Research Documents at Least 39 Wartime Industrial Comfort Stations in Japan

Mining records reveal a system of sexual exploitation

At least 39 facilities described as industrial comfort stations operated across wartime Japan, according to research into establishments serving Korean men mobilized into mines and other industries. A separate account of the Korea Museum's research puts the number at 57. The difference has not been explained, but both findings describe a network extending from Hokkaido to Kyushu, with Korean women placed in establishments used to control workers and discourage escape.

A particularly revealing document is a 1945 paper submitted to the Kyushu branch of the wartime coal control association. It proposed approximately 10 women for every 1,000 Korean laborers and described special comfort stations as places for sexual relief. The paper connected the presence of Korean women with preventing workers from fleeing and increasing production.

The findings concern facilities associated with civilian industry, rather than stations operated for Japanese military personnel. Researchers say that distinction matters for identifying who organized them: company labor departments, industry associations and public authorities all appear in the documentary record.

The Korea Museum's work also identifies a major gap. While documents and former male workers' testimony establish the existence of these facilities, much less is known about the women themselves. Many women described as servers were teenagers. Their recruitment, working conditions and subsequent lives remain only partly documented.

Why mines dominate the findings

Japanese government labor mobilization plans operated between 1939 and 1945, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule. An estimated 700,000 Korean civilians were forcibly brought to Japan. Coal mines, metal mines and other industries supplying the war economy depended heavily on their labor.

Statistics from the former Ministry of Health and Welfare show that about 75% of Korean workers mobilized between fiscal 1939 and fiscal 1942 were assigned to coal mines and other mining sites. That is roughly three out of every four workers within that period. It is not a percentage that can automatically be applied to the estimated 700,000 people brought to Japan across the broader wartime period.

Many workers fled harsh conditions. According to the museum, the government encouraged mining companies to use Korean restaurants and similar establishments as measures to keep workers from leaving. Facilities presented as recreation or hospitality therefore served an industrial purpose: maintaining a workforce whose freedom was already restricted.

The locations identified include coal mines across Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture, as well as Mitsubishi's Hashima Coal Mine in Nagasaki Prefecture. Testimony also places facilities in Nagano Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture. These findings show that the practice was not confined to one mining district, although the evidence does not establish that every mine used such facilities.

What the Korea Museum established

The Korea Museum, through its Korean Women's History Research Group, has investigated how Korean restaurants and other establishments became connected to wartime labor management. Its 2017 exhibition statement says documentary evidence revealed the involvement of company labor personnel and mobilization through public authorities.

The exhibition ran from August 30 to December 28, 2017. In preparing it, researchers conducted fieldwork at six locations in Japan and obtained testimony. The museum described the exhibition as the first to address comfort stations in industry, while acknowledging that testimony was scarce and surviving documents were limited.

The museum's statement explains that women already working in Korean restaurants in Japan, as well as women newly arriving from Korea, were mobilized into establishments intended to prevent workers from escaping and improve labor performance. This account links existing businesses with the demands of wartime industry, rather than presenting every facility as a newly constructed institution.

Former museum director Yuichi Higuchi distinguished these establishments from military comfort stations and defined them as industrial comfort stations. The term identifies their connection to workplace control. It does not suggest that the euphemism comfort accurately describes the women's experiences.

The research has developed over several stages. One account describes six years of investigation culminating in a book, while the finding of at least 39 facilities draws on a decade of documentary and field research checked against expert interviews. Those descriptions should not be treated as identical research periods.

Government guidance and company involvement

A February 1942 guideline jointly issued by the Health and Home Affairs ministries addressed the treatment and training of Korean workers brought to Japan. It stated that employers could arrange special comfort stations according to local circumstances. The wording placed employers in charge of practical arrangements while giving the facilities a place within official labor policy.

The 1945 coal industry paper went further in spelling out the intended function. It proposed about 10 women for every 1,000 Korean laborers, equivalent to one woman for every 100 men. This was a proposed staffing ratio, not evidence that every facility followed it or a basis for calculating the total number of women involved.

That paper said having women from the Korean Peninsula would be convenient. Its stated objectives included discouraging escape and encouraging production. Read alongside the ministry guideline and the museum's findings about company labor departments, it shows how sexual access was discussed as a tool of workforce management.

The documented establishments took different forms. Some Korean restaurants in areas with large Korean populations were converted, while companies encouraged the creation of other facilities. Such variation helps explain why researchers must examine business records, administrative documents and testimony together. A business name alone does not establish what happened inside it.

Why the counts differ

The research checked against expert interviews identified at least 39 industrial comfort stations nationwide. A separate account of the museum group's book says it confirmed 57. Reports therefore differ by 18 locations, and neither figure should be silently substituted for the other.

No explanation establishes whether the difference reflects later discoveries, different definitions, a different geographical scope or different standards for confirming a site. The safest conclusion is that at least 39 locations were identified in one investigation, while a separate research account gives a larger total.

Another report identifies 17 locations in Hokkaido, describing it as the region with the largest number. That figure underlines the island's importance to the investigation, but it cannot reliably be expressed as a share of either nationwide total without knowing whether all three counts use the same inventory.

