Public Prostitution and the Yoshiwara - Meiji to Taisho Periods

Public Prostitution and the Yoshiwara - Meiji to Taisho Periods

After the Meiji Restoration, the new government promulgated the Prostitute Emancipation Ordinance in 1872, allowing prostitutes to formally close their businesses freely. However, many women were saddled with large debts and dues, and the number of those who could actually choose to be liberated was limited. Yoshiwara eventually continued to exist under the public prostitution system and became subject to the state's sanitation policy and public morals control. Although the appearance of Yoshiwara became more glamorous with Western-style buildings and electric lights that symbolized modernization, the life of prostitutes remained a world of hardship, bound by indentured servitude and borrowed money.

In addition, the public prostitution system took the form of state-controlled prostitution, and prostitutes were subject to periodic venereal disease testing and supervision by the police. This was part of the maintenance of hygiene, and at the same time, it systematically strengthened the bondage of prostitutes. While socially considered a "necessary evil," the Yoshiwara was subject to moral criticism, and its existence was always subject to contradictions.

Thus, Yoshiwara survived into the modern era as a place where the old restraints and discrimination remained, despite the splendor of civilization's opening to the outside world. The Yoshiwara was a microcosm of Japanese society, reflecting the progress of modernization and the lagging awareness of human rights at the same time.