SEX AND THE MORAL BOUNDARIES OF FILIPINA MIGRANT HOSTESSES IN JAPAN

1
Cultures of Flirtation

• SEX AND THE MORAL BOUNDARIES OF FILIPINA MIGRANT
  HOSTESSES IN JAPAN
• RHACEL PARREÑAS
• AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND SOCIOLOGY
• BROWN UNIVERSITY

2
U.S. TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

• On arrival at their destination, victims are
  stripped of their passports and travel documents
  and forced into situations of sexual exploitation
  or bonded servitude.For example, it is reported
  that Japan issued 55,000 entertainer visas to
  women from the Philippines in 2003, many of whom
  are suspected of having become trafficked
  victims. U.S. Department of State, (2004 14)

3
U.S. TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

• A significant number of the 71, 084 Philippine
  women who entered Japan as overseas performance
  artists in 2004 are believed to have been women
  trafficked into the sex trade. U.S. Department
  of State, (2005 178).

4
MORAL GROUPINGS OF HOSTESSES

• Moral conservatives
• Moral rationalists
• Moral in-betweeners

5
METHODS

• Fieldwork April to November 2005
• Participant Observation (three months of work as
  a hostess)
• Interviews with 56 hostesses (45 females and 11
  transgender)
• Supplementary interviews with club owners,
  middleman brokers and state representatives in
  Japan and the Philippines.

6
WHY FILIPINO HOSTESSES?

• Historically composed approximately 60 percent of
  foreign hostesses in Japan (Oishi, 2005)
• Drastic decline in numbers since labeling as
  trafficked persons by U.S. Department of State
• 80,000 in 2004 to 35,000 in 2005 to 10,000 in
  2006

7
HOSTESS WORK
8
HOSTESS WORK

• Care Work
• Sexual Work
• Entertainment Work
• Boundary Work

9
MORAL CONSERVATIVES

• Rejects direct purchase of sex
• Hides nature of work (i.e., flirtation) from
  family and friends in the Philippines
• Consciously desexualizes interactions with
  customers
• First timers or born-again Christians

10
MORAL RATIONALISTS

• Willingly participates in commercial sexual
  exchanges
• More likely to cross the line inside and not
  outside the club
• Rejects the notion that emotions are a
  prerequisite to morally acceptable sexual
  relations

11
MORAL IN-BETWEENERS

• Dominant group in community
• Uses sexuality overtly with customers
• Rejects the direct purchase of sex
• Participates in the indirect purchase of sex
• Exchanges sex for money indirectly only with
  boyfriends

12
MORAL REGIMES OF WORKPLACE

• Moral conservative club
• Moral rationalist club
• Moral in-betweener club

13
EMPLOYMENT STATUS

• Contract Worker
• Undocumented Worker
• Documented Worker Wife or Mother

14
SITUATIONS OF TRAFFICKING

• Trafficking is not a universal occurrence
• Trafficking arises in particular contexts
• MORAL REGIMES OF CLUB moral regime of workplace
  disagrees with moral boundary of hostess (e.g. a
  moral conservative is placed at a moral
  rationalist club) Moral Violations
• EMPLOYMENT STATUS Contract workers are more
  vulnerable to trafficking than are part time
  workers (undocumented workers and documented
  workers) because they cannot easily quit

15
Is Trafficking Inevitable?

• Moral violations do not automatically result in
  trafficking
• Morals are flexible and could shift to fit moral
  regime of workplace
• Some quit.

16
CONCLUSION

• FLAWS IN U.S. ANTI-TRAFFICKING CAMPAIGN
• FLAW 1 ABOLITIONIST CAMPAIGN MISINFORMED ABOUT
  NATURE OF HOSTESS WORK
• FLAW 2 UNIVERSAL SOLUTION OF RESCUE WITHOUT
  CONSIDERATION OF WORKER EMPOWERMENT
• FLAW 3 TOP-TO-BOTTOM SOLUTION
• FLAW 4 RESCUE RETURN TO LIFE OF POVERTY IN
  PHILIPPINES