When you hear the expression ¡°JK business,¡± do you have any idea what kind of work this refers to? JK stands for joshi k¨sei (high school girls). In Japan, JK is a very powerful brand ¡ª and high school girls are a highly valued commodity.
In the 1990s girls sold their worn and unwashed school uniforms, gym shorts and bathing suits for a pretty yen at so-called buru-sera shops. (¡°Burusera¡± is a portmanteau of ¡°bloomer,¡± which in Japan means the type of high-cut sports shorts still worn by volleyball players, plus ¡°sailor suit¡± ¡ª the girls¡¯ school uniform that has become the garment of choice for costume fetishists.)
Later came enjo k¨sai, or ¡°compensated dating,¡± which entailed high school girls selling themselves, in one way or another, to middle-aged men. Every time Japan tries to squash one form of exploitation of high school girls, another type raises its ugly head, like some sort of desperate game of whack-a-mole.
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