Neon signs for sex industry venues are seen among the bars and clubs in Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho red light district. Economic hardship is pushing many middle-aged women toward the nation’s sex industry, despite the stigma and physical risk.
在东京的歌舞伎町红灯区的酒吧和夜总会之间，可以看到有霓虹灯的色情场所。尽管存在耻辱和身体健康风险，经济困难正在把许多中年妇女推向这个国家的性产业。
push … toward … 推向
stigma 名词 羞耻
Sex trade a shaky safety net for Japan’s working-poor women
性给了日本穷忙族妇女一个不可靠的安全网络
working poor 穷忙族
shaky adj 不可靠的
For the past six years, 47-year-old single mother Kasumi Endo has lived a double life.
过去的6年里，47岁的单身母亲 Kasumi Endo 过着双重生活。
On weekdays, she works all day as a temp-staff office worker to raise her teenage daughter. But with wages hardly sufficient to keep the household afloat, Endo (not her real name) takes a surreptitious trip to Tokyo’s downtown Ikebukuro district on weekends to earn extra money.
周一到周五，她作为临时工工作一整天养活十几岁的女儿，但是工资严重不够家庭开销。Kasumi Endo（化名）于周末秘密前往东京市中心的池袋区赚外快。
surreptitious：done, made, or acquired by stealth
As she climbs the stairs to exit JR Ikebukuro Station, she gradually switches her normal self off and wills herself to accept that she is now someone else: a professional working in Japan’s fuzoku sex industry.
当她走出 JR Ikebukuro 地铁站，她逐渐进入另外一个角色：日本风俗行业的专业人士。
“When I first decided to join the industry, I did so with great reluctance. I didn’t know whether it was the right thing to sell my identity as a woman. I even felt guilty for my daughter when I imagined a stranger touching the sacred part of my body where she was born,” said Endo, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity because she keeps her side business a secret from those around her, including her 19-year-old daughter.
Endo 说：“当我第一次决定加入这个行业时，我非常勉强。我不知道出卖身体是否正确。“我甚至为我的女儿感到内疚，当我想象一个陌生人触摸她出生的那个神圣的地方时”。她同意匿名采访，因为她对身边的人隐瞒了她做兼职的事情（卖身），包括她19岁的女儿。
reluctance 不愿意，勉强
scared 神圣的
anonymity 匿名
Endo belongs to the seemingly burgeoning cohort of Japan’s impoverished middle-aged women gravitating toward the sex industry, despite its widespread life-threatening risks.
Endo 属于数量激增的日本贫困中年女性群体，尽管面临着广泛的危及生命的风险，但仍然受到性行业的吸引。
seemingly 看来似乎
burgeoning 激增
cohort n 一群人
impoverished adj 贫困的
middle-aged women 中年妇女
gravitating v 吸引
Today, the taboo community provides women like her with the semblance of a social safety net, superseding the existing public assistance that experts criticize as too fragile and contingent on an old, traditional family model that no longer works.
今天，禁忌社区为像她这样的女性提供了一种表面安全的社会网络，代替了专家批评为过于脆弱的公共援助，而这种援助依赖于旧的、传统的不再适用的传统家庭模式。
semblance n 假象
superseding v 取代
fragile adj 脆弱的
contingent adj dependent on or conditioned by something else
At the same time, calls are growing for a rethink of the industry’s pariah status. Poverty experts say the entrenched tendency to label the sex industry an unconditional evil will only leave those who work in it marginalized and stymie access to the public support they need.
与此同时，呼吁正在增长，重新思考风俗业的贱民地位。 贫穷专家说，把性行业标榜为无条件的邪恶的根深蒂固的倾向只会使那些在其中工作的人陷于边缘化，并阻碍他们获得所需的公众支持。
the industry’s pariah status.行业的贱民的地位
the entrenched tendency 根深蒂固的倾向
marginalize v 边缘化
stymie v 阻碍
Despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “womenomics” target of having women occupy 30 percent of leadership positions by 2020, the majority of the female workforce is mired in low-paying, unstable nonregular employment. Many are forced to give up full-time positions after childbirth amid a chronic dearth of day care centers as well as Japan’s long-standing “men at work, women at home” mentality, which dissuades husbands from taking paternity leave.
