Asia Sentinel

Delving into a wide variety of sex venues, Sinclair's photo documentary reveals aspects of kink that may be new even to seasoned observers. Still, in many ways the book only reinforces the wacky and wild view of Pink Kink.

Trying to understand the Japanese love of kink can be hard to grasp for many foreigners. Elaborate bondage rituals, a fascination for women in uniforms, the passion for looking up the skirts of school girls or groping on public trains is difficult for those outside of these fetish cultures to understand, much less appreciate. But as one of Sinclair's interviewees, a male customer puts it, "I think all men are universally perverted; it's just that in Japan we do something about it."

Farrer has other insights that help the uninitiated understand why Japan's passion for kink takes the form of uniformed schoolgirls, nurses, policewomen, stewardesses, secretaries and just about any other get-up one might imagine.

He calls the sex trade “Japan’s most public secret” and notes that red light districts are ubiquitous, located near almost every train station while catalogues advertising sex services are available in every convenience store. The root of the kink, Farrer writes, "May lie in the strict social norms governing everyday life in Japan. Japanese social life has often been described as having two layers, a surface (tatemae) of formal and rule-bound social relations and a reality (honne) of real emotions, antipathies, and attachments.

Japan's sex industry offers men the relief they yearn for from this formal world. In her photos and commentary Sinclair gives the reader a look into an industry full of women dolled up as schoolgirls, stewardesses and office workers–all standard fare for Japanese kink. She photographed themed bars that cater to very particular fetishes, such as one that capitalizes on the train groping epidemic by having a replica train car in its bar staffed with willing girls in short skirts, along with bars that offer bondage; or “happening bars” where people can go for group sex.

Sinclair's photos are clear, sharp and technically impressive — not what one would expect from an amateur photographer. For several years Sinclair worked in Japan as an English teacher before returning to the US to become a lawyer and settle down with her husband. When he mentioned starting a family, she decided that there was one thing left for her to do in Japan.

While teaching English, Sinclair was introduced to fuzoku, the sex industry, by friends who later, at her request, gave her a first-hand look when she returned for her photo documentary effort. In the process she had to overcome suspicion, xenophobia and gender discrimination to accomplish the task.

Her photos are reminiscent of Orientalia: Sex in Asia by Regan Louie, a seasoned photojournalist and student of kink who is cited in Sinclair's acknowledgements. He apparently assisted the novice in her work, and to positive effect.

Though Pink Box shows a world that most will never see, the text and pictures largely ignore some underlying controversies facing the pink industry, including the fact that Japan has been teetering on and off of the United States State Department's list of nations that support human trafficking. Indeed, the often forced employment of Central Asians, Colombians, Russians, Thais, Filipinas, and Chinese, is not exactly a fuzoku secret.

In fact, international pressure last year led Tokyo to reduce the number of visas to Filipina “entertainers”, a thin euphemism for prostitution. In Manila and Bangkok, for example, it is an open secret that Yakuza recruiters from sex clubs troll the go-go bars looking for fresh talent. In the Philippines, the term “Japayuki” has been coined for girls who “entertain” in Japan.

Sinclair explains her take on the industry in her Photographer's Note, allying herself with those who see sex work as a viable choice for women and even a means of empowerment. The argument is not unlike that heard from some college students in the US who see lap dancing as an easy way to finance their education. Sinclair says she hopes "that viewers not assume that this profession is inherently degrading. It is more complicated than that. These women are not powerless, they are not on drugs. They have made conscience choices; they have there own dignity."

Indeed she may be correct that many Japanese sex workers willingly choose the profession. But the presence of so many foreign women working in Japanese bars may raise too many complex questions; perhaps that is why Sinclair focused primarily on Japanese workers.

This is the central focus of the book anyway Japanese sex clubs in Japanese culture and society. For a glimpse into the powerful economic and psycho-sexual relationship between the fuzoku workers and their clients, it delivers a rare and unique insight.

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@Shiela
written by Jacob , May 13, 2010

The fact of the matter is, humans are animals. Animals have one primary purpose: reproduction. When you try to get fancy with it, deny it, hide it, it starts coming out in strange ways. It doesn't matter what a woman thinks, her purpose is to reproduce, at whatever the cost. Same with men.

The nature of a woman is to get pregnant and then keep her babies safe and protected and fed until they can be on their own. Anything else is society's teachings. A woman will do whatever it takes to accomplish these goals by her "nature". Anything else is society's teachings. There is no such thing as pride when it comes to survival. You do what you have to do. Women are intended to be the weaker sex. That's why they are on average physically weaker. (By contrast, they tend to have a higher pain threshold and be very good at manipulating men in very subtle ways to get what they want without needing to be physically strong.)

The natural way of things is for men to get women pregnant, and then go hunt and fight and provide and protect. The women are supposed to stay with the babies and keep them fed and protected and teach them. This is the way it is. This is how it has been since time immemorial. The last 100 years is not even a blip on the map of time since anything even remotely human came to be. We are still animals running on genetic instructions that are optimized for much more difficult times than we currently live in.

Whine, b****, complain all you like, sexist or not, that's the facts. Women being pursued and "valued for who they are" is a recent (VERY recent) societal construct, which has not a darned thing to do with our primal natures, which still rule us through the sex drive.

In other words, your genes don't give a rat's backside whether you are valued, they only care if you reproduce with the best possible example of a male you can wrap your legs around. And it's the same for men. Society likes to pretend we're not animals, but as you can see by the current world population counter... we are animals, and we are very successful at reproduction. What we aren't so successful at is letting ourselves be okay with these facts, which is where we get this "perversion".

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omg
written by aj , January 12, 2010

ok look leget prostatution is not bad twords women thease women make m ore mony than the nomal ones due and they chose to do it cause they understand the they have a body and skills that men and women will pay lots of money look if you go on a date and you have the guy pay for everything its the same thing but with iut like this you skip the 3-4 hr date and get to the part that most are aiming for any ways lol just understand that its the choise of the girl what she will and wont do and if its not agianst the law its not forced on them

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sick.
written by sheila , April 03, 2009

how can u possibly think that this is something to be proud of Ramen? the degredation of women does occur! as much as it could be argued that this is the cultural norm, this goes against the nature of women to be pursued and valued for who they are, and not what they can do. just because it is justifyable to a point, because it has been legalized, doesn't make it morally okay.

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Awesome
written by Alecard , September 23, 2008

Simply awesome, i was definitely born in the wrong country! Ramen

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