Keio University Syllabus and Timetable

This course examines the intersection of involuntary labor, transnational migration, and sexual exchange, broadly categorized under “human trafficking.” While this issue has gained urgency with the adoption of the United Nations’ Palermo Protocol (2000), historical inquiries reveal that commercial sexual labor has existed in various forms and under different guises throughout history. This course situates contemporary human trafficking within a continuum with historically similar practices, some of which were considered “indigenous” to Asia. We will look at traditional forms of servitude and sexual exchange in east and southeast Asia, as well as the contemporary transnational migration of women for the sex industry. We will engage with historiographic and ethnographic accounts on slavery, dependency, and other forms of servitude in Asia as a necessary background to our examination of modern practices of using women for sexual services.

The course will also delve into the social and economic conditions that have historically facilitated the growth of the sex industry, including colonial establishments, and military mobilization, and the so-called “white slave” trade that spurred abolitionist movements by feminist and religious groups in the early 20th century. For contemporary cases, we will examine practices that have been associated with human trafficking, such as prostitution and international brokered marriages. We will investigate the possibility of agency among exploited women, potentially challenging the predominant victimhood narrative. We will conclude with a discussion on the social norms surrounding payment for intimate relations.

While our inquiries will sample cases from various parts of Asia, we will place particular emphasis on southeast Asia. This is because southeast Asia holds a double role as a major source of transnational migration for sexual labor, as well as a site where the sex trade takes place extensively. Given this regional emphasis, this course is particularly recommended for students with a background in Area Studies.

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Anthony Reid ed., Slavery, Bondage and Dependency in Southeast Asia (St. Martin’s Press, 1983)
James Francis Warren, Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940 (Singapore University Press, 2003)
Thanh-dam Truong, Sex, Money and Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast Asia (Zed Books, 1990)
Maria Jaschok, Concubines and Bondservants: A Social History (Zed Books, 1988)
Maria Rosa Henson, Comfort Woman: A Filipina’s Story of Prostitution and Slavery Under the Japanese Military (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999)
Ko-lin Chin & James O. Finckenauer, Selling Sex Overseas: Chinese Women and the Realities of Prostitution and Global Sex Trafficking (New York University Press, 2012)
Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo (Stanford University Press, 2011)
Viviana A. Zelizer, The Purchase of Intimacy (Princeton University Press, 2005)

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