Kisaeng tourism

The resurgence of Japanese economic growth gave rise to new forms of sexual exploitation of women in countries previously colonised by Japan. Ribu’s interventions in the realm of sexual politics extended beyond the confines of the Japanese family system and nation-state to critique how Japanese businessmen were sexually exploiting Korean women in the form of kisaeng tourism. This form of tourism involved organised trips to South Korea for Japanese businessman to buy the sexual services of young Korean women who worked at establishments called kisaeng clubs. The term kisaeng referred to professional female entertainers in Korea, whose occupation has been compared to geisha in Japan. Under Japanese colonial occupation (1910—45), a modern capitalist sex industry was established which incorporated and transformed the role and meaning of kisaeng, linking a longer history of kisaeng to Japanese colonialism (Barraclough 2012; Barraclough in this volume). The actions in 1973 began as an expression of solidarity with the protests organised by Korean women from Ewha University against Japanese businessmen arriving as part of such tours at the airport in Seoul. Solidarity protests were organised in December 1973. An activist from the Ribu Shinjuku Centre, Mori Setsuko, participated in this demonstration — spray-painting ‘Against Kisaeng Tourism’ on the windows of Haneda Airport in Tokyo. This direct action, which led to Mori’s arrest, was her means of expressing solidarity with the Korean women who had protested this form of sexual exploitation. These protests led to a nationwide campaign in 1974 targeting Japanese companies which promoted kisaeng tourism. In response to these protests, the Japanese Association of Travel Agencies changed its policies to prohibit the advertising and promotion of kisaeng tours. In these ways, the activists highlighted the political economy of sexuality, bringing to the fore how power relations were sexualised as part of longer histories of colonial and neocolonial exploitation. The Asian Women’s Association (Ajia no onnatachi no kai, now known as the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Centre) founded by the journalist and feminist activist Matsui Yayori (1934—2002), continued to bring attention to the sexual exploitation of women through sex tourism, making solidarity with third world women in Asia the primary focus of their organisation (Mackie 1988: 67—68).