Blind rage: angry Korean masseuses.

• Author: Riggs, Mike
• Position: Citings - Brief article

MASSAGE therapy is the only occupation in South Korea where you must be blind to obtain a state license. When sightless masseuses learned that the state might begin licensing competitors who could see, many of them protested by lighting cars on fire and jumping from a bridge into the Han River.

The law dates back to 1910, when it was imposed by the Japanese. An American proxy government repealed it in 1946, but South Koreans readopted the rule, albeit unofficially, in 1963. In 2003 the courts upheld the rule as it had been developed by the Health and Welfare Ministry. A new court overturned that decision in 2006, arguing that a department policy lacked the authority of an official law. In response, blind massage therapists threw themselves from buildings and onto subway tracks, prompting the National Assembly to impose the rule by statute.

Blind South Koreans...