尽管安倍晋三总理的“妇女经济”的目标是2020年女性占据30%领导职位，大多数的女性劳动力陷入低工资、不稳定的非正规就业。许多人被迫放弃全职职位，在长期缺乏日托中心以及日本长期存在的“男人外出工作，女性在家照顾家庭”的心态，从而阻止丈夫休陪产假。
occupy vt 使从事；任职。
majority n 大多数
workforce 劳动力
mired in 深陷
a chronic dearth 长期缺乏
chronic adj 长期的
dearth n 缺乏
dissuade v 阻止
paternity leave 陪产假
Of the 23.51 million employed females nationwide, 13.32 million are engaged in nonregular work, including part-time and temporary jobs, according to a 2014 survey by the internal affairs ministry.
根据2014年内务部的一项调查，在全国2351万就业女性中，有1332万从事非正规工作，包括兼职和临时工。
The National Tax Agency, meanwhile, found in its 2014 study that the annual income of female nonregular workers averaged ￥1.47 million — well below the ￥2 million benchmark seen as the poverty line — while men in the same status earned ￥2.2 million annually.
同时，国家税务局在2014年的研究中发现，女性非正规就业人员的年收入平均为147万元，远低于贫困线200万元，而同样年龄的男性每年获得220万元。
Things grow even more dire among single mothers like Endo, who, despite working nonstop, can earn barely enough to support their families.
在 Endo 这样的单身母亲中，事情变得更加严重，尽管他们不间断地工作，却仅仅够养家糊口。
dire adj 悲惨的
A 2011 study of single-parent households by the welfare ministry revealed that 47.4 percent of working moms eked out livings as part-timers, earning an average of ￥1.25 million per year, and 4.7 percent held jobs as temporary workers. Among men, only 8.0 percent of working dads were part-timers, and earned an average annual wage of ￥1.75 million.
福利部2011年对单亲家庭的研究显示，有47.4％的在职妈妈是兼职人员，平均每年赚取125万元，4.7％的人是临时工。 在男性中，只有8％的在职父亲是兼职人员，年平均工资为175万日元。
the welfare ministry 福利部
eked out livings 勉强维持生计
For her part, Endo, who had worked part-time customer service jobs from her mid-30s to 40s that earned her just over ￥1 million yen a year, became the Japanese equivalent of a call girl/ in the so-called deriheru (“delivery health”) industry/ in 2010/ after her husband fell several hundred million yen into debt.
对于她来说，从30多岁到40多岁的兼职客户服务工作，每年赚取超过一百万日元，在2010年她丈夫欠债数百万元后，在所谓的“保健”行业当应召女郎。
equivalent adj equal in value,amount,meaning,importance,etc.
She divorced him three years later over another debt problem and saw her monthly income plummet to about ￥120,000 on a take-home basis, comprising her earnings as a part-time worker and call girl.
三年后，因为另一个债务问题她离婚了，她的月收入大幅下降到12万日元，包括作为一名兼职工作人员和应召女郎的收入。
plummet to :速降
take-home :(of salary or wages) remaining after all deductions including taxes
While she recently switched to being a temporary worker with full-time hours, she wound up jobless at the end of June when her contract expired. With her rent late this month, Endo said she was popping out of her deriheru shift when possible to desperately take in one job interview after another.
虽然她最近改为全职工，但到了六月底，等到合同期满，就失业了。这个月，Endo 说她不干保健了，可能会在一次接一次的面试中绝望。
Despite its deep stigma and shady legal status, Japan’s fuzoku industry, which primarily refers to the “soapland” brothels, “fashion health” massage parlors, deriheru businesses and love hotels, is flourishing. The market reached an estimated ￥3.5 trillion in fiscal 2014, according to Yano Research Institute.
