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Slavery in Japan
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Slavery in Japan
Japan had an official slave system from the Yamato period (3rd century A.D.). The Japanese government facilitated the use of "comfort women" as sex slaves from 1932 to 1945. Prisoners of war captured by Japanese imperial forces were also used as slaves during the same period.
The export of a slave from Japan is recorded in the 3rd century Chinese historical record Wajinden, but it is unclear what system was involved, and whether this was a common practice at that time. These slaves were called seikō (生口 "living mouth").
In the 8th century, slaves were called Nuhi (奴婢) and laws were issued under the legal codes of the Nara and Heian periods, called Ritsuryōsei (律令制). These slaves tended farms and worked around houses. Information on the slave population is questionable, but the proportion of slaves is estimated to have been around 5% of the population.
Slavery persisted into the Sengoku period (1467–1615) even though the attitude that slavery was anachronistic seems to have become widespread among elites. Somewhat later, the Edo period penal laws prescribed "non-free labor" for the immediate family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō (Tokugawa House Laws), but the practice never became common. The 1711 Gotōke reijō was compiled from over 600 statutes promulgated between 1597 and 1696.
During the Sengoku period, Japanese Daimyos and merchants often sold off prisoners of battle into slavery. Portuguese sources, corroborated by Japanese texts like Koyo Gunkan and Hojo Godaiki, describe “the greatest cruelties” inflicted during conflicts such as the 1553 Battle of Kawanakajima and the 1578 Shimazu campaigns. Captives, particularly women, boys, and girls, faced violence, with communities in regions devastated. The inter-Asian slave trade, including Wokou piracy, further intensified suffering, with Zheng Shungong’s 1556 report noting 200–300 Chinese slaves in Satsuma treated “like cattle” for labor, a fate shared by many Japanese.
When the Imjin War broke out between Japan with Korean Joseon kingdom between 1592-1598, slavery of Korean captives by three Japanese invaders also occurred. Francesco Carletti, an Italian merchant who visit Japan during that time, was recorded to bought five Korean slaves for price of about 12 scudi. After baptizing them, he took them to Goa, India, where he set four of them free. It has been suggested that Korean slaves were not traded at high prices, and therefore were cheap. Even if they were bought at low prices, they still needed to be fed on the way, which was an additional expense. Thus, Japanese researcher Watanabe Daimon suspected the reason Carletti freed four of his slaves was possibly because he thought there was no hope of reselling them in the slave market.
The custom of geninka (下人化) encompassed practices resembling slavery. Individuals were exchanged for money, including children sold by parents, self-sold persons, those rescued from unjust execution, and debt-bound workers. Japanese rulers imposed geninka as punishment for serious crimes or rebellion, often extending it to the perpetrator’s wife and children. Women who fled their fathers or husbands to seek shelter in a lord’s house were sometimes transformed into genin by the lord. During famines or natural disasters, individuals offered themselves as genin in exchange for food, clothing, and shelter. Japanese lords also demanded that retainers relinquish their daughters to serve in their manors, treating them as genin. Additionally, the genin status could be hereditary, perpetuating bondage across generations.
Portuguese merchants in Sengoku-era Japan (1467–1603) viewed unfree labor forms, like master-servant relationships, as slavery, applying terms like criado, servo, and captivo to Japanese classes such as fudai no genin (hereditary servants), genin (lower-class servants), shojū (retainers), and yatsuko (slaves). These groups, often engaged in agricultural or domestic work, were sometimes sold under customary law. The term escravo included nenki hōkō (indentured servants) which was not common until Edo Period, despite their distinct status, causing misunderstandings. Gaspar Vilela (1557) described peasants as slaves due to economic dependence, while Cosme de Torres likened servants’ subservience to Roman vitae necisque potestas. Peasants could be sold as tax collateral, blurring free-unfree distinctions. Human trafficking was common. Some Japanese entered servitude voluntarily for travel to Macau, often breaking contracts upon arrival, driven by civil war taxes.
