Human Trafficking in  [Japan]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Japan]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Japan]  [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Japan                                                                                              [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

Japan [map] occupies an archipelago off the coast of E Asia. Its capital is Tokyo, which, along with neighboring Yokohama, forms the world's most populous metropolitan region.  Japan's huge government debt, which totals more than 160% of GDP, and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. A rise in taxes could be viewed as endangering the revival of growth. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength with Japan possessing 410,000 of the world's 720,000 "working robots."

Japan is a destination and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Women and children trafficked to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation come from the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia, and, to a lesser extent, Latin America. Japan is a transit country for persons trafficked from East Asia to North America. The majority of identified trafficking victims are foreign women who migrate to Japan seeking work, but are subjected upon arrival to debt bondage and forced prostitution. Male and female migrant workers are subjected to conditions of forced labor. Traffickers use debt bondage to exploit women in Japan’s large sex trade, imposing debts of up to $50,000. In addition, trafficked women are subjected to coercive or violent physical and psychological methods to prevent them from seeking assistance or escaping. Traffickers also target Japanese women and girls for exploitation in pornography or prostitution. Many female victims, both foreign and Japanese, are reluctant to seek help from authorities for fear of reprisals by their traffickers, who are often members or associates of Japanese organized crime syndicates (the Yakuza). Japanese men continue to be a significant source of demand for child sex tourism in Southeast Asia. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008  [full country report]

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Japan.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

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Forced Labor?  Male Migrant Workers In Japan Have It Tough

He points out that complaints by male workers sound very similar to those of trafficked women, such as low wages, long and exhausting working hours, and violence from their bosses.  The bulk of complaints are over unpaid overtime, sometimes running into years, and injuries in the workplace. The counselor said many of the workers were reluctant to confront their bosses for fear of being deported for violating their tourist visas.

Colombian Hailed as Hero in Fight Against Trafficking in Persons

Francisco Sierra, Colombia's ambassador to Japan, has made it his personal goal to stop this trafficking in persons that has taken so many women into forced prostitution. For his efforts, Sierra was recognized by Secretary of State Colin Powell on June 14 as one of six heroes in the fight against an illicit industry that preys upon society's most vulnerable members.

Sierra said the women are told they will find a better life by working in other countries such as Holland, Japan, and Spain, but they most often find themselves trapped into working in brothels to pay off their so-called "transportation" fees; such fees may total as much as $50,000 to $80,000. Sierra said that the women are expected to pay their captors roughly $2,000 every ten days or they will be severely punished.

 

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Hot Line Reaches Out To Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery In Japan

After the State Department listed Japan in the next-to-worst category, the government began efforts to eradicate human trafficking and rescue rather than penalize victims, as well as prosecuting offenders.  The hot line numbers: 0120-879-871 for English and Japanese,  0120-879-872 for Thai,  0120-879-873 for Chinese and  0120-879-874 for Tagalog.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Trafficking victims generally did not realize the extent of their indebtedness, the amount of time it would take them to repay the debts, or the conditions of employment to which they would be subjected upon arrival. According to Human Rights Watch, the passports of women trafficked to work in "dating" bars usually were confiscated by their employers, who also demanded repayment for the cost of the woman's "purchase." Typically, the women were charged $28,570 to $47,620 (3 million to 5 million yen), their living expenses, medical care (when provided by the employer), and other necessities, as well as "fines" for misbehavior added to the original "debt" over time. How the debt was calculated was left to the employers; the process was not transparent, and the employers reportedly often used the debt to coerce additional unpaid labor from the trafficked women. Employers also sometimes "resold," or threatened to resell, troublesome women or women found to be HIV positive, thereby increasing the victims' debts and possibly worsening their working conditions.

Many women trafficked into the sex trade had their movements strictly controlled by their employers and were threatened with reprisals, sometimes through members of organized crime groups, to themselves or their families if they tried to escape. Employers often isolated the women, subjected them to constant surveillance, and used violence to punish them for disobedience. There were reports that some brokers used drugs to subjugate victims. Many trafficked women also knew that they were subject to arrest if found without their passports or other identification documents. Few spoke Japanese well, making escape even more difficult.

Japan arrests Thai for human trafficking

According to local police, the two "bought" a 27-year-old Thai woman for 2.4 million yen (642,000 baht) from a broker in May to have her work at Kuo's bar.  They forced the Thai woman into prostitution, telling her she owed them a 5 million yen (more than 1.3 million baht) debt over her expenses in coming to Japan, police alleged.  The case came to light after the Thai woman sought help at the Thai Embassy in Tokyo, they said.