尽管有很深的烙印和阴暗的法律地位，日本的风俗业，主要指的是“泡泡浴”妓院，“时尚健康”按摩店，保健和爱情旅馆，兴旺发达。根据矢野经济研究所的研究，在2014财年市场估计达到￥3兆5000亿。
brothels 妓院
massage parlors 按摩店
deriheru businesses 保健行业
is flourishing 繁荣的
in fiscal 2014 ：在2014财年
With vaginal intercourse prohibited by the Prostitution Prevention Law, most business operators seek to circumvent it by ostensibly offering a gamut of services that stop short of outright sex, from French kissing to oral and anal sex. In reality, however, vaginal sex, euphemistically called honban (real play), is something of an open secret in places such as soaplands.
由于《防止卖淫法》禁止阴道性交，大多数商业经营者试图通过表面上提供一系列服务，以避免直接性行为，从法式接吻到口交和肛交。在现实中，然而，阴道性交，委婉地称为 honban（真干），在被称为 soaplands的地方，是一个公开的秘密。
vaginal intercourse 阴道性交
circumvent 避免，规避
ostensibly 表面上地
a gamut of services 一系列服务
stop short of 停止
outright 完全的
oral and anal sex 口交和肛交
euphemistically called honban (real play) 委婉地
Fuzoku sometimes proves to be the only viable career option for financially challenged women, particularly single mothers, due to its considerably loose working style.
对于经济困难的女性，特别是单身母亲，由于其相当宽松的工作作风，风俗行业有时被证明是唯一可行的职业选择。
viable career option 形容词 切实可行的
“Fuzoku is the most convenient part-time job you can possibly think of,” Shizuka Yamaguchi, a 45-year-old nurse from Kanagawa Prefecture who moonlights as a deriheru call girl in Ikebukuro, said. Yamaguchi (not her real name) said she delved into the industry about a year ago to help offset a plunge in household income after her husband lost his career.
Shizuka Yamaguchi 说：“风俗业是你能想到的最方便的兼职工作”。Shizuka Yamaguchi 是一名来自神奈川州45岁的护士，在池袋从事保健行业。她一年前在丈夫失业后进入该行业赚钱补贴家用。
Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川州
moonlights 兼职
delved into the industry 进入这个行业
offset 抵消 plunge下降
“As a nurse, you’d have to complete the pre-assigned shift in order to earn, say, ￥10,000 a day. But this won’t be an issue in this industry — you can just call your boss and show up whenever you feel like it, day or night, using whatever free time you’ve got to yourself.”
“作为一名护士，你必须完成预先安排的班次，才能赚取每天1万日元。 但这不会成为色情行业的问题 – 只要打电话给你的老板，无论白天还是黑夜，都可以随时随地使用自己的空闲时间。“
Add to this flexibility the instant payment aspect, and cash-strapped women like Shoko Hayama, 48, find the business a life-saver the likes of which she believes is nonexistent anywhere else.
增加即时支付方面的灵活性，以及像48岁的Shoko Hayama这样的资金匮乏的女性，可以找到这样一种生活救星，她认为这种生活在其他任何地方都是不存在的。
As of July, Hayama (not her real name), who works at the same parlor as Yamaguchi, said she and her husband owed about ￥300,000 in back rent and were on the verge of being evicted.
到7月为止，和山口一样在保健店里工作的叶山（不是真名）说，她和丈夫欠了约30万日元的租金，即将被驱逐。
were on the verge of being evicted.
verge n 边缘
evict v 驱逐
Her husband lost his job as a truck driver after a traffic accident in January, which led the pair to resort to a black-market lender for what eventually snowballed into ￥2 million in debt under the exorbitant interest rates.
1月份，她的丈夫在一次交通事故后失去了卡车司机的职位，导致二人借助黑市贷款人，最终以高昂的利率贷款200万日元。
Hayama, who requested her real name not be published because she keeps her plight hidden from her husband, said she is considering filing for personal bankruptcy.
