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Sex trade exploitation: Destination Japan
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
June 25, 2003
Tokyo - The Japanese government must get serious about combating the
trafficking, exploitation and abuse of foreign women lured into the sex
industry, experts say.
Activists and legal experts arrived at that conclusion after hearing a litany
of horror stories at a seminar held here by the Asia Foundation and the
International Labor Organization. Migrant workers and activists disclosed gross
human and workers' rights violations committed by Japan's adult-entertainment
industry, whose value has been estimated at almost US$83 billion a year.
Those attending the seminar highlighted the lack of an official safety net for
migrant labor in Japan, in effect leaving tens of thousands of men and women
without visas and thus easy prey for unscrupulous brokers and gangsters.
Despite criminal and labor laws, experts say, the lack of a comprehensive
anti-trafficking law in Japan has allowed criminals to pay only light fines
when arrested.
"Japanese criminal law prohibits trafficking of persons from Japan to another
country. But these provisions do not cover the other way around," says Yoko
Yoshida, a lawyer with the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Kyoto.
Likewise, they said it is time for Japan, which has been a magnet for migrants
for decades, to institute a proper system for the inflow of people from other
countries. This means the issuance of legal visas and the provision of health
and mental care for migrant labor. As well, Japan's current practice of
deportation only places the blame on the victim rather than the perpetrator
responsible for a foreign-worker violation.
The Justice Ministry reports that as of January 2002, there were about 224,067
overstayers in Japan, of whom 105,945 were women. More than 46 percent of these
women were working as bar hostesses, followed by waitresses and factory
workers. By nationality, South Koreans comprised 25 percent of these
overstayers, followed by Filipinos and Thais.
The past few years have seen an influx of young women from outside Asia -
traditionally the biggest source of migrants - coming from as far away as Latin
America, Eastern Europe and Russia. Many are employed in red-light districts,
as bars - also affected by the recession - are finding them increasingly
cheaper to employ than Thais and Filipinos.
At the seminar, which ended on Wednesday, migrant workers talked about
beatings, exorbitant debt bondage of up to 6 million yen ($50,000) that they
are forced to pay back, 24-hour surveillance, no salaries, and having to
service as many as 15 men sexually each day.
"The situation needs urgent attention. New measures must reflect the reality of
the situation, which is the growing demand for cheap foreign labor in Japan and
the ready supply from Asia," said Kasit Piromya, Thailand's ambassador to
Japan.
The Thai Embassy in Tokyo reports that two to three Thai women seek refuge each
week to escape cruel and degrading working conditions, bondage or forced sexual
work.
Studies on Thai migrant labor presented here say that there is a highly
systematic trafficking process that recruits both Thai and Japanese agents,
some of them married couples, carried out by transnational criminal elements
operating in various countries. Local agents supply girls from villages in
poorer areas of Thailand, such as the north and northeast, luring them with
promises of high-income jobs in snack bars or restaurants in Japan. Once the
women, most of them semi-literate, agree, they are escorted to Japan through a
third country.
Many trafficked women are given forged passports that have tourist visas. When
they arrive in Japan, they are met by Japanese agents who whisk them away to
rural brothels and bars.
Piromya says the problem must be tackled on different fronts. Among the
proposals now being discussed are closer monitoring of Japanese-Thai couples
applying for visas in Thailand, the setting up of a special desk at Bangkok
airport to watch out for women who may be trafficked, and providing education
and information on the legal implications of migration to raise awareness among
the villages at risk.
The Thai ambassador said some have proposed that vocational training be offered
to trafficking victims in Japan as a way to broaden employment opportunities
whether in Japan itself or after they return to Thailand. Often, Thai and other
female migrant workers who escape are left with no money after their ordeal and
cannot return to their families back home.
Social counselors also called for psychological and spiritual support for
trafficking victims to cope with their mental stress from abuse in Japan.
Kinsey Dinan, a policy analyst at the National Center for Children in Poverty
and a former researcher for Human Rights Watch, says Japan can enact laws like
those in Germany through which pimps can be arrested and where trafficking is
seen as a serious criminal offense.
She says immigration laws in the United States guarantee assistance such as
lawyers and compensation and medical care for victims while in custody and
allows them to stay in the country during court proceedings.
Said Thai Ambassador Kasit: "The basic reality is that human trafficking cannot
be tackled piecemeal. It is the responsibility of all parties involved in the
struggle to devote political will and financial resources support on its
behalf."
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53
human trafficking victims suspected among deported in February
7-6-2003
Japanese
Lawmakers Propose Compensation For Sex Slavery Victims
2-12-2003
Human
trafficking: Asia's persistent tragedy
10-10-2002
Thai
women under debt bondage in Japan
9-21-2000
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