to Taipei, Huang spies his chance for revenge and seizes it. The group meets a young Chinese student who aspires t o study in Japan. A conversation ensues and Huang, acting as interpreter, skillfully steers the conversation to topics unpalatable to the Japanese.
One such subject is the "Rape of Nanking " in which some of the Japanese had personally participated. The Japanese grow increasingly uncomfortable as the grilling continues and the coup de grace comes when Huang draws a parallel between the Nanking incident and the "rape of Chao hsi " (the hot springs resort). Huang is thereby able to take revenge on behalf of his country (wo) men and simultaneously salve his conscience.
The humorous tone of the novel does not disguise the seriousness of the underlying charge leveled at b o t h the Japanese tourists and the native Taiwanese tourist industry. Excerpts from the novel published in a small Japanese monthly, Seron Jiho, drew strong reactions from readers many of whom professed shock at the incidents described in the novel. Reactions among travel agents have been mixed. Most don't admit to promoting such tours. One Taiwanese agent, however, published an advertisement saying, " Don't you know the meaning of the word 'shame'?" But for others it's "business as usual " and such classic enticements as "Come to Taiwan, a man's paradise!" continue to attract customers.
IDOC Via Santa Maria dell ' An ma 30 Rome, Italy.
IDOC is an international documentation and communication center specializing in alternative sources of information on issues such as the Third World, development, liberation movements, militarism , national security doctrine, ecology, nuclear power and anti-nuclear movements, multinational corporations and related themes since 1970. Since 1975, IDOC has been indexing its sources of information on the OASIS system, a manually operated low cost documentation system based on computer logic which greatly enhances the rapid retrieval of information and materials. It now has some 40,000 items of information indexed using this system.
Background material on the political , economic and social systems of countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and South Korea are available from IDOC. The sources contain up-to-date information and analyses of the underlying economic causes for the increasing prostitution in these countries. Other materials are available on the whole issue of tourism in developing countries and on prostitution . We are including here a sample of some of the entries on these subjects
IDOC produces a monthly bullet in focusing on a particular country or issue. Price : individuals : US$10 in Europe, $15 outside Europe; institutions: $ 2 0 in Europe, $25 outside Europe.
Prostitution in South America. The result of a male dominated society, " Documentation SEDOS", Rome, May 1975, English, 6 pp.
This article by Charles Chauvin (reprinted from " LADOC" Dec. 1973), contains statistical data on prostitution in various Latin American countries. The author explains the problem in sociological terms, analyzing different social structures which facilitate prostitution . The role of " machismo " in Latin America as part of the Ibero-American culture. (IDOC 4844).
International Tourism, " ALA " ( Africa , Latin America, Asia), College for Developing Countries, University of Antwerp, Belgium, 1978, English, 8 pp.
Tourism and development in the Third World. Problems created by tourism : social and cultural degradation. Changes in economic planning which is diverted to the tourism industry and neglects necessary infrastructures such as hospitals, schools and so on. The same attitude is reflected in the employment sector, where the labour-force is generally utilized for seasonal work , thus creating imbalances and lack of skilled workers in the primary sector (i.e. industry ) . Collateral effects are, for example, price fluctuation causing discrimination between tourist areas with higher price levels and living standards, and rural areas; or the dependence on foreign capital which affects other sectors like diversification and control of the main export products. ( l O D C 32824). ISIS
Tourism and Socialist Development in Tanzania, Tanzania Publishing House, Dar Es Salaam, 1973, VJA English, 97 pp.
This little book, edited by Issa G. Shivji, a Marxist historian, debates the positive and negative role of tourism in relation to various aspects of the social, economic and cultural problems of Tanzania, a young socialist country with all the implications of its past colonial history. The contributions on this matter (letters, articles, speeches) are not all in agreement especially when questions such as " is tourism compatible with socialism" arise. A n example is a letter sent by a fisherman deploring the cost of luxury hotels like the one built in Mafia. The letter, however, is not against tourism in itself, but rejects the concept of "paradise" typical of the capitalist mentality, and at the same time suggests a new-style tourism , based on mutual comprehension and on the sharing of the same life style. (IDOC 5245)
Le tourlsme dans les ACP,
" Le Courrier", EEC, Brussels, July-August 1976, French, 3 0 pp.