Hayama，要求不要公布她的真实姓名，她向丈夫隐瞒了她的困境，她正在考虑申请个人破产。
personal bankruptcy 个人破产
“Even if I take up a job as a temporary worker, it isn’t until a month later that I can get paid. I used to have my name registered with a temp agency, but in many cases, daily payment is only possible like four times a month,” she said, noting her job as a call girl rewards her with half of the ￥6,000 in cash she gets from each 70-minute session with a customer. The other half goes to her employer.
“即使我做临时工，直到一个月后才能拿到工资。 我曾经在一家临时代理机构注册，但是在很多情况下，工资日结的情况一个月只有四次。“她说，作为应召女郎，为顾客服务70分钟，她可以得到6000日元的一半，另一半给雇主。
noting 是 note 的现在分词
These women’s tales of divorce, spousal joblessness and debilitating penury resonate with many middle-aged sex workers drawn into the business, industry insiders and poverty experts say.
业内人士和贫困专家说，这些女性的离婚故事，配偶失业和贫困，吸引许多中年性工作者进入这个行业。
tale 故事
spousal 配偶
debilitate v 使衰弱
penury n 贫困
resonate v 共鸣
drawn into 吸引
They point out a mixture of factors for this, from the demise of Japan’s traditional family model, heavily reliant on male breadwinners, to the fundamental weakness of the nation’s social security system.
他们指出了一系列因素，从日本传统家庭模式的消亡，严重依赖男性养家，到国家社会保障体系的根本弱点。
demise 消亡
heavily reliant on male breadwinners
reliant adj 依赖的
Akiko Suzuki, a clinical psychologist and chairwoman of the anti-poverty group Inclusion Net Kanagawa, said Japanese women have traditionally found themselves at the mercy of the social security and family benefits tied to the employment of their husbands, including health insurance, pensions, housing subsidies and allowances for dependents.
临床心理学家，反贫困组织包容网神奈川县的主席铃木明子说，日本妇女历来发现自己处于与丈夫就业相关的社会保障和家庭福利，包括医疗保险，养老金，住房补贴和家属津贴。
inclusion n 包含，包括。
at the mercy of 任由…摆布
allowance 津贴
dependents 家属
But this model is almost obsolete in today’s society, Suzuki said, with divorces on the rise over the past two decades and many corporations inclined to cut back on family benefits in an economy that’s been stagnant too long.
但是，这种模式在当今社会几乎已经过时了，铃木说，在过去的二十年里，越来越多的离婚人数不断上升，许多公司在一个停滞不前的经济中倾向于减少家庭福利。
“Once those women are left without their husbands, there is little housing or welfare assistance they can turn to,” said Suzuki, who has been involved in a free consultation project catering to sex workers.
铃木说：“一旦这些妇女没有丈夫，就没有他们的住房或福利援助”。她参与了一个免费的性工作者咨询项目。
Welfare benefits in Japan are notoriously hard to come by thanks to the convoluted bureaucracy, and renting an apartment is often a laborious task if one lacks stable income.
由于官僚作风的错综复杂，日本的福利得到了很大的努力，如果缺乏稳定的收入，租房子往往是一项艰巨的任务。
The government meanwhile remains doggedly reluctant to invest in public education, spending an abysmally low 3.5 percent of GDP in 2012, the least of 32 of the 34 OECD countries for which comparable data were available. This, Suzuki said, has prodded many single mothers to sacrifice their health for work to ensure their children can get access to higher education.
与此同时，政府仍然顽强地不愿意投资于公共教育，2012年的教育支出占国内生产总值的3.5％，这在34个经合组织国家中是最少的。 铃木说，这促使许多单身母亲为了工作而牺牲自己的健康，以确保子女能接受高等教育。
Some fuzoku employers, Suzuki said, go to great lengths to cater to the needs of these women, including offering them places to stay and helping to arrange spots in day care centers for their children.
