A Critical Approach to Human Trafficking in Japan: Rethinking Sex Trafficking Policy Through the Examples of Filipino Migrant Entertainers

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the problematic relationship between the carceral state and carceral feminism, which are U.S. centered, and its effects on human trafficking and sex work in Japan. I utilize academic research on the carceral state, government publications, and previous scholarly fieldwork involving Filipino migrants’ experiences in Japan. Critical scholarship on anti-human trafficking policies and discourses has problematized the relationship between feminists and the carceral state leading to what Elizabeth Bernstein calls “carceral feminism”. This relationship, which focuses on criminal justice and punitive policies, impacts both the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report and contemporary human trafficking activism across countries. While critical scholarship on anti-human trafficking and carceral feminism problematized its negative impact on migrant workers, their discussions focus on theoretical levels. As a result, individual experiences and voices of migrant workers are not thoroughly integrated into the discussion. By employing the existing ethnographic research on Filipino migrant entertainers and their lived experiences, this thesis therefore sheds light on the lived experiences of individuals to rethink top-down carceral feminism while also filling the gap between the abstract critique and the lack of empirical studies of individual migrants’ experiences. The goal of this study is threefold: 1) to understand the development of current sex trafficking policy and Japan’s contemporary understanding of human trafficking, 2) to reveal how policies affect individuals in the sex work industry, and 3) to begin a discussion that promotes a dialogue that is led by migrants and provides a greater understanding of their complicated experiences.