LITMIR.BIZ

      Many of the individuals who were most instrumental in making Japan's Sex Trade possible have wished to remain anonymous. I am very thankful to them for having allowed me to grill and re-grill them on sensitive and sometimes even embarrassing details of their current or former work. I could not have written this book without the mass of information that they agreed to share.

      I am especially grateful to K. Inoue for his tireless help in digging out and analyzing mountains of material. His clear understanding of the ins and outs of the Japanese scene were of enormous help. I am also very grateful to W. Ishida, whose deep knowledge of Japan's culture, past and present, brought into perspective some of the more idiosyncratic twists of red-light life, and to Greg Allen for his social and linguistic acumen.

      I would like to thank T. Yoshioka for all the information she helped me gather over the past four years, and to express my appreciation for her insight into the forbidden language of Japan's sex-trade, and also for keeping her sharp eye on the blue press in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama.

      I would also like to thank my editor Sally Schwager for undertaking so many fact-finding missions for me, and for intercepting and interviewing important Tokyo figures; and also Dr. Lundquist, chief librarian of the Oriental Division of the New York Public Library, Ms. Kim, section head of the East Asian Division, and their staff, for suggesting books and articles that provided vital information, and for their constant scholarly assistance; and my agent Raphael Pallais for his enthusiastic support.

      Finally, a very special thank you to Burton Pike who inspired me to write my first book, Japanese Street Slang, and whose constant advice and constant encouragement over the years have made this book possible.

      INTRODUCTION

      My ultimate mission in Japan's Sex Trade was to explore the fascinating but prohibited side of Japan which, like the taboo language it speaks, is out of bounds to foreigners. In the mid-eighties I set off on a five-year linguistic expedition to capture the fiercest and slangiest expressions the Japanese street scene had to offer. I had begun with sampling the scintillating and private amphetamine and opium jargons of drug cliques, and then plowed my way through the lingo of the Koganechō brothels of Yokohama and the flashy Korean Creole of the gangs of Kawasaki.

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