2009 Volume 81 Issue 1 Pages 68-78
In this paper, I aim to explore the politics of gendered labor migration from the Philippines to Japan—especially focusing on Filipino female entertainers—from the local perspective based on research into “Philippine Pub space” in a specific city of Japan. While referring to geographical contributions to the understanding of gender and migration, firstly I explain the situation and background of female migration as entertainers from the Philippines to Japan during 1980 to 2006, and secondly trace how such gendered migration has been locally spatialized into Philippine Pub space. Through my case studies, I refer to both the landscape and the pub customers' gaze regarding Philippine Pub space. In conclusion, I will suggest that a specific form of spatialized migration as “nightscape of desire” reinforces and (re)produces unequal power relations of difference between Japanese men and Filipino women as well as Japan and the Philippines.
