Lalasa Tomita

Thesis title: Contested Representations of Sex Work in Contemporary Japan

Advisor: Dr Yuen Shu Min

E-mail: e1539428@u.nus.edu

Education:

B.A., Keio University

Research interests:

Critical ethnography; Gender studies; Queer studies; Sexuality, labour, and gender in contemporary Japan; Queer feminist ethnography; Sex work studies

Self-introduction:

Lalasa is an MA (Research) student in Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore. She graduated from Keio University in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in History, majoring in Asian history. Her undergraduate research conducted an intersectional analysis of the split within Taiwan's women's movement regarding sex work issues.

Looking ahead, she is also interested in the collective memory of sexual exploitation in East Asia and how this memory shapes feminist discourse and affects the lives of sex workers today.

Thesis Research Area:

Her current MA thesis examines how representations of sex workers unfold across distinct discursive and communicative spheres in Japan, with a particular focus on gendered victimhood, labour frameworks, and pathologization. Employing a queer feminist approach, she contrasts political and symbolic representations of sex workers with sex workers' own self-understandings and lived experiences. By analyzing dominant discursive currents and their genealogies, this thesis critically challenges monolithic and simplified representations of sex workers, while contributing to broader discussions surrounding sex work and legal reform in Japan.