The number of facilities also does not reveal the number of women exploited. One location could contain several buildings, and staffing could change over time. The surviving evidence does not establish a national total of women, the duration of their service or how many were teenagers.

Hokkaido connects restaurants, mines and authorities

Regional historian Hideko Nishida, based in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, has traced the relationship between Korean restaurants, the coal industry and local administration. According to Nishida, Sapporo had about 50 Korean restaurants known as Korean bars in 1938 that served as venues for the sale of sex.

In 1939, the Hokkaido coal mining industry association asked the prefectural government to authorize 26 new Korean restaurants for the stated purpose of providing comfort to Korean workers. The request provides a concrete example of an industry organization seeking administrative permission for establishments tied to its workforce.

Contemporary local newspaper accounts examined by Nishida also described an organization formed by bar operators to address matters including the spread of sexually transmitted infections. The local police station recognized that organization. These records indicate contact with public authorities, although they do not establish the circumstances of every woman working in the establishments.

The approximately 50 businesses in Sapporo and the 26 requested establishments are different categories of evidence. The first is a count of existing venues in one city; the second is a request for permission to open new venues. They cannot simply be added together or equated with the number of confirmed industrial comfort stations.

Physical traces are also being examined. A field visit in mid July took Nishida to a reported industrial comfort station site in Ashibetsu, near the former Takane No. 2 Coal Mine, which Mitsui Mining purchased in 1944. The investigation described a surviving row building in a small settlement. The surviving structure offers a geographical lead, but does not by itself reconstruct the women's lives.

Male testimony survives, women's histories remain fragmentary

A 2008 report by a South Korean government commission investigating forced mobilization and supporting victims contains approximately 50 people's references to industrial comfort stations. A Japanese edition was published in December 2024, making those accounts accessible to a wider Japanese readership.

The testimony mentions facilities in Hokkaido, Nagano, Kyoto and Fukuoka, among other areas. At the Yubari mining operation of Hokkaido Colliery and Steamship, three buildings reportedly stood near a dormitory for Korean workers around 1940. Contemporary local coverage called them houses of rest.

Those details connect the facilities directly to workers' living quarters. They also show why a comforting public label can obscure an establishment's actual role. The male accounts describe access to women within a setting organized around mine labor.

Yet approximately 50 people mentioning facilities does not mean 50 separate stations. Several witnesses may have described the same place. Their testimony helps establish locations and practices, but cannot replace accounts from the women about recruitment, coercion or daily conditions.

Sayoko Oba, head of the museum's Korean women's history research group, says testimony reveals the assumption that Korean women should be assigned to Korean workers. She interprets that assumption as discrimination based on both gender and ethnicity.

Researcher Yang Yuha, a second generation Korean resident of Japan, has offered a related interpretation: the policy reflected an expectation that Korean women should serve Korean men, alongside concern about preserving Japanese ethnic purity. That is Yang's interpretation of the policy's rationale, rather than a conclusion established for every individual establishment.

The finding that many servers were teenage girls makes the missing personal histories especially consequential. The administrative classification of women as private prostitutes does not explain whether they consented, how they arrived or whether they could leave. The records establish an exploitative institutional purpose more firmly than they establish each woman's circumstances.

A timeline of policy and investigation

The evidence spans wartime administrative decisions and decades of later research. Keeping those dates separate helps distinguish events at the facilities from the publication and investigation of their history.

• 1938: Nishida identifies about 50 Korean bars in Sapporo associated with the sale of sex.
• 1939: Japan's government labor mobilization plans begin, and the Hokkaido coal industry association requests authorization for 26 Korean restaurants.
• Around 1940: Three buildings are reported near Korean workers' accommodation at the Yubari mining operation.
• February 1942: A joint Health and Home Affairs ministry guideline allows employers to arrange special comfort stations according to local circumstances.
• 1944: Mitsui Mining purchases Takane No. 2 Coal Mine in Ashibetsu.
• 1945: A paper submitted to the Kyushu coal control association branch proposes about 10 women per 1,000 Korean laborers.
• 2008: A South Korean government commission publishes testimony containing approximately 50 references to industrial comfort stations.
• August to December 2017: The Korea Museum holds its exhibition after fieldwork at six Japanese locations.
• December 2024: The Japanese edition of the South Korean commission's report is published.

No next publication date, hearing or formal decision is identified. The outstanding work is historical: reconciling the facility counts, tracing the women and determining the responsibilities of individual companies and authorities. Reports describe unsuccessful efforts to obtain substantive answers from companies connected to former mine sites, leaving corporate records and explanations an unresolved part of the investigation.

What to Know

• One investigation identifies at least 39 industrial comfort stations; a separate account gives 57, with no explanation for the difference.
• The facilities served Korean men mobilized into wartime industry and were used to discourage escape and maintain production.
• A February 1942 ministry guideline assigned practical arrangements to employers.
• A 1945 coal industry paper proposed approximately 10 women for every 1,000 Korean laborers.
• The Korea Museum documents company labor department involvement and mobilization through public authorities.
• Many women described as servers were teenagers, but their individual histories and the total number involved remain unknown.
• The evidence distinguishes industrial facilities from military comfort stations while identifying sexual exploitation within wartime labor management.