Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Japan PSBL (Performing, selling and buying love: women between commodification of intimacy and self-actualization in contemporary Japan)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-09-01 do 2025-08-31
Context and overall objectives
Across Europe and beyond, societies are witnessing profound changes in how people form relationships and experience intimacy. Japan offers a particularly striking case study, with one of the lowest birth rates in the world, a declining marriage rate, and a rapidly ageing population. These demographic trends are accompanied by deep social shifts: many people find traditional family models unfulfilling or unattainable, while new markets of emotional and sexual services emerge to meet desires for intimacy, care, and companionship.
My project investigates how intimacy becomes commodified in this context and how such practices reshape the way women in contemporary Japan experience relationships, selfhood, and belonging. Specifically, it explores services that provide female-to-female intimacy, both emotional and sexual. These include commercial settings where women can purchase companionship, romantic encounters, or sexual experiences with other women. Within this broader field, the project case studies are 1) dansō escorts (female-to-male crossdressers who provide companionship to female clients) While not offering sexual services, these escorts embody alternative masculinities and create emotionally meaningful experiences for their customers; 2) female prostitution for women.
By examining these diverse forms of commodified intimacy, the project addresses pressing questions:
What new forms of emotional and sexual connection are emerging in societies where conventional relationships are increasingly fragile?
How do women use commercial services not only for pleasure, but also for self-expression, healing, and self-actualization?
Can commodified intimacy offer sustainable alternatives to traditional notions of love, marriage, and reproduction?
The overall objective is to understand how commodified female/female intimacy in Japan reflects wider global transformations in intimacy under late capitalism, where markets increasingly mediate even the most personal aspects of life. Through ethnographic research and interdisciplinary analysis, the project situates these services within debates in social sciences and the humanities—including gender studies, feminist theory, anthropology, and sociology—thus integrating diverse perspectives to capture the complexity of human intimacy.
The project pathway to impact builds on several dimensions. First, it contributes to academic debates by producing original knowledge on underexplored forms of intimacy and gender performativity in a female-female context. Second, it provides insights for policy discussions on demographic challenges, gender equality, and the changing nature of family and care. Third, it promotes societal understanding of sexual diversity and alternative forms of emotional fulfilment, countering stigma and broadening public imagination about what relationships can look like.
In scale and significance, the project has both local and global relevance. In Japan, it sheds light on how women navigate social expectations and demographic pressures through alternative practices of intimacy. Internationally, it contributes to understanding broader transformations in intimacy in an age when many societies face similar challenges of demographic decline, loneliness, and the commercialization of care.
By highlighting how women create meaningful connections within commodified settings, the project shows that markets of intimacy are not merely transactional, but can also foster creativity, self-expression, and new relational possibilities. In this way, the project not only analyzes existing realities but also points towards potential pathways for reimagining intimacy and care in the 21st century.
Across Europe and beyond, societies are witnessing profound changes in how people form relationships and experience intimacy. Japan offers a particularly striking case study, with one of the lowest birth rates in the world, a declining marriage rate, and a rapidly ageing population. These demographic trends are accompanied by deep social shifts: many people find traditional family models unfulfilling or unattainable, while new markets of emotional and sexual services emerge to meet desires for intimacy, care, and companionship.
My project investigates how intimacy becomes commodified in this context and how such practices reshape the way women in contemporary Japan experience relationships, selfhood, and belonging. Specifically, it explores services that provide female-to-female intimacy, both emotional and sexual. These include commercial settings where women can purchase companionship, romantic encounters, or sexual experiences with other women. Within this broader field, the project case studies are 1) dansō escorts (female-to-male crossdressers who provide companionship to female clients) While not offering sexual services, these escorts embody alternative masculinities and create emotionally meaningful experiences for their customers; 2) female prostitution for women.
By examining these diverse forms of commodified intimacy, the project addresses pressing questions:
What new forms of emotional and sexual connection are emerging in societies where conventional relationships are increasingly fragile?
How do women use commercial services not only for pleasure, but also for self-expression, healing, and self-actualization?
Can commodified intimacy offer sustainable alternatives to traditional notions of love, marriage, and reproduction?
The overall objective is to understand how commodified female/female intimacy in Japan reflects wider global transformations in intimacy under late capitalism, where markets increasingly mediate even the most personal aspects of life. Through ethnographic research and interdisciplinary analysis, the project situates these services within debates in social sciences and the humanities—including gender studies, feminist theory, anthropology, and sociology—thus integrating diverse perspectives to capture the complexity of human intimacy.
The project pathway to impact builds on several dimensions. First, it contributes to academic debates by producing original knowledge on underexplored forms of intimacy and gender performativity in a female-female context. Second, it provides insights for policy discussions on demographic challenges, gender equality, and the changing nature of family and care. Third, it promotes societal understanding of sexual diversity and alternative forms of emotional fulfilment, countering stigma and broadening public imagination about what relationships can look like.
