Healing Labor: Japanese Sex Work in the Gendered Economy

by Gabriele Koch

Contemporary Japan is home to one of the world's largest and most diversified markets for sex. Widely understood to be socially necessary, the sex industry operates and recruits openly, staffed by a diverse group of women who are attracted by its high pay and the promise of autonomy―but whose work remains stigmatized and unmentionable. Based on fieldwork with adult Japanese women in Tokyo's sex industry, Healing Labor explores the relationship between how sex workers think about what sex is and what it does and the political-economic roles and possibilities that they imagine for themselves. Gabriele Koch reveals how Japanese sex workers regard sex as a deeply feminized care―a healing labor―that is both necessary and significant for the well-being and productivity of men. In this nuanced ethnography that approaches sex as a social practice with political and economic effects, Koch compellingly illustrates the linkages between women's work, sex, and the gendered economy.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Feminism, Sociology

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[GM]

2023 sep 24 - oct 1 ish

v academic so dnf. dropped in ch1

intro was a good indication of how the Japanese view sex and sex work which is why some sex workers think they're doing something productive / beneficial for society.

"Today, the Fūeihō regulates those businesses that have emerged from the three so-called traditional male pursuits of gambling, drinking, and purchasing sex (utsu, nomu, kau)"

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my Anthro class (and was not originally going to shelve), but I really liked this book. Super interesting conversation about sex work in Japan, made reading for class more enjoyable and accessible for non-anthropoligists.

[Felipe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ethnography, easy to read, but I wish there had been some more theory.

[Kaya Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. I learned a lot from this, and due to the scholarly nature, it's almost like I took a class on it.