Through four women's firsthand accounts, this article explores the system of coercion employed by traffickingnetworks to exploit migrant Thai women's labor in the Japanese sex industry. Exorbitant “debts”—with manipulative repayment calculations and violent enforcement tactics'play a central role in this system, but the article also identifies a range of other factors that impede trafficked women's ability to protect themselves from abuse. Finally, the article highlights the strength and agency exhibited by the women as they struggle to protect themselves and support their families in the face of limited options and opportunity.
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