Prostitution in Japan has existed throughout the country's history. While the Anti-Prostitution Law of states that "No person may either do prostitution or become the customer of it", loopholes, liberal interpretations and loose enforcement of the law have allowed the sex industry to prosper and earn an estimated 2. From the 15th century, Chinese , Koreans , and other East Asian visitors frequented brothels in Japan. This practice later continued among visitors from " the Western regions", mainly European traders who often came with their South Asian lascar crew in addition to African crew members, in some cases.
These mistaken assumptions were due to the Indian state of Goa being a central base for the Portuguese East India Company and due to a significant portion of the crew on Portuguese ships being Indian Christians. Portuguese visitors and their South Asian and African crew members often engaged in slavery in Japan. They bought or captured young Japanese women and girls, who were either used as sexual slaves on their ships or taken to Macau and other Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia , the Americas , [4] and India , where there was a community of Japanese slaves and traders in Goa by the early 17th century.
The opening of Japan and the subsequent flood of Western influences into Japan brought about a series of changes in the Meiji period. In , the Japanese Government promulgated Ordinance No. Karayuki-san was the name given to Japanese girls and women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were trafficked from poverty stricken agricultural prefectures in Japan to destinations in East Asia , Southeast Asia , Siberia Russian Far East , Manchuria , and British India to serve as prostitutes and sexually serviced men from a variety of races, including Chinese, Europeans, native Southeast Asians, and others.
On 19 August , the Home Ministry ordered local government offices to establish a prostitution service for Allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the Japanese race. This prostitution system was similar to the comfort system, because the Japanese police force was responsible for mobilizing the women to serve in these stations similarly to the way that Japanese Military during the Pacific War mobilized women. The police forces mobilized both licensed and unlicensed prostitutes to serve in these camps.
Local police authorities traditionally regulated the location of such establishments by drawing red lines on a map. In other areas, so-called "blue line" establishments offered sexual services under the guise of being restaurants, bars or other less strictly-regulated establishments. In Tokyo , the best-known "red line" districts were Yoshiwara and Shinjuku 2-chome, while the best-known "blue line" district was Kabuki-cho. In , Imperial Ordinance No. Several bills were introduced in the Diet to add further legal penalties for soliciting prostitutes but were not passed due to disputes over the appropriate extent of punishment.
