Recreation and Amusement Association The ( RAA ) was the largest of the organizations established by the Japanese to provide organized prostitution and other leisure facilities for occupying Allied troops immediately following World War II . The system that incorporated the RAA was short - lived , lasting just over four months before it was eliminated in January 1946 . Background . Following the Japanese surrender on August 15 , the Japanese found themselves confronted with the prospect of a large number of Allied troops on Japanese soil . Rumors quickly spread among the public of the tragedies soon to befall them . Well aware of the conduct of their own forces during the war , and assuming that Allied troops would behave in the same way , government officials began planning measures to " channel " the sexual urges of the occupying forces into " designated ( lower - class ) female bodies , thereby protecting the pure women of Japan ' s middle - and upper - classes " . At a cabinet meeting on August 21 , Deputy Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe expressed concern about potential mass rape s to Prime Minister Higashikuni and suggested the establishment of a " comfort women system " within Japan . After some discussion , this suggestion was approved by the cabinet . However , this approval was merely a formality ; the Home Ministry had already sent a directive to prefectural governors and police chiefs on August 18 ordering them to make preparations for " comfort facilities " in areas that Occupation troops would be stationed . These facilities ( which included dance halls , restaurants , and bars in addition to brothels ) were to be staffed by women already involved in the " water trade " . Establishment . Although arrangements in most of the country were left to local officials and police departments , in the case of the Tokyo area , which was to host the largest number of foreign troops by far , a different approach was taken . Nobuya Saka , Superintendent - General of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters , met with Hamajirō Miyazawa and Genjirō Nomoto , the heads of the , and asked them to help make arrangements for the soon to arrive troops . Miyazawa and Nomoto used their connections to gather together a group of representatives of the nightclub , bar , and brothel industries . These representatives then met with the police on the 21st where they were formally asked to establish " comfort facilities " , but to conceal the government ' s role as much as possible . On August 23 , these men formed the " Special Comfort Facilities Association " ( renamed the Recreation and Amusement Association shortly later ) . The RAA utilized the patriotic language of the war years in its operations , stressing the " selfless " nature of its employees . At the inauguration of the RAA ( which was attended by bureaucrats and police officials ) , an " oath " was read : The " Okichi " referenced was the possibly legendary maid of Townsend Harris , the first American consulate in Japan from 1856 to 1861 , who was pressured into becoming his consort . The organization was funded through unsecured loans from the arranged by Hayato Ikeda , director of the Ministry of Finance ' s Tax Bureau . 33 million yen were loaned to the RAA , which then distributed shares to its members . The RAA established its first brothel on August 28 : the Komachien in Ōmori . By December 1945 , the RAA owned 34 facilities , 16 of which were " comfort stations " . The total number of women employed by the RAA amounted to 55 , 000 at its peak . Recruitment . Although , as noted above , the women staffing comfort facilities were intended to be those already involved in the sex trade , in practice there were nowhere near enough prostitutes available , especially in the Tokyo area . The government had cracked down on prostitution late in the war and many women had fled or been evacuated to the countryside following heavy Allied bombing . Tokyo ' s most famous red light district , Yoshiwara , had been reduced from a prewar population of 2 , 000 prostitutes to only a few dozen by the end of the war . Therefore , it was inevitable that efforts were made to recruit from the general population , a tactic that was authorized by the police . The RAA recruited widely , using carefully worded advertisements posted in front of their offices and in newspapers . These boasted of generous work conditions ( free accommodation , meals , and clothes ) while avoiding details concerning the nature of the work . Given the widespread poverty and food shortages at the time , and the large number of orphaned and widowed young women , the job offers appeared quite attractive . Most women left upon learning of the deception , but some stayed . In addition to prostitutes , the RAA also recruited a large number of " dancers " who were paid to dance with soldiers . Over time the distinction between " dancer " and " comfort woman " became blurred and many dancers became prostitutes . Heavy use was also made of independent brokers to recruit women . These brokers , many of whom were affiliated with the yakuza , used less ethical recruitment techniques . The , a government organization for mobilizing young girls and women aged 14 – 25 for work in factories , was a popular target as many of these women were left unemployed and stranded by the end of the war . Yuki Tanaka reports that groups of these women would be deceived and delivered , unknowing , to brothels . Despite these deceptive recruitment practices , most women working in the comfort stations did ultimately consent to work as prostitutes . There were also women who were unable to leave their brothels , however ; either because they had been sold by their impoverished families or because they owed money to the brothel . Some comfort stations used " company store " tactics and to keep women in debt and unable to leave , something a contemporary GHQ official compared to " enslavement " . Contracts forcing women to work at brothels in repayment of debts were eventually abolished by a SCAP order ( SCAPIN 642 ) in January 1946 , although some Japanese officials were skeptical of how well such a prohibition could be enforced . Working conditions . RAA brothels worked on the same system as wartime Japanese military comfort stations . GIs received a ticket ( costing 100 ) ( approx . 