Published on April 21, 2019.
As a continuation of an essay by JANG Hyuk published in the monthly magazine SAPIO, this piece examines discrimination against women in Korean society, especially the practice of so-called “sexual entertaining,” said to remain widespread in workplaces and the entertainment industry.
Through the suicide case of actress Jang Ja-yeon, the testimony of singer Lee Eun-ji, and fraud cases involving talent agencies coercing women into sexual service, it portrays the entrenched structure of female exploitation in Korea.
The author further argues that these methods closely resemble the fundraising scandal surrounding Chongdaehyop, and critically discusses the linkage in Korean society between anti-Japan activism, women’s issues, and fraudulent structures.

2019-04-21
(For some reason, only its representative, Yoon Mi-hyang, was released.)
The reader should surely notice…
that the methods in this case…
are strikingly similar.

The following is a continuation of the essay published in the monthly magazine SAPIO by JANG Hyuk.
The bold emphasis other than the title is mine. The comments below marked with an asterisk are also mine.
“If you refuse sexual entertaining, pay 30 million yen.”
The most conspicuous example of discrimination against women in Korean society is probably the “sexual entertaining” that continues to spread through workplaces and the entertainment industry.
Examples of discrimination against women in the workplace are endless.
At one company, it is said that there are not a few cases in which female employees are forced almost every night to entertain at drinking parties, and are then made to enter into sexual relations as an extension of that.
The problem of sexual entertaining in the entertainment industry remains severe.
Still fresh in memory is the case of the Korean actress Jang Ja-yeon, who, unable to endure providing sexual entertaining to television producers and corporate executives, committed suicide in March 2009.
Sadly, such things are regarded as everyday occurrences, as something that has spread throughout society.
In 2012, the confession made on air by Lee Eun-ji, who appeared on the Korean singing program Super Diva, was also received with great shock.
“Fourteen years ago, I signed an exclusive contract with an entertainment agency as an unknown singer, but people involved demanded sexual entertaining.
When I refused, they demanded termination of the contract and damages of 300 million won (30 million yen), and I went through a very painful period.”
(Lee Eun-ji)
In March of last year, a certain entertainment agency that had coerced women into sexual entertaining under the pretext of helping them debut in the entertainment industry was busted.
Under the signboard of being a “model-specialist planning company,” the agency posted part-time job recruitment ads on the internet for about four months.
It collected money as “security deposits” and swindled about 18 million yen.
This method…
last year…
was just like that of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan…
which solicited women to come forward as comfort women…
saying that it would get money for them from the Japanese government…
collected money from prostitutes…
and saw almost all of those involved busted on charges of fraud.
This is a Korean organization formed to resolve the issue of the Japanese military’s comfort women.
Its abbreviated name is Chongdaehyop.
Its standing representative is Yoon Mi-hyang.
It operates the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul, and every Wednesday holds demonstrations in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul demanding an apology and sincere measures from the Japanese government for the comfort women.
(Wikipedia)
(For some reason, only this representative, Yoon Mi-hyang, was released.)
The reader should surely notice…
that the methods in this case…
are strikingly similar.