The various classifications of the karayuki-san produce a social commentary that emphasizes specific ways of identifying who and what the women are. The study of these categories defines reasoning tools that render the women's existence amenable to inscription and link their conduct to political objectives such as dominant and shifting constructions of Japanese national identity. Prominent Japanese feminists have reidentified the karayuki-san in the context of unequal gender relations secured by the oppressive, patriarchal nature of the modern Japanese State. The author argues that these presentations ironically retarded historical and political understanding of the karayuki-san because of the prevailing cultural framework's continuing subordination of the women to classifications in terms of peripheral identities. Instead of explaining karayuka-san in terms of generalized structures of oppression, a more generative strategy for analyzing the material practices that constitute the women could be achieved by localizing the category and placing it is a specific socio-historical framework. This might require constructing a new category of the women as overseas migrant workers. 16 notes and 18 references