The History of "Karayuki-san" (Japanese Prostitutes) in Modern Siam (Thailand): The Earliest Japanese Settlers, Extraterritoriality, and the Formation of the Japanese Community, 1885–1925

This article is an English translation of the revised and integrated Japanese version of Eiji Murashima’s “Karayuki-san (Japanese Prostitutes) in Thailand: 1885–1920,” originally published in Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Ajia Taiheiyō Tōkyū), no. 46 (2023), together with relevant additions and corrections subsequently published in no. 49 (2024). The present English version is therefore not simply a translation of the 2023 article, but a complete translation of the revised Japanese text in which these supplementary findings have been incorporated. The study reconstructs, as far as surviving sources permit, the history of karayuki-san—Japanese women engaged in prostitution overseas—in Siam (Thailand) from approximately 1885 to 1925. Because the number of Japanese women involved in prostitution in Siam was relatively small and surviving documentation is fragmentary, the study draws on a wide range of materials, including Japanese books and periodicals, Japanese-language newspapers published in various parts of Asia, passport-issuance registers preserved in the Diplomatic Archives of Japan, Japanese diplomatic and consular records, the Japanese Official Gazette, Thai government documents, the Thai Royal Gazette, and Thai-language publications. The evidence indicates that Japanese brothel operators employing karayuki-san were already present in Bangkok around 1885, before the signing of the Japanese-Siamese Declaration of Amity and Commerce on 26 September 1887. The karayuki-san thus constituted the earliest identifiable group of Japanese who established a continuing residential presence in modern Thailand. From the 1890s through the 1910s, Bangkok generally contained approximately four Japanese establishments functioning as hotels, liquor shops, coffee shops, and brothels, with approximately twenty to thirty Japanese women engaged in prostitution. Their principal customers were Westerners. Japanese karayuki-san were also present outside Bangkok, notably in Chanthaburi during the French occupation of 1893–1904 and in Phuket around 1916–1917. The article further examines the first Japanese consular trial in Bangkok involving a Japanese prostitute in 1897; Japanese graves and gravestones at Wat Sam Chin, present-day Wat Traimit; the implementation of Siam’s Venereal Disease Prevention Act of 1908; financial contributions made by Japanese women in Bangkok during the Russo-Japanese War; and the activities of establishments such as the Asahi Hotel, Fuji Hotel, and Bangkok Hotel. Particular attention is given to the woman popularly known as the “Shanghai Old Woman” (Shanhai Bāsan), who operated the Fuji Hotel for approximately thirty years. Additional evidence incorporated from the 2024 publication makes it possible to identify her as Tsunoda Machi and to examine her activities more precisely. The Thai case provides a distinctive perspective on the broader history of Japanese female migration and prostitution in Southeast Asia. Siam remained politically independent while operating within an international order strongly shaped by extraterritoriality and unequal treaties. The history of Japanese prostitutes in Bangkok therefore illuminates not only Japanese overseas migration and prostitution but also the interaction among foreign consular jurisdiction, Siamese administrative authority, public-health regulation, and the formation of the Japanese community in modern Thailand.