铃木说，一些风俗业雇主，不遗余力地迎合这些妇女的需要，包括提供留宿的地方，帮助安排儿童在日托中心。
“So, in a way, they offer women the kind of support that society has failed to provide,” Suzuki said, while emphasizing that the sex industry alone can’t substitute as a safety net, given that some of the women make less than ￥100,000 a month.
“所以，从某种意义上说，他们为女性提供了社会未能提供的那种支持，”铃木说，虽然强调单靠性行业不能替代安全网，因为有些女性做不到 一个月10万
substitute 代替
Risks galore
galore 很多
Even if the sex industry provides women with something akin to a safety net, however, risks permeate its community, including rape, stalking, revenge porn and sexually transmitted diseases.
即使性产业给女性提供了类似安全网的东西，尽管如此，交流的过程中还是存在风险，包括强奸、跟踪、色情报复和性传播疾病。
akin adj 相似的
sexually transmitted diseases 性传播疾病
Okaasan debuted in Ikebukuro in 2009 as a pioneering establishment focused on middle-aged women to tap a market based on the inherent male desire for motherly affection.
Okaasan 于2009年在池袋首次亮相，作为一个专注于中年女性的首创的机构，以男性固有的对母爱的渴望为基础开拓市场。
debut debuted 首次亮相
a pioneering establishment 首创的机构
pioneering 首创的
establishment 机构
the inherent male desire 男性固有的对母爱的渴望
inherent 内在的，固有的。
The chain, which has since branched out into the Kansai region, exclusively hires women in their 40s or older and counts many poverty-stricken women, including single mothers, among its 500 call girls.
这个连锁店，专门雇用40多岁的女性，在其500名应召女郎中包括单身母亲在内的许多贫困妇女。
the chain 连锁店
branched out 扩展
Kansai region 关西地区
exclusively 专门地
Okaasan proclaims on its website that it will strive to become one of the “most exemplary” fuzoku chains in Japan, upholding a stringent no-sex policy that makes it the antithesis of some of its law-breaking rivals.
Okaasan在其网站上宣布，将努力成为日本“最具代表性的”风俗连锁店之一，坚持严格的无性交政策，与一些违法的竞争对手形成对照。
most exemplary 最具代表性的
stringent 严格的
antithesis n 对照
As a precaution against stalkers and other sex offenders, Saito, 48, strictly bans the women from carrying ID when meeting clients and from giving out their contact information. He also stores data on every single customer in a database to better grasp his clientele.
为了防范缠扰者和其他性侵犯者，48岁的斋藤在会见客户时，严格禁止女性携带身份证件，并且拒绝提供他们的联系信息。 他还将每个客户的数据存储在数据库中，以便更好地了解客户。
precaution 预防措施
grasp v 了解
To protect their health, Saito ensures his employees undergo a monthly screening for STDs and discloses their examination history on its website. Any woman found to have broken the no-sex rule to earn extra money is fired immediately, Saito said.
为了保护自己的健康，斋藤确保员工每月进行性病检查，并在网站上公布检查历史。 斋藤说，任何发现违反无性交规则赚取外快的妇女立即被解雇。
undergo 接受
But despite his best efforts, some women fall prey to rapists nonetheless, returning to the office with blood dripping down their thighs, he said.
但是，尽管他尽了最大的努力，但有些女性仍然是强奸犯的牺牲品，当她们回到办公室时，大腿上有斑斑血迹。
“It’s always possible the women have to deal with some kinds of criminals. We can’t eliminate the risk, although we can certainly reduce it,” he said.
他说：“女性总是有可能面对犯罪。 我们无法消除风险，但是我们可以减少风险。”
eliminate v 消除
On one Saturday in July, Ikebukuro deriheru workers Yamaguchi and Hayama both attended a free monthly consultation project spearheaded by White Hands, a Niigata-based nonprofit organization that addresses social phenomena and problems related to sex.
