This book highlights the grey area that exists between trafficking for sexual exploitation and migrant sex work by looking at the sex trade in Japan and the involvement of Thai women. The author studied the parallel between trafficking for sexual exploitation and women who migrate to work in the sex industry to support them and their families. The research involved a series of interviews with current and former Thai sex workers in the Japanese sex industry and their relatives in an attempt to understand the sex workers’ experiences in the international sex trade. The examination of the complexity of the women’s lives and the factors that influenced their decision making regarding the sex work and/or migration sheds light on the problematic nature of being labelled as either a “victim” of trafficking or a free agent. The research is presented in the context of the feminist debate about sex work/prostitution, which focuses on whether or not commercial sexual transactions should be regarded as a form of “work” or a form of violence and the role of women’s agency in decision making.
The research was based on the concept of trafficking in persons from the Trafficking in Persons Protocol. In addition to the 22 interviews conducted in Thailand and Japan, the researcher reviewed relevant secondary material.
The researcher was introduced to her interviewees through volunteer work at two Thai NGOs (EMPOWER in Bangkok, supporting sex workers in Bangkok and SEPOM in Chiang Rai Province, supporting Thai migrants returning from working in Japan’s sex industry) and through visits to various sex industry venues in Bangkok and meeting sex workers willing to be interviewed. The researcher also conducted fieldwork in Tokyo, where she met three Thai women who had worked or were working in the Japanese sex industry and who were willing to be interviewed.
In terms of methodology, the researcher notes the influence of Maggie O’Neill, a sociologist who undertakes research with sex workers in the United Kingdom using a participatory action-research method. This is a feminist research method whereby the researcher participates in the field, with a particular group of people (the targets of the research) taking action regarding the research topic, develops methods for conducting the research, uses them and then presents the research in cooperation with the group members.
The researcher concludes that there is a middle road between sex work and trafficking for sexual exploitation and that this is the empirical reality for Thai women working in the Japanese sex industry. Each Thai woman’s experience of the Japanese sex industry was different. The differences are more apparent between women who were trafficked and exploited and women who had voluntarily entered the sex industry to support themselves and their families, although grey areas existed between the two. The research argues that there is no single pattern of agency in sex work but multiple routes and experiences, underscoring that grey area between sex work and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
