1 Nishino, Rumiko; Kim, Puja; Onozawa, Akane (trans. Robert Ricketts), “Sensō to Josei e no Bōryoku” Risāchi Akushon Sentā. Denying the comfort women: The Japanese state’s assault on historical truth. (London: Routledge, 2018).

2 Onozawa, Akane. Kindai nihon shakai to kōshō seido: Minshūshi to kokusai kankeishi no shiten kara. (Tokyo: Yoshikawakōbunkan, 2010).

3 See here.

4 Yoshimi, Yoshiaki., & O’Brien, S. G.. Comfort women: Sexual slavery in the Japanese military during World War II. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002).

5 Kinoshita, Naoko. “Ianfu“ mondai no gensetsu kūkan: Nihonjin “Ianfu“ no fuka shika to genzen. (Tokyo: Shohan, 2017).

6 See also Morita’s later piece, ‘Overcoming Double Erasure: Japanese “comfort women”, nationalism and trafficking,’ The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Vol. 15, No. 21, (2017).

7 See Norma, Caroline and Morita, Seiya, “Feminist Action Against Pornography in Japan: Unexpected Success in an Unlikely Place,” Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 4: Iss. 4 (2020).

8 Morita, Seiya (2014-2015), ‘Toruno to sei-bōryoku higai [Pornography and the harms of sexual violence, parts I, II and III],” Vaurakku Tsūshin, Nos. 6-8.

9 Suzuki Yūko, Senso sekinin to jendā [Wartime Responsibility and Gender], (Tokyo: Mirai-sha, 1997), p. 116. See also Yūki Fujime, “‘Ianfu’ kōshō ron hihan [Criticising the argument that “comfort women” were prostitutes in the context of state-regulated prostitution]”, Onnatachi no 21-seiki, Vol. 16, 1998.

10 Ōgoshi Aiko, Toso suru feminizumu e [Toward a Militant Feminism], (Tokyo: Mirai-sha, 1996), p. 209.

11 Wakakuwa Midori, “Jūgun ianfu mondai/jenda-shi no shiten kara [The problem of the Japanese military comfort women from a perspective of gender history]”, Rekishi to shinjitsu [History and Truth], (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1997), p. 175.

12 Wakakuwa, “Jūgun ianfu mondai/jenda-shi no shiten kara”, pp. 175-176.

13 Andrea Dworkin, “Living in terror, pain”, Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War against Women, (New York: The Free Press, 1997), p. 53.

14 Robin Morgan, “Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape”, Take Back the Night, ed. by Laura Lederer, (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1980).

15 [Editor’s note: it should perhaps be noted that pornography may also be abusive of men, though Morita’s focus here is on abuse of women.]

16 [And women from other Asian societies (editor’s note)]

17 MacKinnon & Dworkin, In Harm’s Way, pp. 60-61.

18 Sechiyama Kaku, “Yori yoi sei no shōhinka wo mezashite [Toward a better commodification of sex]”, in Feminizumu no shuchō [Feminism’s Claims], Keisō Shobō (1992), p. 77. It is symbolic that Hashizume Daizaburō, after publishing a chapter in the same edited volume with Sechiyama where he endorsed prostitution in an old-fashioned, crude way, afterwards went on to become a follower of far-right cartoonist Kobayashi Yoshinori.

19 See quote from Miyadai in Ueno Chizuko and Miyadai Shinji, “Media/sekkusu/Kazoku [Media, sex, and family]”, Ronza, August 1998. This published dialogue between Ueno and Miyadai is criticized in my contribution: Morita Seiya, “Ueno/Miyadai taidan ni miru seiteki riberarizumu no airo [The Achilles heel of sexual liberals revealed in Ueno and Miyadai’s conversation]”, Ronza (September 1998).

20 For example, Miya Yoshiko, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia [Sexual selfdetermination and feminism’s aporia]”, in Miyadai Shinji, “Sei no jiko ketti” genron [Principles of “Sexual Self-Determination”], (Tokyo: Kinokuniya Shoten, 1998).

