Despite the fact that Japan is a developed country, women are generally poor, so what impresses you about Japan's customs industry? In Japan, 1/3 of women enter the entertainment industry. Here, it is very easy to participate in this industry, and the whole Japanese society is relatively tolerant of this industry.
According to statistics, more than 300,000 women are involved in the work, with an annual output of more than 300 billion yen, close to 0.5% of Japan's GDP. That's almost the same as the defense budget, while Japan's GDP per capita ranks third in the world. However, due to the high cost of living, and the fact that Japan usually has a male-headed family model, men face tremendous pressure. But this model also stems from the fundamental problems of society.
In Japanese companies, it is easier for men to get formal jobs, while women are basically limited to casual work and earn only half as much as men. This means that while women may enter the workforce after graduating from higher education, they are likely to eventually return to their families and become hard-working housewives. Although men may appear to be the beneficiaries on the surface, in the end social pressures can still be passed on to men, and their long overtime hours at work are distressing. In fact, in this social climate, both men and women are victims.
Japan is a country full of contradictions, and despite being a developed country, many women still live in poverty, even some university students. During the day, they may be white-collar workers, but at night they may sit in front of a shop surrounded by red lights. Most companies do not pay much attention to women, and there is a general belief that women will return to their families sooner or later, so most jobs are offered in the name of part-time, secondary, or training programs, with low wages and a lack of social security, and there are very few opportunities for women to advance in the workplace.
How difficult is it for a girl to take in Japan? Assuming she succeeds in getting into university, due to Japan's stagnant economy, statistics show that parents' assistance to their children to attend school has plummeted from 130,000 yen in 1994 to 80,000 yen in 2018. If the family is in poor condition, the child must rely on financial aid. There are three types of financial aid in Japan, one that does not need to be repaid, one that only needs to be repaid, and the other that requires repayment of principal and high interest, and the loan period is as long as twenty or thirty years.
Universities in Japan have high tuition fees and dormitories are generally not provided, so all expenses during the school year are quite expensive. When we look at the bills of female students after graduation, the financial pressure is almost suffocating. Social surveys show that one in three working women is in negative equity. This situation led us back to the Japanese custom industry.
There are many women who are unwilling to fall into the trap, they will work during the day and work part-time at night, but only a handful of people can eventually escape poverty, after all, this income is relatively easy to obtain. Working at a convenience store in Japan may only earn 1,000 yen an hour, which is equivalent to 66 yuan, but in the entertainment industry, the income can range from 1 to 50,000 yen an hour. However, due to the impact of the epidemic in recent years, the customs industry has been hit hard and business has deteriorated.
In Japan, the custom girls who sit in front of the shop windows look glamorous and have elaborate makeup, but they may have a bitter experience behind the scenes. After all, the customs industry is a job at the cost of youth. In Japan, older women become the main force of the industry after divorce, but once they turn 40, their business decreases dramatically, and their monthly income may not be as good as that of working at a convenience store.
The poverty of women at the bottom of Japan seems unsolvable, and without the support of men, they have few better options. In closing, I would like to make a personal point that the principle of equal pay for equal work is essential in order to give women equal access to employment opportunities, and ultimately it will not only benefit women.
While other countries are in an illegal gray area, Japan's custom industry is on the surface to drive economic development and contribute a lot of GDP to the Japanese economy.
The custom industry has become the backbone of the economy
Most people in Japan know about the Japanese industry basically through websites and actress magazines. But in fact, Japan's customs industry is very wide-ranging, from the service industry to tourism, entertainment, film and television.
This is mainly because the development of Japan's custom industry has a long history, from the fifties of the last century to now has developed for nearly a hundred years, the number of people involved in the customs industry has exceeded 300,000, and the annual output value has exceeded 330 billion, accounting for about 4% of Japan's GDP.
So why is the custom industry so developed in Japan?
This goes back to ancient Japan, where the sex trade began in the 8th century, and it developed in the direction of commercialization, according to the Japanese classic Manyoshu.
During the Nara period, a special "slave maid" was created, which is also the epitome of today's Japanese custom shops, and during the shogunate period, the term "wandering girl" was derived from the women engaged in this industry, and the authorities began to gradually regulate and manage this industry.
The long-standing "legal"
The period when the Japanese custom industry was truly legal was in 1528, when the shogunate established the "Allure Bureau", which treated the "wandering girls" as normal practitioners, managed various lawsuits, and taxed their income, marking the beginning of the legalization of the sale of prostitution.
For a long time after that, this system was perpetuated by those in power. Although Japan has now enacted the "Prostitution Prevention Law" to curb the development of this industry, in fact, the custom industry is still in full swing.
A custom shop opened under a loophole in the law
Since the Prevention Law has banned the legalization of "selling prostitution", why is the custom industry still so developed? This is mainly because in this law, Japan's regulations on prostitution only refer to sex trafficking, and there are no clear provisions on other "non-sex trafficking behaviors", which means that the Japanese people can do it without prohibiting it, so the custom industry is still "legally operated".
Asia's No. 1 Kabuki Town
Nowadays, Japan's custom industry is very well developed, and the famous "red light district" and "custom town" are Kabukicho, Asia's first custom town, about 500 meters from Shinjuku Station, which occupies an area of less than 0.4 square kilometers and occupies a variety of bars.
In fact, in addition to Kabukicho, where there are large and small custom shops, there are many similar custom shops hidden in many streets and alleys in Japan.
Of course, not all custom shops are engaged in the industry, most of the custom shops are just "playing side ball", some bars that only provide chat and drink are relatively formal, due to Japan's overtime culture, many migrant workers come here after work to confide their unhappiness is also a way to decompress, and there is no sexual harassment of the escort girl in this kind of bar.
Japan's only cowherd shop
In addition to the custom shops that serve men, there are also "cowherd shops" that serve female consumers, and it is a place for good-looking men to relieve their loneliness for women, usually laughing and singing. In Shinjuku, a cowherd shop "ROLAND" claims to be the most popular cowherd among female consumers in Japan, earning more than 20 million yen a year.
There are all kinds of custom shops
There are also various KTVs and bathing centers scattered around the central business district of Tokyo, and these storefronts are basically decorated with red, red, green and green signs.
Another kind of "no-case place" is to play the role of a "middleman", they recommend customers through the requirements of customers, and then get the corresponding commission, including tourist attraction introduction, custom store recommendation, professional recommendation and even blind date introduction.
With the improvement of custom shops, there were once as many as 300,000 Japanese women engaged in this industry, especially during the epidemic, when Japanese women lost their jobs significantly, and more women joined the custom shop industry.
According to statistics, during the epidemic, there were 800,000 unemployed women in Japan, more than twice as many as unemployed men, and 60% of them believed that unemployment brought a lot of difficulties to life.