7月的一个星期六，池袋保健从业人员山口和叶山都参加了一个免费的月度咨询项目，由基于新泻的非营利组织White Hands开展，该组织负责解决与性有关的社会现象和问题。
spearheaded v 倡导
social phenomena and problems
phenomena 现象
Each month, lawyers and social workers offer consultation opportunities at a tiny apartment in the bustling center of Ikebukuro that in normal days serves as a shared lounge where call girls like Yamaguchi and Hayama can spend their idle hours waiting for calls from clients requesting their services.
律师和社会工作者每个月都会在池袋繁华中心的一间小公寓里提供咨询服务，在平常的日子里，这里是一个共享的休息室，像山口和叶山这样的应召女孩可以在闲暇时间等待客户来电。
a shared lounge
lounge 休息室
The trailblazing project, dubbed Fu Terasu (Shedding Light on Fuzoku), aims to give women in the industry access to the welfare and legal assistance they need — an approach long thwarted by the deep-set stigma attached to their profession.
这个被称为Fu Terasu(揭示风俗)的开创性项目旨在让行业中的女性获得他们所需要的福利和法律援助。
The trailblazing project：trailblazing adj 开创性的
dub dubbed 把…称为
an approach long thwarted：thwart n 阻扰
attached adj 附加的
“The most prominent approach taken by municipal officials or lawyers toward those women has long boiled down to something along the lines of ‘you should quit the job immediately,’ because fuzoku, in their opinion, is undesirable by definition,” said Shingo Sakatsume, head of White Hands.
White Hands的头头Shingo Sakatsume说：市政官员或律师对这些女性采取的最突出的做法是“你应该马上辞职”。
The most prominent approach：prominent adj 突出的
municipal officials 市政官员
long boiled down to something：boil down to 归结于…
Sakatsume called the attitudes of officialdom overbearing and said they run counter to the nonjudgmental attitude considered essential to doing social work. Adhering to such a stance only serves to prevent constructive discussion on what women can do to move forward, he said.
Sakatsume把官僚主义的态度称为傲慢态度，说他们违背了社会工作所必需的非评判性态度。他坚持说，坚持这样的立场只是为了防止妇女能做些什么来积极推进。
officialdom 官场
overbearing 傲慢的
run counter to 违反
the nonjudgmental attitude 客观的态度
Adhering to 秉承
such a stance
stance 立场
constructive discussion 建设性的讨论
But in Fu Terasu, “we neither approve nor disapprove of what the women do. We listen to them and figure out what steps need to be taken to improve their situation,” he said.
但在 Fu Terasu，“我们既不赞成也不反对妇女的所作所为。我们听取她们的意见，并找出需要采取哪些措施来改善她们的处境。
Kaoru Aoyama, a sociology professor at Kobe University who has studied the sex industry, agrees.
神户大学（Kobe University）的社会学教授青山（Kaoru Aoyama）（研究性产业）也同意这一观点。
Kobe University 神户大学
In Japan, the misguided notion that sex workers are without exception exploited, abused and forced to do what they do /runs so deep among the public that the whole industry is indelibly stigmatized, she said.
她说：“在日本，一个被误导的观念是：性工作者无一例外地被剥削、虐待和被迫干活，这个观念在公众中如此之深，以至于整个行业都被不可磨灭的污蔑”。
the misguided notion 被误导的观念
exception 例外
exploited 剥削
abuse v 虐待
indelibly stigmatized 不可磨灭的污蔑
“Branding the industry an evil unconditionally will ultimately deprive women of self-esteem and the kind of ‘bargaining power’ that is crucial to their negotiations with customers or employers, and further weaken their position,” Aoyama said.
Aoyama 说：“无限制的加污名于这个行业势必最终会剥夺女性的自尊心，与客户或雇主谈判至关重要的”议价能力“，并进一步削弱她们的地位”。
brand 加污名于；谴责
unconditionally 无条件的；无限制的
ultimately adv 最终
deprive v 剥夺
self-esteem 自尊
crucial adj 关键的
negotiation 协商，谈判
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