Kaoru Aoyama, PhD (2005, University of Essex), is a theoretically informed empirical sociologist. Her current research foci are on gender/sexuality, care work, sex work, migration, trafficking, transformation of the intimate sphere and research methodology. Her publications include: 'The Sex Industry in Japan: the Invisible Danger of Public Morals' (2015) in Mackie and McLelland (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia, published by Routledge; Asian Women and Intimate Work (2014) co-edited with Ochiai, published by Brill Academic Publishers which won the 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award; and Thai Migrant Sex Workers: From Modernisation to Globalisation (2009), published by Palgrave Macmillan. She is a Professor at the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan.