According to the “Feminization of Migration” of Japan in the 1980s, many Thai women entered Japan through human trafficking brokers. Following the 1990s, Thai women settled as wives or mothers of Japanese nationals. In the 1970s, during their childhood in Thailand, they experienced rapid economic development due to the economic gap between urban and rural areas. Based on Thai Buddhism, Thai women’s traditional gender role is the breadwinner for the family; Bun khun as the debt of merit to parents. Working abroad was their dream as daughters to provide remittances as so-called Bun khun to mothers who have responsibility for the household. The aim of this article is to show how Bun khun works in the life course of survivors of human trafficking.

It was found that the women have three life stages, the first is working as sex workers, the second is marriage with Japanese husbands and divorce from them, and the third is facing their own aging. Even survivors facing physiological, physical, and economic hardship in the first and second stages believe that sending remittances is the practice of Bun khun. In the third stage, the mother and siblings always depend on the remittances from Japan, but no one is concerned or cares about the daughter’s aging. As a consequence, survivors make hard decisions, such keeping a distance from their Thai family or still struggling against returning to provide future caregiving to parents as in the Thai daughter’s gender role.