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Social and Behavioral Sciences

University of Rhode Island

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Journal

Japan

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Japan’S “Big Lie": The Negation Of Oral Testimony Of Sexual Violence, Robert O'Mochain, Yuki Ueno Aug 2024

Japan’S “Big Lie": The Negation Of Oral Testimony Of Sexual Violence, Robert O'Mochain, Yuki Ueno

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In recent years, powerful actors in Japan’s political elite have consistently denied the oral testimony of so-called “comfort women.” The denial of this and related historical crimes is made in the service of a claim we denote here as the “big lie.” This is the erroneous assertion that the Asia-Pacific War was a straightforward war of liberation by the Japanese Imperial Army, inspired by a blameless Emperor and carried out by morally exemplary military forces. This denial of historical realities, especially those related to “comfort women,” has constituted a contributory factor for a pattern of denial regarding all historical crimes. …


Pornography, Its Harms, And A New Legal Strategy: Research And Experience In Japan, Seiya Morita, Caroline Norma Mar 2021

Pornography, Its Harms, And A New Legal Strategy: Research And Experience In Japan, Seiya Morita, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article we describe pornography’s harms in Japan, which are known about from surveys and research, and from the outreach and consulting activities of Japanese feminist-abolitionist groups. Among these are the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) and People Against Pornography and Sexual Violence (PAPS). We then propose a renewed classification scheme for pornography’s harms that centrally considers the experiences of victims in Japan. Lastly, we consider various legal approaches to addressing the myriad harms we describe and suggest possibilities for a new legal strategy. The article’s research comes from Japanese-language materials produced by the above-mentioned activist groups, as …


Feminist Action Against Pornography In Japan: Unexpected Success In An Unlikely Place, Caroline Norma, Seiya Morita Jan 2020

Feminist Action Against Pornography In Japan: Unexpected Success In An Unlikely Place, Caroline Norma, Seiya Morita

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In late 2016 a feminist movement against problems of commercial sexual exploitation, and especially issues of coerced pornography filming, arose in Japan. This article describes the history of this movement as it mobilized to combat human rights violations perpetrated by the country’s pornographers. The movement’s success came not spontaneously or haphazardly; in fact, it was orchestrated earlier over a full decade-and-a-half by activists who persevered in researching and highlighting pornography’s harms in a civil environment of hostility, isolation and social derision, even among progressive groups and individuals. The Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) was particularly prominent in this history. …


Consumer Involvement In Japanese Pornography Production, Yukino Yamamoto, Caroline Norma, Ruwan Dep Weerasinghe May 2018

Consumer Involvement In Japanese Pornography Production, Yukino Yamamoto, Caroline Norma, Ruwan Dep Weerasinghe

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The authors examined two pornographic film series produced in Japan in the first decade of the twenty-first century, as well as their DVD box cover advertising copy. Additionally, and crucially, these data were examined in light of online forum posts made by the producers and consumers of the two film series before, during and after their production. These posts indicate consumer-producer cooperation and collaboration in all aspects of the series’ planning and execution, in addition to consumer involvement in the perpetration of the filmed sex acts and abuses themselves. The discussion of the article emphasizes the accelerating effect of online …


Theoretical Explanations Of Jyoshi Kousei Business ("Jk Business") In Japan, Mutsumi Ogaki Feb 2018

Theoretical Explanations Of Jyoshi Kousei Business ("Jk Business") In Japan, Mutsumi Ogaki

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Jyoshi kousei (JK) means high school girls in Japanese and “JK business” is an umbrella term for commercial activities done by high school girls to provide male customers with sexual arousal. The “JK business” is considered to promote sexual exploitation or sexual assault of minors. Currently, only two prefectures out of 47 in Japan enforce ordinances that specifically regulate the “JK business.” This paper intends to explore possible theoretical explanations of the “JK business” to raise awareness on the issue. Gendered pathways theory and sexual script theory are selected as the primary source of the discussions. Policy implications and future …


Remembering An Abolitionist, Ambassador John R. Miller (May 23, 1938-October 4, 2017), Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan, Donna M. Hughes Oct 2017

Remembering An Abolitionist, Ambassador John R. Miller (May 23, 1938-October 4, 2017), Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A memorial for Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, John R. Miller (May 23, 1938-October 4, 2017). Ambassador Miller believed modern-day slavery, encompassing sex trafficking and forced labor, requires a principled global offensive that the United States is morally obligated to lead. In the four formative years he led the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2002 to 2006, John Miller set the office’s course as diplomatically aggressive and programmatically creative. He made the annual Trafficking in Persons report more than a bureaucratic submission, putting daring heroes at the center, and insisting on compelling …