Human trafficking: Modern-day slavery in Japan Shihoko Fujiwara

1. JAPAN
Cultural Introduction
and
Scope of Human Trafficking
◆ Polaris Project Japan www.PolarisProject.jp
Outreach website for teens: www.Pol214.com
www.facebook.com/PolarisJapan
Phone：050-3496-7615 FAX：020-4669-6933

2. Presentation Overview
I. Japanese Historical and Cultural
Background
II. The Current Trafficking Situation
III. International Criticism and Response
IV.About Polaris Project Japan
V. Final Thoughts and Conclusions

3. The Japanese Sex Industry
Historical and Cultural Roots

4. Japanese Cultural Concepts
• Strong hierarchical cultural traditions
• Strong patriarchal cultural traditions
• Honne (本音) vs. Tatemae (建前)
• Relatively weak civic participation
• Personal affairs stay very private

5. Historical Background
• Long history of institutionalized prostitution
• Legal and social acceptance (despite criticism)
• The Recreation and Amusement Association (Aug. ‘45)
• Replaced by red light districts (Jan. ‘46)
• Prostitution banned in 1956, but the ban’s language is weak
• De facto prostitution con-
tinues to this day
A scene from Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1956 film
“The Red Light District”

6. Definition-The AMP Model
2012/7/26

7. Human Trafficking in Japan
The Situation Today

8. Global Human Trafficking Market
Number of Victims:
21 million (ILO, 2012)
80% are female/ 50% are children (US State Dept)
Profit: 3 trillion yen each year (ILO)

9. Human Trafficking in Japan
• Sexual exploitation: East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Latin
America
• Labor exploitation: male and female migrant workers from China,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Asian countries.
• The majority of officially identified victims are foreign women migrating
willingly to Japan seeking work, but who are later subjected to debts of up
to $50,000.
• A significant number of Japanese women and girls have also been reported
as sex trafficking victims.
• Traffickers are increasingly targeting Japanese women and girls for coerced
exploitation in pornography and the sex industry.
• Organized crime syndicates (the Yakuza) play a significant role in trafficking.
• Japanese men continue to be a significant source of demand for child sex
tourism in Southeast Asia.

10. Where Human Trafficking Take Places
2012/7/26

11. The Official* Human Trafficking Numbers:
539 human trafficking cases (2001-2011)
613 Victims 483 Persons Arrested
Nationality of the Victims
Thai: 214 Filipino: 162 Indonesian: 76 Colombian: 58
*For reasons explained
later, these official figures
represent just glimpse of
the real problem

12. Japan‟s Sex Industry
The market is worth 4 - 10 trillion yen
(about 50 – 125 billion U.S. dollars)
Or 1 – 2% of Japan‟s total GDP.
 Delivery Health
= each client pays 23,000 per visit
One woman has on average 4 clients a day, 6 days a week = 552,000/week
The trafficker earns 2,760,000 for  per week.
= 132,480,000/year × 20,000 establishments（2004）
The industry is worth approximately 300 billion yen per year
Source: Asia Wall Street Journal

13. Delivery Health “dates” can be arranged
online via computer or smartphone.

14. International Criticism
Japan’s Response

15. Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Minors
Child prostitution:5 000 cases or more
of persons detained as a result of child prostitution (2011)
Child pornography 1,455 cases *
（number of persons arrested＝1,016）
Charges of supplying, manufacturing, distribution (2009)
105 of the 638(16％) cases were younger than elementary
School age. The youngest victim is 3 y.o.
Japan, along with Russia are among the two G8 countries that does not outlaw "simple possession" for collecting images for personal use.

16. Global Criticism
Japan criticized in reports by:
Human Rights Watch
International Labor Organization (ILO)
U.S. Department of State
United Nations

17. U.S. Department of State TIP Report
Country rankings
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 “The Government of Japan does
Does not not fully comply with the
Fully complies Does not
with minimum
comply with
comply with minimum standards for the
Definition
minimum
standards to minimum
protect
standards to
standards and
elimination of trafficking …
protect victims,
trafficking
but making
not making corruption remains a serious
victims effort
some efforts concern in the large
•S Korea •Japan •Iran entertainment industry in
•Taiwan •Portugal •Zimbabwe
•USA •South Africa •Sudan Japan…[it] has no dedicated
Countries
•UK •Cambodia •Burma
•Canada •Burkina Faso •Congo (DRC)
shelters for trafficking victims
•France •Mexico •Cuba or clear sheltering resources for
•Germany •Paraguay •Eritrea
•Australia •Hong Kong •N Korea male victims…”
•… •… •… Trafficking in Persons Report 2012 on Japan
- U.S. Department of State
Source: US State Department “Trafficking in Persons Report 2010”

18. The Japanese Government’s
Response
• After the Japanese were designated a Tier 2 country for the first
time in 2001, the government was embarrassed and tried to
address the criticism.
• They enacted an “Action Plan” in 2004 designed to increase
awareness among law enforcement and customs officers, and
treat victims as victims rather than violators of immigration law
• The government response has been characterized as insufficient
to address the scale of the problem.
• No comprehensive anti-trafficking law has been passed to this
day, and Japan remains a Tier 2 country even now, eleven years
later.