Thai Government and International Organizations Pledge Cooperation to Provide Assistance to Victims

"For example, a Chiang Mai woman in her thirties was lured to Japan by a job broker from Bangkok who had offered her a job at a home for the elderly, with a monthly salary of 30,000 baht. Upon arrival in Japan, she realised she had been tricked. She ended up in a brothel owned by a yakuza gang, but managed to escape and get to the Thai embassy before she was raped." On returning to Thailand, the woman had to go into hiding after associates of the traffickers tracked her down and attacked her. She is now a spokesperson for an anti-trafficking programme in Chiang Mai.

Cops found 38 foreign victims of human trafficking in first half of 2006

Activists say many women voluntarily but illegally enter Japan and are then saddled with exorbitant debts to their traffickers who enslave them to repay their travel fees.

The trafficking scourge -  Japan has tackled sex trafficking, but challenges remain

Urairat Soimee's journey began with an invitation from a wealthy neighbor -- her mother's childhood friend -- in her small Thai village to come and work at a restaurant she claimed she owned in Japan.  It ended with her in a Japanese prison, serving a sentence for murder.

Japan Strengthens Its Efforts on Combating Human Trafficking

Thailand was chosen because many trafficking victims in Japan are Thai women. According to the NPA, 169 of the 397 victims taken into custody between 2001 and 2005 were from Thailand. Most were duped into heavy debts, then forced to work as bar hostesses or prostitutes.

Japan may crack down on sex trafficking

“They know that they can't go to the police because they have no visas," she said. "They fear that if they are spotted coming to the shelter they will be killed, or that their families back home will be hurt by thugs”.

Japanese Police Report Human Trafficking Victims in First Half of 2005

The number of victims was three times the tally in the first six months of last year, according to the National Police Agency report.  The Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration estimates that as many as 150,000 trafficking victims could be working in Japan's sex industry.  Activists say many women who voluntarily but illegally enter Japan are then saddled with exorbitant debts to their traffickers who enslave them to repay their travel fees.

NPA uncovers 29 cases of human trafficking, but report says much more is needed

The problem of human trafficking continues on a wide scale in Japan, according to a report from nongovernmental organization Japan Network Against Trafficking in Persons (JNATIP).

They have been lied to, abused and trapped in the seedy sex industry where defiance is punishable by gang rapes. And until recently, these foreign women were viewed as lawbreakers, not victims.  Yet the problem of human trafficking continues on a wide scale in Japan, according to a report from nongovernmental organization Japan Network Against Trafficking in Persons (JNATIP).

Thai woman admits selling girl into sex trade

A Thai woman in Kanagawa Prefecture has been arrested on suspicion of selling a teenage Thai girl to a woman who manages prostitutes, and a Japanese man in Tokyo was taken into custody for introducing the girl to another man for purposes of solicitation, police said Monday.  The MPD quoted Phinkaew as saying that since she arrived in Japan four years ago, she "sold" about 10 Thai girls and adult women to pimps and earned 2 million yen to 2.5 million yen for each woman.  In October 2002, Phinkaew sold the girl, who was 13 at the time, to a manager of prostitutes at a fast-food shop in Shinjuku Ward for 2.3 million yen.

Japan's Skin Trade Shame

In the popular imagination, human trafficking involves women who are kidnapped or otherwise tricked into working as prostitutes. But experts say such cases are rare in Japan.  More common are women who come voluntarily but encounter slave-like conditions - and trapping debts - on arrival.

Internet date becomes nightmare

A Japanese man allegedly chained a teenage girl with a dog collar for more than three months and repeatedly raped and beat her after meeting her in an internet chat room.

Forced Labor?  Male Migrant Workers In Japan Have It Tough

He points out that complaints by male workers sound very similar to those of trafficked women, such as low wages, long and exhausting working hours, and violence from their bosses.  The bulk of complaints are over unpaid overtime, sometimes running into years, and injuries in the workplace. The counselor said many of the workers were reluctant to confront their bosses for fear of being deported for violating their tourist visas.

Human  Traffickers

Tokyo wants to clamp down on Japanese crime rings, or yakuza, that bring women into that country from Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America for prostitution and forced labor. Manila should welcome this move and focus on the opening of the Japanese market for foreign nurses and caregivers.

Japanese Police Plan Fresh Crackdown On Sex Traffickers

Japan's crackdown on the sex trade has also drawn international criticism, with weekly pickets outside the Japanese embassy in Manila by Filipinos worried that many legitimate workers would be deprived of their livelihoods.  Japan plans to begin restricting the issue of entertainment visas -- often used in human trafficking -- only to Filipinos with two years' training outside Japan or at foreign educational institutes.

