Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper examines how postwar Japanese society labeled and morally differentiated prostitutes during the Allied Occupation, focusing on stigma, public opinion, and the contrast between street-based panpan and women in regulated brothels.

Paper long abstract

In the immediate aftermath of Japan’s defeat, prostitution neither collapsed nor vanished; instead, it rapidly reorganized itself under the conditions of military occupation, economic devastation, and moral uncertainty. This paper analyzes how postwar Japanese society perceived prostitution between 1945 and 1952, and how these perceptions were structured through social stigma, moral labeling, and distinctions between different categories of women engaged in sexual commerce.

Focusing on the contrast between street-based prostitutes, most visibly embodied by the panpan, and women working within regulated or semi-regulated brothel systems, the paper argues that prostitution was not treated as a singular social problem. Rather, it was fragmented into hierarchies of moral legitimacy. While panpan were frequently portrayed as symbols of national shame, disorder, and moral decay, prostitutes operating within institutional frameworks such as the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) were often framed as a regrettable but functional necessity in the context of occupation and poverty.

Methodologically, the paper employs qualitative historical analysis of GHQ/SCAP archival documents, Japanese periodicals, newspaper articles, and a nationwide public opinion survey conducted in 1948. These sources are supplemented by testimonies and autobiographical writings by women involved in prostitution. Theoretically, the paper draws on Howard S. Becker’s concept of deviance as a socially constructed label and Erving Goffman’s analysis of stigma and “spoiled identity.” These frameworks illuminate how prostitution was less about sexual acts per se and more about boundary-making: between respectable and fallen women; controlled and uncontrolled sexuality; and acceptable sacrifice and unacceptable visibility.

By situating public attitudes toward prostitution within broader debates on gender, morality, and postwar reconstruction, this paper demonstrates how prostitution functioned as a key site where anxieties about defeat, sovereignty, and modernity were negotiated in occupied Japan.

Keywords: Occupied Japan, Prostitution, Social Stigma, Moral Regulation, Public Opinion, Gender and Deviance