Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mack4289]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2875617

"... the development of Korean industry was virtually built around the sex trade.�

Is this true? Can anyone elaborate?

[Alyallen]

[Guri Guy]

[Ilsanman]

How dare you, you racist!!!

You side with Japan, a country that endorses war criminals. You know, I don't know a thing about Shinto religion, but they don't have freedom of religion, especially when it upsets Korea's sensibilities.

Don't you know that it's all USA's fault? If the didn't pay for the whores, the pimps would let them go free. American soliders are to blame.

Japan created the Comfort Women. Before that, Koreans had no whores.

[jdog2050]

[gyopogirlfromtexas]

Hmmm? I've read an article on this subject here in the US. I got the newspaper Army Times from the commissary while shopping on base, and this was awhile back.Talking about human trafficking an d taking away of legal papers so the girls can't run away. And that they are even videomonitored 24/7; came to Korea thinking they would just be selling drinks instead of sex. It mentioned that sometimes they get a couple hundred or thousand dollar upfront as a signup bonus. There was a love story in there about a gi saving a philipina girl and bringing her here.

I had an ex gi bf at the time who happened to have newly arrived from Korea. He said that article is somewhat bs, because he used to date a Russian bar girl in Korea and she did it at her own free will. Even signed up herself for the second year. That it was a lot more than she would make at home. I was surprised by his response. I thought he would sound like the writer of that article as far as being sympathetic and disugusted by the situation.

[jdog2050]

[Real Reality]

[Guri Guy]

Republic of prostitution. Catchy name. Since Japan is frequently demonized on these boards and is called perverted and sexually depraved let's look at the facts.

Takashi Kadokura

Takashi Kadokura has been an economist at the Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute Inc. since 1995 where he conducts macroeconomic research. In the course of his research, he has worked at the Japan Center for Economic Research in Tokyo and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

In addition to his work at the Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, he has written extensively on the Japanese underground economy for both the popular and specialist audience. His books include Nihon no Chikakeizai (Japan's Underground Economy) and Nihon Chikakeizai Hakusho (The Japanese Underground Economy White Paper). He is widely quoted in the Japanese and international media, including CNN, The China Daily, and the Mainichi Newspaper.

A Japanese national, he graduated from the Keio University economics department in 1995. Mr. Kadokura speaks English.


Interview: June 2003

Translated by Yuki Allyson Honjo

What was the initial brainwave that made you start a study on Japan's underground economy?
In 1999, when I was temporarily transferred to the Japan Center for Economic Research, I came across a few foreign papers on the study of underground economies and it captured my interest. In Japan, there really has not been much past research on the underground economy, and I decided it was worth studying. In 2000, I was sent to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Although Singapore has a strong "wholesome" image, the existence of an underground economy with prostitution and gambling was known. Once I realized that an underground economy exists in each and every country on the scale that cannot be ignored, and this made me decide to further my research.

Could you tell the readers what your main conclusions of your book White Paper on Japan's Underground Economy? What are the main components of Japan's under ground economy? What are its drivers?
In 2000, tax evasion took up 73.3% of the Japanese underground economy. The remaining 30% is other forms of illegal activity, of which illicit income from organized crime is 10.7%, and the sex industry occupies 8.5%.

Since the 1990s, the overall underground economy has been on the decline because of the downward trend in tax evasion, which takes up the majority of the underground economy. However, income from organized crime and the sex industry are on an upward trend, but because they occupy a comparatively smaller proportion, they don't affect the overall underground economy.

You state that the size of Japan's underground economy is about 23.3 trillion yen in 1999-that's a very big number. First: plus or minus how much? Second: could you define what you mean by underground economy?
Because its very difficult to measure the underground economy, it's essential to estimate a certain margin. In this book, I define the "underground economy" as economic activity that is not released in official public statistics such as GDP and is a deviation from various government and tax regulations. Concretely, things like tax evasion and other forms of criminal activity are included in the underground economy.

On the other hand, 23.3 trillion is about 4.5 percent of the nominal gross domestic product. This is considerably smaller on a relative basis compared to other countries. While these numbers are always hard to pin down, figures have varied from (as of 1990) 23.4 percent for Italy, 13.1 percent for Germany, 9.4 percent for France, and 7.5 percent for the United States. Do you feel that 4.5% of nominal GDP is damaging to Japan? Why do you think Japan's underground economy is relatively small? In your opinion, is it a problem?
The size of the underground economy is 4.5% of nominal GDP, which is smaller in scale relative to international comparisons. However, because the present Japanese growth rate is staying at more or less 1%, whether or not the underground economy (4.5%) is counted in GDP makes a big difference in assessing the economic climate.

As for reasons why the Japanese underground economy occupies as relatively small place in the economy 1) Japanese tax rates and unemployment rates are relatively low 2) Compared to the US and Europe, the system dealing with the underground economy is much stricter. The scale of the Japanese underground economy is not yet that large. It's not likely to become a troublesome problem if you increase tax agency staff to control tax evasion and if you make plans to stop the spread of the underground economy now.

http://www.japanreview.net/interview_Takashi_kadokura.htm

Hmmm....If the Underground economy is 4.5% of Japan's total GDP and sex occupies 8.5% of that equals around .05% of Japan's total GDP.
Damn perverted Japan!

Prostitution

The sex industry accounts for 1% of the GNP, and equals the defense budget. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/japan.htm

Korea still number one! Korea fighting!

[joeyjoejoe]

i've actually been reading about this the last few days.

there is a lot of articles linked from the wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_South_Korea
http://www.ulsanpear.biz/2005-02.pdf

[Alyallen]

I knew Real Reality would get the goods

[twg]

[Ozabout7or8]

[newton kabiddles]

[quote="Ozabout7or8"]

[Ilsanman]

People just think Japanese are perverted because they make good porn.

For all the money KOreans spend on whores, they don't know how to make porn.

Sounds an awful lot like the English education industry here too.