4,000 Colombianas? That's sickening

REPORT: JAPAN SEX INDUSTRY ENSNARES LATIN WOMEN - When she arrived she was raped by all three men and sold to a Yakuza organized crime boss, who branded her across the chest with a 6-inch (15-centimeter) rose tattoo. He forced her to provide sexual services to up to 40 clients a day, she said.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 1   Civil Liberties: 2   Status: Free

Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide

U.S. Library of Congress - Country Study

Human trafficking: Asia's persistent tragedy

Ai, a Thai woman in her early 30s, considers herself among the lucky ones. She was rescued by a Catholic nun after 10 years of virtual sexual slavery in Japan.  "It was like hell," Ai said of her ordeal as a sex worker that began soon after she was trafficked from Thailand at the age of 15. "I was dead from the first day. After one year, I started to take drugs."  Not only was she threatened with abuse at the hands of Japan's notorious yakuza crime syndicate if she disobeyed commands to sleep with clients, but she was denied her promised salary on grounds that a substantial slice of it was needed to pay for the cost of her journey from Thailand.  "We were told that once our debts are paid off, we would be sold to someone else,"

White Slavery - Trafficking of Asian women

Women who were lured into the sex industry tell horrific stories of gross human-rights abuses once they are in Japan. Initially promised jobs as waitresses or entertainers, these young Asian women, usually from poor families, arrive at Japanese airports only to be met by groups of gangsters. They are then held in bondage, sometimes for years, for average debts of $30,000.  The women work in slave-like conditions, providing sex to customers on a daily basis. They are under constant surveillance by their employers and are beaten regularly.

Human Trafficking For Sexual Exploitation In Japan [PDF]

INTRODUCTION - AIM OF THE STUDY - Relatively few studies have been undertaken on the trafficking of foreign women into Japan.  What is available forms only a fragmented image of the trafficking industry. Much of the available commentary consists of broad comment, often by mainstream media or interest groups.  These reports do not clearly identify information sources or disaggregate terms and broad-based statistics.

The study aims to make a contribution to understanding of the trafficking of foreign women into Japan by avoiding generalizations and sourcing data wherever possible. It aims to add to the body of research in Japan by presenting a clearer profile of human trafficking: the victims, the abuses they suffer, and the deceptions used by traffickers. It focuses primarily on the experiences of victims in order to better understand the push and pull factors of trafficking, providing details on both the situation in three main countries of origin (Colombia, the Philippines and Thailand) and the social and legal factors that make Japan a profitable market in particular for organized crime groups.

Japan tries to erase taint of sex slavery

Like most victims of trafficking in humans, Mia, who wanted to help her family financially, was told by an acquaintance in Thailand that she could get "a good job" in Japan.  Once in this country, however, Mia faced something totally unexpected — fictitious debts that she had to repay by renting her body for sex. She and other foreign women were kept under rigorous surveillance and never allowed to go out by themselves; they were shuttled between their apartment and workplaces such as bars and hotels.  "I wanted to be treated as a human being," Mia told Mrs. Otsu. "I am a human being," she said before describing the humiliations she had endured.

Even in Tokyo, there are very few places victims can go for help.  Most private shelters in Japan are financially strapped and operated by volunteers and private donations. They receive very little money from the government.  The usual way Japan deals with victims of human trafficking is to arrest them for violating immigration laws and deport them to their homeland. Politicians and the mainstream media have long ignored this.  "It's hard to say that the seriousness of human-trafficking issues is widely recognized in Japanese society," said Kaname Tsutsumi, a professor who teaches sex and ethnicity issues at Kyushu International University. "In addition, the society casts a very cold eye on foreign women involved in prostitution."

Colombia, Japan to tackle trafficking

The Japanese and Colombian governments have agreed on a series of steps aimed at preventing human trafficking and providing support to sex-trade victims.  This is Japan's second government-level agreement on human trafficking. The first was reached with the Philippines in September.

The officials explained to their Colombian counterparts about Japan's new policy of treating women duped into exploitation as victims to protect. The women will be allowed to stay in shelters for an extended period of time rather than be subject to immediate deportation.

Japan put on sex-trade watch list

Japan "has a huge problem with slavery, particularly sex slavery, a tremendous gap between the size of the problem and the resources and efforts devoted to addressing the problem," senior State Department adviser John Miller said Monday.  Miller told reporters that he visited Japan, and "I found only two small shelters, each with eight to 10 beds."  He also criticized Japan for prosecutions that "did not appear to be a great effort" and said sentences were "relatively light" for people convicted of "sex tourism" there.