In certain countries tourism seems to be a solution to problems of underdevelopment. In others it is considered as a factor of ecological, cultural and social upheaval. It considers the case of the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries where investments and aid of the EEC (European Economic Community) and the role of WOT (World Organization of Tourism) are analyzed. (IDOC 23327).
The Situation of former prostitutes in South Vietnam, Fraternite Vietnam, Paris, Oct. 1976, English, 5 pp.
Under the old regime prostitution was one of South Vietnam's major social ills. Prostitutes numbered 50,000 and were concentrated around the American military bases. Starting from 1973 prostitution spread all the way to the lower and middle bourgeoisie in order for them t o earn necessary extra revenue. The reeducation programs of the new government. (IDOC 26210).
Sextoerisme naar Thailand
Onze Wereld Amaliastraat 5-7 The Hague Netherlands
In the May 1979 issue of Onze Wereld, readers respond both positively and negatively to the article on sex tourism in Thailand in the March 1979 issue. In the same issue, a woman describes her attempts to speak to Dutch tourist agencies which promote this tourism and to Asian prostitutes working in the Netherlands. There is also a lengthy political and economic analysis of Thailand explaining the causes of the promotion of the tourist industry in this country.
Le Tourisme en Afrique : moteur ou entrave pour le developpement, J. Bugnicourt, Program "Formation pour I'Environnement", IDEP-UNEP-SIDA,
B.P. 3370, Dakar, Senegal.
This is one in a series of studies about tourism carried out by this join t study program. Although it does not touch on the problems of exploitation of women as prostitutes, the report does firmly pose many questions about the value of developing tourism as a big foreign-currency earner. Important bibliography..
Other reports in this series are : Les touristes vus par ceux qui les servant, by I. Mbaye Dieng, and What do we mean by Tourism ?, by Philip Langley.
Prostitution : Problem or Profitable Industry ? by Taina Naibavu and Betty Schutz in The Pacific Way South Pacific Social Sciences Association, P.O. Box 5083,
Suva, Fiji.
We have an undated photocopy of this 10-page article which looks at prostitution in Fiji , types of prostitution , why women become prostitutes, prostitution and the law, and the economy, and a section on prostitution and tourism. This last section deals somewhat briefly with the topic, emphasizing the " moral pollution " side and deterioration in race relations, based heavily on police reports. Omits to deal with effects on women in any detail.
Coyote. Howls . Box 26354 San Francisco, Ca. 94126 USA
Coyote Howls is an organization set up by Margo St. James to fight for prostitutes' rights and for the decriminalization of prostitution , both in the USA and elsewhere. Coyote (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) was never any kind of corporate organization, but the name for the concept Margo used to try to raise people's consciousness about prostitution and the need for decriminalization. She feels that the issue of prostitution is central to the issue of women's rights because if the woman's movement makes prostitution a priority issue, men will be drawn into the discussion much better than they are on rape or abortion or even child care and welfare. They would be forced t o participate in finding a solution . Coyote puts out a quarterly newsletter and frequent press releases about the situation of prostitution laws and women's struggle against them in many different countries. The network includes unions or groups of prostitutes in France, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico, Canada and Denmark
"Non aux Supermarches du Sexe!" in Femmes/Marie Claire June 1979 ....
This is an article in a 12-page pull-out supplement to Marie Claire, a glossy women's magazine. Femmes has a definite feminist trend, and this article uncovers the horrors of the "maisons closes" (brothels) in France by using personal testimony. The way in which women are duped and then totally exploited (sometimes not even getting the money they are supposed to earn) is very clearly spelled out. No real solutions are proposed, but a brief analysis of the different kinds of prostitution laws is given (prohibition, regulation and abolition), with a hint that decriminalization would be good.
