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Hot line reaches out to women forced into sexual slavery in Japan
By Chie Matsumoto
April 30, 2005
It sounds like an issue from centuries gone by. But slavery refuses to die, and
the problem has reached such proportions in Japan that a volunteer organization
is starting a 24-hour hot line service Saturday for modern-day slaves: victims
of human trafficking smuggled into the country to work in the sex industry.
The organization, the Washington-based Polaris Project, opened its Tokyo office
last August.
Two months earlier, the U.S. State Department listed Japan among 42 countries
on the Tier 2 Watchlist in its fourth annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
Nations doing the best to eradicate human trafficking rate Tier 1; next is Tier
2, followed by Tier 2 Watchlist. The worst offenders are categorized as Tier 3.
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.
In 2000, Japan ratified the protocols to the U.N. Convention Against
Transnational Organized Crime, which demand that each nation introduce
legislation to ban human trafficking. But the existing law applies only to
Japanese citizens smuggled overseas.
The government is therefore planning to revise the law to grant a special
permit to foreign nationals who have been smuggled into Japan or exploited
here. It will allow them to remain in this country and receive government
subsidies. Buyers of sex slaves will be imprisoned for three months to five
years, while brokers will face sentences of one to 10 years.
Last year alone, 77 women were rescued in Japan, including 48 from Thailand, 13
from the Philippines, five from Colombia and five from Taiwan, according to the
National Police Agency. Fifty-eight people were arrested in connection with
human trafficking, including 23 brokers, who smuggle women into the country for
jobs in the sex industry. The figures represent a sharp increase from the
previous year, when 41 people were arrested in such cases, including just eight
brokers.
For more than 10 years, House for Women Saalaa and the HELP Asian Women's
Shelter have been the only two shelters in the greater metropolitan area to
take in non-Japanese women, and they have collaborated with embassies and the
Japanese government.
The Polaris Project hot line is the first permanent telephone consultation
service of its kind to be offered in Japan. At first, the toll-free service
will be available in five languages: Thai, Tagalog, English, Japanese and
Mandarin Chinese. Spanish and Korean will be added next month.
The nonprofit organization is also focusing on an outreach program, which is
one of the most difficult aspects of rescuing modern-day slaves, says Fujiwara,
coordinator of the Polaris Project's Japan Campaign Against Trafficking in
Persons. The group has about 15 members, who hail from Japan, the Philippines,
Thailand, China and South Korea, but it is seeking more volunteers.
Because victims are usually closely watched by their bosses, they almost never
have a chance to act alone. This limits their contact with outsiders, and there
is no way for the volunteers to meet them in person.
In the United States, brokers and syndicated criminals avoid interaction with
the police at all costs for fear of investigation or arrest. Therefore,
volunteer groups rarely face danger from such people when trying to rescue
victims, Fujiwara says. In Japan, on the other hand, which has one of the
world's largest sex industries, support groups are at great risk from criminal
organizations and cannot achieve the same objectives, says Fujiwara, who has
spent more than a year working as both a volunteer and a staff member at the
Polaris Project's Washington office.
Because volunteers are unlikely to be able to meet or talk directly to victims,
their best chance of reaching them is through people who can pass on
information or help report bar owners who hire such women. In hopes of getting
the attention of these people, the group plans to also distribute pamphlets to
convenience stores and local shops.
When spreading information about the crime of human trafficking, the law and
the support available, Fujiwara believes it is necessary to reach not only the
victims, but also perpetrators such as brokers and hostess bar owners so they
realize they face serious penalties.
The Polaris Project also plans to market goods to raise awareness and reach out
to victims. It will sell such items as cellphone straps, cards, matchboxes and
lipstick cases bearing messages indicating where to call for help or find an
interpreter.
Educating the police and counselors for women and children, as well as staff at
privately run shelters, also helps in the movement, Fujiwara says.
Although human trafficking has a much longer history in Japan than in the
United States, the Japanese have not responded to the problem as sensitively as
the non-Japanese community here, Fujiwara says.
``This is a problem not only for the foreign community, but also for the
Japanese people,'' Fujiwara says, citing the few cases involving Japanese
women.
In one case last year, four alleged members of a violent crime syndicate were
arrested on suspicion of intimidating 19- and 20-year-old women with trumped-up
debts of 4 million yen and forcing them to pay them off by working as
prostitutes at an Osaka hotel owned by one of the four defendants.
The women were forced to have sex with 30 to 40 men a day for up to eight
months, according to police. The hotel allegedly earned more than 70 million
yen a month from forced prostitution involving about 20 other women.
``The Japanese government should show more interest in investigating the crime
(of human trafficking) not because of pressure from the international community
but because it also involves its own citizens,'' Fujiwara says. ``Elsewhere in
the world, the issue has attracted attention from within the nation and
governments have started tackling modern-day slavery beyond borders.''
The Polaris Project will also reach out to former victims of trafficking, most
of whom married their brokers or customers, suffered violence within the home
and ended up becoming single mothers.
``This problem perpetuates,'' Fujiwara says. ``We should not only try to rescue
and assist current victims, but also extend our support to those who managed to
escape long time ago but have suffered victimization a second or third time.''
* * *
The hot line numbers differ depending on the language required. Call
0120-879-871 for English and Japanese,
0120-879-872 for Thai,
0120-879-873 for Chinese and
0120-879-874 for Tagalog.
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1,700
sex slaves a year lured to Japan 4-30-2005
No
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4-30-2005
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