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Tougher action sought on Internet child porn
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
June 16, 2000
Tokyo - Activists working to protect children from sexual crimes want the
Japanese government to take swifter measures to curb rampant child pornography
on the Internet in Japan, most of it produced domestically.
"Japan is the largest market for child pornography. Most of the arrests have
been for posting the stuff on the net, a situation that is very bad," says
Mayumi Moriyama, a member of the Diet and a leading advocate in the drive
against the distribution of lewd materials on the World Wide Web. Activists say
80 percent of the world's child pornography disseminated over the Internet is
produced in Japan.
It was only in November 1999 that the Japanese government finally caved in to
years of grassroots pressure and passed a law that prohibits sex with minors,
or those 17 years of age or younger. The law also bans the sale, production and
distribution of child pornography, a major step in the fight to clamp down on
the crime.
It comes as no surprise that crime against women and children is on the rise,
police say. In 1999, there were 1,857 women who were victims of rape, up 14.7
percent from the previous year. In the case of children, figures indicate that
indecent assault cases on children rose to 1,302 in 1999, representing a climb
of 26.5 percent in five years. Forty-seven percent reported that their
perpetrators were men they were acquainted with such as neighbors and
relatives.
Three months after the new law was passed, the National Police Agency (NPA)
reported that 30 people were arrested for selling lewd material featuring
children, including a man apprehended for selling hundreds of CD-ROMS
containing pornographic material all downloaded from the Internet.
Police officials, however, admit it is an uphill struggle to contain the
problem as pictures on the computer are often fuzzy, making it difficult to
make a case against the perpetrators. Japan is a major source of child
pornography exports and the new law, say police, has prompted many producers to
set up operations in other countries. Not to be outfoxed, the NPA said it will
coordinate with US and European police to track down the international
operations of these groups.
The apparent ease with which these perpetrators operate in Japan can be
explained somewhat by the attitude and culture of the Japanese, say analysts
who point out that Japan takes a different stance toward the issue of lewd
literature compared to the West. Colored pictures of young naked women often
grace the pages of comic magazines and newspapers displayed in book stores.
They are bought and read openly by men in packed commuter trains. Leering ads
featuring girls in short high-school uniforms, with some pictures featuring
personal details of the models, are also commonly seen on trains and are
largely tolerated by women. Activists note that the new law does not make
producers of such magazines liable, a reflection of the lax attitude towards
the sexual exploitation of children.
Professor Yukihiro Murase, who teaches human sexuality at Hitotsubashi
University, explains this indifferent attitude stems from the fact that Japan
has traditionally viewed sex differently from the West. "Japanese men consider
sex not from a human rights point of view such as in the West. With western
trends coming in, Japan is still learning," he says.
Recently, however, major changes have been enacted as a result of public
outrage over several new trends that indicate the dark side of the traditional
attitudes toward sex. The latest fad involves "arranged dates" where older men
pay for dates sometimes including sex with school girls - who told the press
that they needed the money to buy expensive brand goods. Japanese sex tours to
Asian countries, including cases of Japanese men "buying" children for sex,
have also painted a poor image of Japan and have provoked criticism.
But the government, it seems, is paying heed to the public's clamor to put an
end to these sexual violations. A case in point is the increase in the arrest
of molesters on trains. Two weeks ago, the Japanese press reported the first
prison sentence without suspension slapped on a middle-school teacher who was
caught molesting a high-school girl on a subway. This after the high school
student testified in court after the man denied the charge. The judge sided
with the victim, saying she was forced to "suffer serious mental distress".
In late May the parliament also enacted the anti-stalker bill which allows the
police to arrest anyone found guilty of following or harassing a person. "These
are important developments that indicate Japan is changing steadily for the
better," says Murase.
And to show its seriousness in stemming crime, Japan has committed to host the
World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama
in December 2001.
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