Multinational Sex : Feminist Roots of the South Korean Crisis Assembled by Carl Cronstadt and Eli Tov Available from : Eli Tov c/o Yamagushi 3-5-27 Asagaya Kita Suginami-ku Tokyo 166, Japan 5 Manuscript, 1978, 224 pages.
A very interesting and comprehensive examination of the kisaeng (sex tourism) industry in South Korea is presented in this manuscript. The authors examine this topic from three different perspectives : the historical background leading up to and condoning such an industry; an overview of the situation from a feminist point of view including an exploration of the liberation and reunification of South Korea and the elimination of the kisaeng industry; and finally suggestions of feminist tactics appropriate for achieving these goals.
The section on historical background traces relations between .Japan, the USA and South Korea following the second World War, showing how South Korea became a source of cheap labour and raw materials for Japan, and of foreign investment for the USA. The functions of the kisaeng industry in the USA-Japanese-Korean triangle of neo-colonialism are shown as varied. Kisaeng (the prostitutes) provide Japanese men with a sexual outlet that, because of the economic nature of the exchange, they feel they can dominate completely. For American men the kisaeng act as a comfort corps. They provide this "service" primarily for military personnel, but also for visiting businessmen and Congressmen.
The kisaeng industry is a lucrative source of income for the South Korean government. Kisaeng are portrayed in propaganda as patriots because they attract desperately needed foreign currency. The real profits are reaped by a few powerful American, Japanese and selected South Korean businessmen who are at the top of the industries that own and control the environment surrounding the kisaeng.
More important, perhaps, is the function of kisaeng in maintaining male superiority in Korean society. By creating a distinction between good women (wives) and bad women (prostitutes) women are pitted against themselves. Rather than struggle against each other, the authors suggest that women of all walks of life must recognize their oppression and join forces in order to effect social change.
The second section of the manuscript looks at the inadequacy of left wing analyses of the situation in South Korea, and the importance of a feminist approach. It shows that action taken up to now has only forced the tourist industry to develop new disguises for tours, causing additional hardship on women themselves. International activism has been unable so far to consolidate the general issues of South Korea with the "women's" issue of the kisaeng industry.
The last section therefore suggests strategies for feminist tactics. The authors suggest that if the US women's movement will take steps in leading the South Korean liberation struggle it might succeed where others have failed. Targets for activists should be US and Japanese corporations and banks. Companies like American Airlines depend upon kisaeng and encourage this industry by investing in hotels, transportation systems and tourist bureaux that exploit them. Other companies and banks to be targeted are : (US interests ) : Motorola Corporation, Gulf Oil Corporation, Chase Manhattan Bank; (Japanese interests) Mitsubishi Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Matsushita Corporation; (umbrella organizations ) : US-Korea Economic Council and the World Bank.
Suggested demands for targeted business include : 1. pay South Korean women a humane wage; 2. eliminate all sexist practices including discrimination in promotion, training opportunities, forced early retirement, retirement at marriage, sexual threats and hassles, etc.; 3. adhere to the "Declaration of Workers' Human Rights". (This document, signed by a group of workers in Seoul in 1977 is reproduced in the text).
While the effectiveness of the entire campaign depends on mass participation by ordinary people, there are certain groups whose mobilization is especially important. The influence of organized prostitutes and women activists in both industrialized and Third World countries would be explosive, destroying powerful forces in traditional power structures.
Multinational Sex provides information and valuable insight into a problem that has received little press coverage. The study is well researched, and includes a useful bibliography and list of sources, but suffers from redundancy and poor organization. This does not however detract from its importance. As the authors point out, exploitation is not only a problem of the kisaeng or of South Korean women or Asian workers. It is an international problem.