Japan Not Out Of The Woods on Human Trafficking

[Mulboyne]

The US State Department released their 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report. It was this report that led Japan to clamp down on the issuance of entertainer visas when they were identified as a Tier 1 offender. Their efforts led to a downgrade to Tier 2 and here is the report's view on the current situation in Japan. The Japanese press has picked up on the fact that the abuses of the foreign trainee programmes are mentioned for the first time:

"Japan is primarily a destination, and to a lesser extent a transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. The majority of identified trafficking victims are foreign women who migrate to Japan seeking work, but who are deceived or coerced into debt bondage or sexual servitude...The Government of Japan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Japan showed modest progress in advancing anti-trafficking reforms over the past year. The Japanese government continued implementing reforms initiated in 2005 through its national plan of action and its inter-ministerial committee on trafficking in persons, though progress appeared to slow during the reporting period. While prosecutions and convictions under Japan's 2005 trafficking in persons statute increased significantly this year, fewer victims of trafficking were identified and assisted by Japanese authorities. The 58 victims found by the government in 2006 were less than half the number identified in 2005. NGOs and researchers agreed that the number of actual victims probably greatly exceeded government statistics. Some observers attribute this drop in part to a move of more exploitative sex businesses underground.

The government should direct a more proactive law enforcement campaign to investigate suspected sites of commercial sexual exploitation in order to identify and assist a far greater number of trafficking victims and sustain progress in punishing trafficking offenders. The government should make greater efforts to investigate the possible forced labor conditions of workers in the "foreign trainee" program, the domestic sexual exploitation of Japanese women and children, and the use of fraudulent marriage as a mechanism for human trafficking. The government should also cooperate more closely with specialized NGO shelters to provide counseling services to victims of trafficking, and focus additional resources on preventing child sex tourism by male Japanese travelers...The government should also revise the child pornography law to criminalize the access, purchase, and possession of child pornography. The fact that it is legal to purchase and possess child pornography in Japan contributes to the global demand for these images, which often depict the brutal sexual abuse of children"...more...