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Slavery in Japan
Japan had an official slave system from the Yamato period (3rd century A.D.). The Japanese government facilitated the use of "comfort women" as sex slaves from 1932 to 1945. Prisoners of war captured by Japanese imperial forces were also used as slaves during the same period.
The export of a slave from Japan is recorded in the 3rd century Chinese historical record Wajinden, but it is unclear what system was involved, and whether this was a common practice at that time. These slaves were called seikō (生口 "living mouth").
In the 8th century, slaves were called Nuhi (奴婢) and laws were issued under the legal codes of the Nara and Heian periods, called Ritsuryōsei (律令制). These slaves tended farms and worked around houses. Information on the slave population is questionable, but the proportion of slaves is estimated to have been around 5% of the population.
Slavery persisted into the Sengoku period (1467–1615) even though the attitude that slavery was anachronistic seems to have become widespread among elites. Somewhat later, the Edo period penal laws prescribed "non-free labor" for the immediate family of executed criminals in Article 17 of the Gotōke reijō (Tokugawa House Laws), but the practice never became common. The 1711 Gotōke reijō was compiled from over 600 statutes promulgated between 1597 and 1696.
During the Sengoku period, Japanese Daimyos and merchants often sold off prisoners of battle into slavery. Portuguese sources, corroborated by Japanese texts like Koyo Gunkan and Hojo Godaiki, describe “the greatest cruelties” inflicted during conflicts such as the 1553 Battle of Kawanakajima and the 1578 Shimazu campaigns. Captives, particularly women, boys, and girls, faced violence, with communities in regions devastated. The inter-Asian slave trade, including Wokou piracy, further intensified suffering, with Zheng Shungong’s 1556 report noting 200–300 Chinese slaves in Satsuma treated “like cattle” for labor, a fate shared by many Japanese.
When the Imjin War broke out between Japan with Korean Joseon kingdom between 1592-1598, slavery of Korean captives by three Japanese invaders also occurred. Francesco Carletti, an Italian merchant who visit Japan during that time, was recorded to bought five Korean slaves for price of about 12 scudi. After baptizing them, he took them to Goa, India, where he set four of them free. It has been suggested that Korean slaves were not traded at high prices, and therefore were cheap. Even if they were bought at low prices, they still needed to be fed on the way, which was an additional expense. Thus, Japanese researcher Watanabe Daimon suspected the reason Carletti freed four of his slaves was possibly because he thought there was no hope of reselling them in the slave market.
The custom of geninka (下人化) encompassed practices resembling slavery. Individuals were exchanged for money, including children sold by parents, self-sold persons, those rescued from unjust execution, and debt-bound workers. Japanese rulers imposed geninka as punishment for serious crimes or rebellion, often extending it to the perpetrator’s wife and children. Women who fled their fathers or husbands to seek shelter in a lord’s house were sometimes transformed into genin by the lord. During famines or natural disasters, individuals offered themselves as genin in exchange for food, clothing, and shelter. Japanese lords also demanded that retainers relinquish their daughters to serve in their manors, treating them as genin. Additionally, the genin status could be hereditary, perpetuating bondage across generations.
Portuguese merchants in Sengoku-era Japan (1467–1603) viewed unfree labor forms, like master-servant relationships, as slavery, applying terms like criado, servo, and captivo to Japanese classes such as fudai no genin (hereditary servants), genin (lower-class servants), shojū (retainers), and yatsuko (slaves). These groups, often engaged in agricultural or domestic work, were sometimes sold under customary law. The term escravo included nenki hōkō (indentured servants) which was not common until Edo Period, despite their distinct status, causing misunderstandings. Gaspar Vilela (1557) described peasants as slaves due to economic dependence, while Cosme de Torres likened servants’ subservience to Roman vitae necisque potestas. Peasants could be sold as tax collateral, blurring free-unfree distinctions. Human trafficking was common. Some Japanese entered servitude voluntarily for travel to Macau, often breaking contracts upon arrival, driven by civil war taxes.