Singapore: Japanese 'karayuki-san' (prostitutes) c. 1900.

Karayuki-san ('Miss Gone-overseas') were Japanese women who travelled to East Asia and Southeast Asia in the second half of the 19th century to work as prostitutes. Many of these women are said to have originated from the Amakusa Islands of Kumamoto Prefecture, which had a large and long-stigmatized Japanese Christian community. Many of the women who went overseas to work as karayuki-san were the daughters of poor agricultural or fishing families.

The end of the Meiji period was the golden age for karayuki-san, and the girls that would go on these overseas voyages were known fondly as the joshigun or 'army of girls'. As Japan developed, the presence of karayuki-san overseas was considered shameful. During the 1910s and 1920s, Japanese officials overseas worked hard to eliminate Japanese brothels and maintain Japanese prestige.

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