Colombian Hailed as Hero in Fight Against Trafficking in Persons

Francisco Sierra, Colombia's ambassador to Japan, has made it his personal goal to stop this trafficking in persons that has taken so many women into forced prostitution. For his efforts, Sierra was recognized by Secretary of State Colin Powell on June 14 as one of six heroes in the fight against an illicit industry that preys upon society's most vulnerable members.

Sierra said the women are told they will find a better life by working in other countries such as Holland, Japan, and Spain, but they most often find themselves trapped into working in brothels to pay off their so-called "transportation" fees; such fees may total as much as $50,000 to $80,000. Sierra said that the women are expected to pay their captors roughly $2,000 every ten days or they will be severely punished.

Human Trafficking Sexual Exploitation

"Human traffickers operating through a loophole in Japan's immigration law have made the country a target destination for poor workers and landed it on an official blacklist.  Women and girls from the Philippines, farm workers from Indonesia and China and desperate women from the states of the collapsed Soviet Union are brought to Japan under a visa system wide open to abuse, lawyers and human rights groups say.

Japan’s Action Plan of Measures to Combat Trafficking in Persons [PDF]

The Action Plan clearly states that victims of trafficking in persons are eligible for protection and calls for careful response to be made in consideration of the different conditions of each victim, while giving due thought to the severe mental and physical situation in which many of victims find themselves. Regarding the penalties for perpetrators (brokers and employers, etc.), the Action Plan calls for the criminal law to be amended, reflecting the gravity of the crime, and for control measures to be further strengthened. The Action Plan also aims to prevent the trafficking in persons, stepping into the various systems and structures that may have played a part in making trafficking in persons in Japan easier.

Japan  Probing Human Trafficking In RP

The deluge of entertainers to Japan from the Philippines and Thailand has become a serious problem for his government, he added.  Ogawa said many of these entertainers have unwittingly ended up as prostitutes upon their arrival in Japan.  Ogawa said the Philippines and Japan must work together to try to solve the problem of human trafficking as it affects both countries.  The problem can be effectively solved if stopped at its source, he added.

Japan immigration law promotes human trafficking

The Partial Amendment of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act aims to immediately decrease the number of “illegal foreign residents” in Japan, in reaction to a purported ?deterioration of public security? and rampant human trafficking. The law could affect at least 31,000 overstaying Filipinos, 82,000 Filipino entertainers and thousands of Filipinas married to Japanese. The new law has outlawed their continued stay in Japan, effective Dec. 2, 2004. Thus, most of the 304,678 Filipinos in Japan may be subjected to the harsh, inhumane penalties and procedures under the law. These include warrantless arrests, jail terms, steep fines and deportation.

But the law and the crackdown on undocumented Filipinos in Japan do not address the issue of human trafficking. It will only raise revenues for the Japanese authorities by further penalizing Filipino victims of human trafficking. Meanwhile, human traffickers will go scot-free, continue wreaking havoc on the lives of foreign residents even as they amass more profits out of the blood and sweat of migrant workers.

Japan plans to slash visas to Filipinos to curb sex trade

Japan plans to slash ten-fold the number of visas issued to Filipinos as "entertainers" in a bid to stop sex trafficking, a problem whose scale has put Japan on a US watch list, a report said Wednesday.  Japan would trim the number of entertainment visas issued to Filipinos from 80,000 to 8,000 a year, according to Kyodo News, which said it obtained a government action plan against human trafficking.

Owed Justice - Thai Women Trafficked into Debt Bondage in Japan

IV. PROFILES - In this chapter, Human Rights Watch profiles four women who were trafficked from Thailand into servitude in Japan. Human Rights Watch interviewed numerous women who recounted similar experiences.

POT - It was a big room and four or five other women going to work in Japan were also kept there. I was surprised to be locked up because I was not allowed any chance to say goodbye to my family, even over the phone. I heard the agents talking about the price for each woman being between 150-160 bai [1.5-1.6 million yen; US$10,000-11,000], but I couldn't really understand what they were talking about and did not realize that we were being sold into prostitution.

KAEW - Kaew explained that she had understood there would be some debt for the airplane ticket and other expenses, but she had never been told how high her debt would be, and she was shocked at the amount. "The other girls said to me, 'that's a lot of debt and you're old; you'll never pay it off.' Then I prayed that it would only take six or seven months to pay it off, and I went with all of the clients I could. . . . The mama said to me, 'don't let your period come, or you'll never finish paying your debt.'" So Kaew also took contraceptive pills daily, though she had been sterilized at age twenty-one, so that she would not menstruate and could work every day.(7) She got her mother to send the pills from Thailand, so that she would not have to buy them from her mama and increase the level of her debt.

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Human Trafficking in  [Japan]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Japan]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Japan]  [other countries]