As Japan¡¯s economy struggles under the weight of the weak yen, the depleted currency has in parallel attracted record numbers of overseas visitors, with Tokyo emerging as a globally recognized red-light destination ¡ª with some drawing comparisons to Thailand¡¯s Pattaya, long associated with sex tourism.
Through social media, influencers have inadvertently popularized the seediest parts of Tokyo¡¯s nightlife, often reinforcing harmful stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive, sexually permissive and exotic. These stereotypes, however, are not merely foreign misrepresentations: Japan¡¯s own postwar legal framework and cultural conditions sustain and reinforce them.
Tropes of Japanese women as both innocent and deviant can be traced back to 19th-century Orientalist views that cast Japan as mysterious and exotic ¡ª as outlined by Narrelle Morris, an associate professor at Curtin University in Australia, in a paper exploring Western fiction¡¯s fetishization of Japanese women.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.