21 “Those who put prostitution in a framework of ‘sexual exploitation’ through describing it as ‘sexual slavery’, ‘rape’ or ‘sexual violence’ always take their evidence from the worst circumstances. For example, the enforced prostitution of Asian women and the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children (‘child prostitution’)…They confront people, inevitably, with the idea that prostitution is always the result of coercion and that payment puts victims in a position of slavery where anything can be done to them” (Miya, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia”, pp. 88-89).

22 “The majority of prostitution occurring these days is very different from the old stereotype of vulnerable and weak women being bought by powerful men. On the contrary, this stereotype is more likely to be responsible for marginalizing sexually disadvantaged people who would be unable to have sex unless they could purchase sexual services” (Miyadai Shinji, “Jiko kettei genron: Jiyū to songeki [Principles of self-determination: freedom and dignity]”, Sei no Jiko Kettei Genron, p. 264). “These old guys go down on their knees before young high school girls and exist just to be sponged off for pocket-money, and so it’s actually the girls who are the ones in the superior position over them’ (Miya, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia”, p. 96).

23 “Sex workers, who do the work of healing, soothing, and sexually counselling physically or psychologically disabled people, or people who have no opportunity for sex, are proud of their work, have self-respect, and are not victims. They are subjective proponents of their own ‘sexual self-determination’” (Miya, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia”, pp. 90-91). As can be seen in the quote, Miya Yoshiko conceives of the category of “victim” in extremely individualistic and subjective terms. She also appears to believe that victims retain no selfrespect or pride in themselves. This is surely an anti-victim approach.

24 “Those feminists who loudly proclaim ‘love and sex must go together’, and if this means they just become sloths during sex as passive recipients, then surely they’re responsible for pushing men and their husbands towards so-called ‘prostitution buying’!” (Miya, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia”, p. 102). In this statement, Miya appears to believe that feminists too should actively adhere to the sexual values of contemporary male dominant society and sexually service men in order to satisfy them. Also, Miyadai, across the breadth of his work, suggests that prostitution is necessary for those men who have developed fetishistic sexualities as a result of pornography use, so they can find need fulfillment for these proclivities by using prostitutes. If there really are such men who have developed specific sexual preferences through pornography use, then we need to first criticize pornography, and not simply turn in the opposite direction towards arguments that justify prostitution. This example, too, shows similar patterns of logic to the arguments of revisionists that cite Japan’s pre-war licensed brothel system in justification of the “comfort women” system.

25 Miya, “Sei no jiko kettei to feminizumu no aporia”, pp. 103-104. I suspect that Miya, if asked, could not actually identify any “feminists” she purports to refer to here. As far as I know there are no feminists who lump together “comfort women who were.sex slaves” together with “women who entered prostitution willingly and freely as sex workers”. Feminists merely point out that the wartime “comfort women” system and the licensed brothel scheme of the same era, as well as the prostitution systems that continue in an unceasing fashion today (including those of a “voluntary” nature!), are inextricably intertwined, and structurally continuous. This claim neither lumps together all these systems, nor subsumes into one category all their victims and survivors.

26 Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Jūgun ianfu [Japanese Military Comfort Women], (Tokyo, Iwanami Shinsho, 1995), pp. 88-89.

27 Kobayashi Yoshinori and Takeuchi Yoshikazu, Kyōkasho ga oshiekanenai jigyaku [Risks of Self-Hate in the Lessons of History Schoolbooks], (Tokyo: Bunka-sha, 1997), p. 27.

28 Eriko Ikeda, “Hikitsugareru kaishun ishiki [Legacies of the sex-buyer mentality]”, Onnatachi no 21-seiki, Vol. 16, 1998, p. 25.

29 See D. Leidholdt □ J. G. Raymond (ed), The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism, (London: Pergamon Press, 1990); Michigan Journal of Gender Law, Vol. 1, 1993; Sugita Satoshi, Danken Shugiteki Sekushuariti [A Criticism of Androcentric Sexuality], (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1999).