In scale and significance, the project has both local and global relevance. In Japan, it sheds light on how women navigate social expectations and demographic pressures through alternative practices of intimacy. Internationally, it contributes to understanding broader transformations in intimacy in an age when many societies face similar challenges of demographic decline, loneliness, and the commercialization of care.
By highlighting how women create meaningful connections within commodified settings, the project shows that markets of intimacy are not merely transactional, but can also foster creativity, self-expression, and new relational possibilities. In this way, the project not only analyzes existing realities but also points towards potential pathways for reimagining intimacy and care in the 21st century.
The project has investigated the commodification of intimacy in contemporary Japan, focusing on services that provide emotional and/or sexual intimacy between women, and on dansō escorts—female-to-male crossdressers who accompany female clients on romantic-style dates.
The main activities have included:
Ethnographic fieldwork: in-depth interviews and participant observation with providers and clients of female/female prostitution services, and with dansō escorts.
Media and cultural analysis: examination of promotional materials, online platforms, and popular culture depictions of commodified intimacy.
Theoretical integration: bringing together anthropological, sociological, and feminist approaches to analyze how commodified intimacy intersects with gender performativity, self-expression, and broader social change.
Key scientific achievements:
Produced detailed qualitative evidence on how women engage with commodified intimacy not only for pleasure, but also for self-actualization, emotional healing, and confidence-building.
Identified the role of female masculinity in dansō escorting as a form of gender creativity and alternative masculinity.
Developed a conceptual framework that shows how commodified intimacy operates as a space of “bounded authenticity”, where commercial encounters nonetheless provide real feelings of care and connection.
Developed the concept of "mukon shakai" (non-marital society) in opposition to the concept of muen-shakai (relationless society) to highlight how relationships in Japan are changing but not disappearing.
Developed the concept on "implicit feminism" to define the choices of Japanese women.
The main activities have included:
Ethnographic fieldwork: in-depth interviews and participant observation with providers and clients of female/female prostitution services, and with dansō escorts.
Media and cultural analysis: examination of promotional materials, online platforms, and popular culture depictions of commodified intimacy.
Theoretical integration: bringing together anthropological, sociological, and feminist approaches to analyze how commodified intimacy intersects with gender performativity, self-expression, and broader social change.
Key scientific achievements:
Produced detailed qualitative evidence on how women engage with commodified intimacy not only for pleasure, but also for self-actualization, emotional healing, and confidence-building.
Identified the role of female masculinity in dansō escorting as a form of gender creativity and alternative masculinity.
Developed a conceptual framework that shows how commodified intimacy operates as a space of “bounded authenticity”, where commercial encounters nonetheless provide real feelings of care and connection.
Developed the concept of "mukon shakai" (non-marital society) in opposition to the concept of muen-shakai (relationless society) to highlight how relationships in Japan are changing but not disappearing.
Developed the concept on "implicit feminism" to define the choices of Japanese women.
The project goes beyond existing research by focusing on female-to-female intimacy services, a field largely overlooked in both Japanese and global studies of sex work and commodified intimacy markets. Previous scholarship has centered primarily on heterosexual or male-focused contexts, whereas this project highlights how women create and consume alternative forms of commodified intimacies.
Main results beyond the state of the art:
New empirical knowledge: first ethnographic study to document women’s motivations and experiences in Japan’s female/female commodified intimacy services.
New theoretical insights: extending debates on sex work and intimacy by applying the concept of bounded authenticity to female/female contexts, and by exploring commodified intimacy as a form of sustainable love.
Global resonance: while grounded in Japan, the findings speak to international issues—loneliness, low fertility, declining marriage, and the commercialization of care—providing comparative insights for other ageing societies. Potential impacts and next steps:
Further research on the role of intimacy markets in shaping demographic trends and social well-being.
Integration into international debates on gender, sexuality, and care economies.
Supportive frameworks: the results could inform discussions on recognition of diverse relationships, regulation of sex work, and the development of inclusive social policies.
Main results beyond the state of the art:
New empirical knowledge: first ethnographic study to document women’s motivations and experiences in Japan’s female/female commodified intimacy services.
New theoretical insights: extending debates on sex work and intimacy by applying the concept of bounded authenticity to female/female contexts, and by exploring commodified intimacy as a form of sustainable love.
Global resonance: while grounded in Japan, the findings speak to international issues—loneliness, low fertility, declining marriage, and the commercialization of care—providing comparative insights for other ageing societies. Potential impacts and next steps:
Further research on the role of intimacy markets in shaping demographic trends and social well-being.
Integration into international debates on gender, sexuality, and care economies.
Supportive frameworks: the results could inform discussions on recognition of diverse relationships, regulation of sex work, and the development of inclusive social policies.