19. Polaris Project Japan
Our Work Protecting Victims

20. A Brief History of PPJ
• Polaris Project was founded in the U.S. in 2002
• Polaris Project Japan was founded in September 2004 by
Shihoko Fujiwara, a former fellow with Polaris Project
• In 2005, we established the first national trafficking
consultation hotline in Japan
• The hotline receives hundreds of calls every year, and PPJ has
provided consultations and support for hundreds of victims
• We have also trained many law enforcement officers, customs
officials, and social workers, and continue to provide
educational lectures to all kinds of audiences across the
country and abroad

21. Victim
Support
Raise
Victim awareness
Outreach among police
and social workers

22. The State of Trafficking in Japan
The Numbers (Polaris Project’s 2011 Data)
- Since its inception in 2005, our hotline has
provided over 2,500 consultations
- We have provided over 130 people with
direct support or connected them with the
appropriate organization
- In 2011, we offered 381 consultations,
including 33 cases involving victims of sex
trafficking
(Number of Consultations by Prefecture)

23. Trafficking in Japan – A Victim’s Voice
→ A Korean woman in her early 20’s Case 1:
Korean Female
→ This case came to Polaris via a
call from an acquaintance rather
than from the victim herself
→She was resold by a “broker” and
forced into prostitution, unaware that
she was the victim of a crime “My friend is being
abused by her ‘employer,’
→She used to be a social worker and it’s my fault. I want
helping battered women in Korea,
then she decided to go to Japan to speak with a lawyer.“
hoping eventually to get into
Japanese university…

24. Cases in which Polaris Project has been
involved
Victim
Case2:
14 year-old
Japanese girl
“I was able to get out of the situation but
don„t have anywhere to go, and I never Fourteen year old
feel good about things. When I get
propositioned or when I have sex I feel Japanese girl got
that my body is worthless and start crying
without reason.” She is emotionally into a confrontation
restless. We meet periodically and act as
a confidant and give her the necessary with playmates when she
support she needs
was told she had a
"bad attitude" and
was coerced into
prostitution.

25. Trafficking in Japan – A Victim’s Voice
→ This case was reported by an Case 3:
American soldier in Yamaguchi-ken Filipino Female
→She was invited to come to Japan
by her friend in Nagano, but then
was transferred to Yamaguchi and
charged with a 400,000 yen “I entered
“transfer fine”. Japan on an
Entertainer Visa
→She temporarily returned to the
Phillippines, but then was forced into and I should
another six month contract in Japan. have reached out
She didn’t know what to do. to an NGO
sooner.“

26. Case 4:
Korean Female forced to 韓国のＮＧＯからの緊急支
work in a sex club. 援依頼
→ By way of a broker, she entered
Japan on a tourist visa and was
“My condition was so forced into work.
bad I could barely stand, → Due to fear of her abusers and
insufficient resources for victims,
let alone go to the hospital. she was unable to get help from
I thought I might end up the police.
dead, so I called an → Before her departure, Polaris
provided medical care, access to
organization that protects an emergency shelter, and helped
Korean women her return home.
and I was connected
with Polaris Japan.”

27. How victims are lured into
Japan‟s sex trade
Foreign Women recruited in their own country /Domestic victims
in Japan
- Debt bondage by loan sharks
-Tricked by deceptive advertisements in papers
-Once you are in the industry, it is hard to get out
- Stigma and resignation
- “Support structure” also exploits women: Clothing store,
pharmacy, clinics, that traffickers work with
Women recruited once they are in Japan:
- Peer pressure and persistent recruitment at language school,
etc.
• Traffickers use isolation and cultural barriers to force women
to follow the “rules”

28. Conclusions
Final Thoughts and Lessons
Final Thoughts and

29. Additional Reference：The State of Japanese
Trafficking Since 2005
• The U.S. State Department designated Japan a “Watch List” country in 2004.
In December, the Japanese government unveiled its “Plan of Action”:
– Alter the penal code to make trafficking a crime, enforce more stringent
requirements for Entertainer visas, use DV shelters for trafficking victims
• The Results
– Continued Lack of a Comprehensive Trafficking Law and Insufficient Victim
Support
• Without a real protection system in place, victims are hesitant to raise their voices, seeing
little choice but to bide their time and hope to make it back home someday
• The penal code, the Anti-Prostitution Law, the Employment Security Act, the Child
Welfare Law, and immigration law are ostensibly aimed at these problems, but they are
not often used to prosecute human trafficking cases
– Effective prosecution of cases is difficult
• Evidence of forced prostitution, debt, and abuse is often destroyed by the perpetrator
– Discrimination, misunderstanding, and a lack of public awareness makes it
harder to locate victims
• The state of foreign women working in the sex industry is often poorly understood (by
police and citizens alike)
• There is a general misconception about people involved in the sex industry

30. Some reasons why human trafficking
still persists
Human trafficking
Trafficking is an often goes
underground, unidentified and
hidden industry involves many
complex issues
There are few
There is little
victims who take
public awareness
legal action
about the problem
against traffickers
There are
inadequate human A lack of
resources to information
tackle the problem

31. Polaris has trained over 5,000 law enforcement
officers and social workers.
This number includes members of: the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, Cabinet Offices, Tokyo Metropolitan
Office of Education, the Bureau of Immigration, Tokyo Metropolitan
Office for Youth Affairs, child welfare centers and others.

32. Suggestion from PPJ
Create Comprehensive Anti-trafficking policy
Train all police officers, immigration officers as well
as social service providers on how to identify
trafficking
Start National Human Trafficking hotline
Comprehensive Victim Protection
Medical, Legal support, shelter, counseling as well as
providing legal status for the survivors of trafficking for
work
Polaris Project Japan and Solidarity Network With Migrants Japan, 20th June 2012

33. AKARI
Project
Because of the lack of policy,
PPJ’s work is solely supported by your support.
Join Polaris AKARI Project to support our hotline and
services for victims of trafficking.
See more info from our HP /brochure