Abstract
This paper aims to capture how young women working in the sex industry cope with a variety of risks faced in life and work, how their network of relationships functions for that purpose, the background to the formation of this network, and especially what significance their school experience has in its formation. This paper pursued the above-mentioned issues through a comparison of the cases of two young women (Mana and Kyoka) among the informants in our research who are working in and around the sex industry.
The common point held by both women is that they had already deviated from the mainstream of school society by the time of graduation from junior high school, and had been excluded from the local area. However, Mana experienced truancy during junior high school, did not have the experience of belonging to a group of children of the same age and gender, and did not have continual relationships, except to some extent with boyfriends. Kyoka, on the other hand, belonged to the Yankee girls group (a rebellious girls group) famous in the local area during junior high school. This relationship continued after graduation, and provided support for surviving the difficulties and maintaining emotional stability. Kyoka's tactics for dealing with risks at work scenes also derived from the behavioral style of delinquent female culture, which she acquired through belonging to the Yankee group.
What emerged from the comparison of the two cases was in particular that to experience the time at school as an opportunity of network formation under a protected environment could be the foundation of network formation that is indispensable for ensuring relative safety for young people forced to face a number of risks in the transition period, and the significance of this is by no means small.