8 cents at the contemporary unofficial rate ) upon entry which was then given to the women who serviced them . The women , who usually had between 15 and 60 clients per day , would take the tickets to the station ' s accounting office each morning where they would receive 50 for each ticket . This 50 % rate was considerably better than that for prewar licensed prostitutes , who commonly only received 25 % of their price . On the first day , one woman had 47 American customers and got almost 2 dollars for herself . Women working in RAA facilities faced the usual sexual violence common to prostitution and the sex trade . Women working as dancers were especially vulnerable targets for rape . Additionally , military police and GIs sometimes demanded free service or refunds . The relative power inequality between Japanese police and Allied soldiers made it difficult for the women to complain . Expansion . On October 14 , the Japanese police lifted their restrictions on brothels and night clubs , a " de facto " endorsement of the non - RAA sex industry catering to Occupation troops . The RAA facilities had also been illegal , of course , but had enjoyed police protection for obvious reasons . By the end of November , there were 25 non - RAA comfort stations employing 1 , 500 women in Tokyo ( compared to " well over 2 , 000 " for the RAA . ) A December 29 GHQ estimate placed the number of prostitutes in Tokyo at 6 , 000 ( not counting street prostitutes , who far outnumbered the number of women working in brothels . ) GHQ and disease control . From the beginning of the Occupation , some Allied military officials cooperated with the Japanese government ' s system . According to the governors of Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures , American commanders contacted them in September 1945 and requested the establishment of brothels for their troops , offering US military police help if necessary . American medical officers established prophylactic stations in red - light districts and inside the larger brothels that distributed tens of thousands of condoms a week . Despite these precautions , the problem of sexually transmitted diseases ( STDs ; primarily gonorrhea and syphilis ) became a serious public health issue . By early 1946 , nearly a quarter of all US occupation forces were estimated to be infected , and nearly half of some units . The Australian 34th Infantry Brigade had a rate of 55 % infection . In response , GHQ imposed strict STD check procedures for prostitutes , placed certain brothels with high rates of infection off - limits to troops , and helped re - establish clinics and laboratories ( many of which had been destroyed during the war ) to diagnose infections . Most importantly , the 8th Army authorized the free dispersal of penicillin to infected prostitutes despite a serious shortage of the drug in the US and orders from Washington that it only be given to Japanese " as a life saving measure . " End of the System . Not all those in the Occupation accepted the widespread patronizing of Japanese - sanctioned brothels by US troops . Some unit commanders considered prostitution an " endemic problem that plagued their troops " and tried ( with limited success ) to prevent their men from fraternizing with the Japanese . By early 1946 military chaplains were condemning SCAP ' s cooperation , citing violations of War Department policies and the " moral degradation " of US troops it caused . The complaints embarrassed Gen . MacArthur , head of the Occupation , and SCAP issued an order ( SCAPIN 642 ) on January 21 ending licensed brothels for being " in contravention of the ideals of democracy " . The following day a GHQ public health official wrote MacArthur with his concerns that news of the STD problem and GHQ cooperation with prostitution would cause problems as they spread back home . SCAPIN 642 ended the RAA ' s operations , but did not affect " voluntary prostitution " by individuals . As such , non - RAA brothel owners were easily able to circumvent the order by , for example , " renting " space in their former brothels to " voluntary " prostitutes . Ultimately , GHQ responded by making all brothels and other facilities offering prostitution off - limits to Allied personnel on March 25 , 1946 . The immediate effects of the end of authorized brothel prostitution was the sudden unemployment of thousands of women , many of whom went on to become " panpan " street prostitutes . The dispersal of prostitution made it harder for GHQ to control STDs and also caused an increase in sexual violence by GIs , from an average of 40 women a day before the SCAP order to an estimated 330 per day immediately after . By November 1946 the Japanese government had introduced the new system in which prostitution was permissible in certain designated areas . Comfort Woman Terminology . Because the RAA and related systems were inspired by Japanese wartime experiences , their structures and terminologies were based on the familiar wartime comfort women system . Brothels were referred to with the euphemisms " comfort stations " and " comfort facilities " , and prostitutes were referred to as " comfort women " . Because of this , many English - language and Japanese scholars of the RAA continue to use those terms in their research . To what degree the two systems are actually comparable is a matter of debate among historians , however . Some , such as Michael Molasky and Yuki Tanaka , stress the " striking " similarities between the two and refer to the RAA as " systematic exploitation " . Others , such as C . Sarah Soh and Sarah Kovner , reject the comparison , noting that unlike their wartime counterparts , Japanese women could not be forced into brothels by the government , and those who were involved in the RAA system were paid and provided for .