Work in Progress
My dissertation, titled “Contesting Welfare in Red-Light Districts: Women’s Networks, Self-Protection, and Public Health in Japan, 1925-1965,” delves into the lives of women who were part of Tokyo’s sex trade. While most existing research focuses on their interactions with male clients and employers, my work highlights the important relationships these women formed with one another.
These connections went beyond friendship; they were essential networks that provided support and strategies for navigating legal challenges and societal stigma. Notably, these women used their relationships to influence state welfare policies during a time when prostitution was criminalized in 1958.
My research challenges the conventional narratives about social policy that often emphasize the roles of the state or well-known reformers. Instead, I illustrate how lower-class women mobilized their networks to secure their own survival while also engaging in political activism. Ultimately, this work sheds light on how ordinary women played a crucial role in shaping social policies in postwar Japan.