Is Spirited Away About Human Trafficking?

One of the main pieces of evidence people use for this is one of the movie's main settings, the beautifully strange bathhouse. In some periods of Japanese history, especially the Edo period, it wasn't uncommon for bathhouses to double as brothels, with the women working in them selling bathing and companionship to visiting men. In this theory, two details about the bathhouse are spotlighted. The first is that the sign for the bathhouse reads "Hot Water," and that Yuna or "Hot water woman" was a common term for women who worked in the prostitution industry during the Edo period.

In the Japanese version of the film, Chihiro is explicitly hired as a Yuna, linking her to this industry. The second point is the main antagonist and the bathhouse's operator, Yubaba dressed like a stereotypical brothel madam and issuing commands to the workers. The theory also posits that Chihiro being forced to work in this bathhouse to save her parents is a metaphor for girls getting trapped by their parents' debt. This would cause them to be forced to work in bathhouses owned by unscrupulous business people to pay off their debt, keep themselves afloat, and support their families.

Adding insult to injury, Yubaba took Chihiro's name, turning her into Sen, not unlike many working in the s.ex industry use pseudonyms rather than their actual name.. Also, Sen is the Japanese for 1000, which leads one to wonder if this is her price as a companion. Did Yubaba turn Chihiro from a person to a mere statement of value. After this, Chihiro actually started to forget her original name. Those who believe this theory say her amnesia is a metaphor for how hard it was to escape the s.ex industry once a person had fallen into it.

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