Underground in Japan

Migrant workers of the South Pacific are lured to Japan by the promise of the glitzy, technocratic dream of Tokyo. This account of the experiences of a young Philippine student tells how the reality is something quite different - a fugitive world of secrecy, squalor and colourful characters.

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A book about ordinary life conducted under the extraordinary conditions of exile and secrecy. As a young Philippine student, Reynald Ventura travelled to Japan - the new Eldorado, the new America. Increasingly today, migrant workers of the South Pacific are lured to Japan by the promise of the glitzy, technocratic dream of Tokyo. Where they arrive at is Kotobuki and the migrants' real existence - a fugitive world of strip joints and seedy love-hotels; of getting labour jobs on dangerous construction sites and living out of meagre rooms. But Kotobuki is also paradise, the colourful realm of Margie the Koto Queen, Romeo the fashion model and Miguel of the rotten teeth. Ventura's record of his experiences is an account of living in a hidden society, always with the fear of getting caught. But going underground is also about the allure of living two lives, of finding freedom from the restrictions back home, and seeking new worlds.