capitalism and sex trade in Japan

Earlier this week I wrote on this blog a small piece in response to an article August 7, 2009 in the Globe and Mail regarding the burgeoning sex-trade in Japan.
Accidentally I deleted it when trying to edit and it was lost.
In my mind it is an issue important enought to repost so I am doing so.
While the internet is packed with pieces on the this particularly rotten form of exploitation of women, this article struck me as particularly disgusting in the way that it treated this as a "success story." And to make it worse I looked for a hint of irony that may make readers think a bit and of course there was none.
It is always risky when women publicly condemn this pervasive form of abuse of women, even so called socialists often ignore this systematic form of woman abuse and will rush to defend it or debate it in a way that is I think a form of marginalization and abuse it's own way.
The article is entitled "Japan sees green shoots in it's red light district."
The story goes that the central bank of Japan , Sapporo branch, researching the growth in the service economy, related to the loss of manufacturing , discovered a fourfold increase in the number of brothels over the last couple of decades. It decribes this phenomenon as a "rare success story" and "one of the few growth businesses in a slumping regional economy."
It makes no bones about the fact that women, facing unemployment and in order to make a living are being forced economically into degrading and humiliating jobs where they are selling their bodies in exchange for a living.But it puts "moral" issues aside - not relevant.
If not in outright brothels the article reports that many young women in the service sector are working in so called "maid cafes" where they wear aprons over mini-skirts and must call their patrons "master." One does not need to be a genius to see this as an explicit form of abuse and degradation for the women who do this work.
It implies not only objectification and abuse of women, economic and personal exploitation but degradation and sujugation.
And capitalism -to no ones shock I guess sees and represents this as an economic opportunity - as "green shoots." What the hell. Some if not many would laugh at me for being offended and really angry and of having absolutely no sense of humour or irony, too serious or god knows what else, but i see nothing in this but horror, abuse and exploitation.
There is a lot of good reading out there on the unique and specific way that capitalism victimizes , uses and abuses women particularly in its current form. Is anyone interested i wonder? I am thinking particularly of a book entitled Bananas, Beaches and Bases by Cynthia Ensloe that takes on the issue of how women are used under capitalism as mere commodities , by the armed forces, transnational corporations and the travel industry. How no one questions the deliberate proliferation of brothels around military bases, huge factories and tourist spots.
And of course these women have no chance of any employment other than this-with families to feed!
Millions of pages of documentation are written on this disgusting way in which women are reduced to mere commodities for use and cash exchange.
But does anyone read and more importantly does anyone care?