The National Police Agency said Thursday that police have uncovered 29 cases of
human trafficking of foreign women from January to the end of June, up by five
from the same period last year.
The 51 victims in the cases were from eight countries.
They include 20 from the Philippines, representing the largest group, followed
by 17 from Thailand and four each from Indonesia and Romania. One of the
victims was a transsexual, the NPA said.
Police have arrested or taken into custody 29 people--including 12 trafficking
brokers--on suspicion of violating anti-prostitution and other laws during the
period, up 16 from a year ago.The NPA announcement comes at a time when Japan
is trying to clamp down on human trafficking.
Japan has revised the criminal law to stipulate human trafficking as a crime
and to introduce punishments of up to 10 years in prison for people who sell
these women to businesses.
The revisions took effect Tuesday.
Human trafficking is also punishable under a law banning child prostitution and
child pornography.
Last year, the US State Department placed Japan on a "watch list" of countries
woefully lacking in anti-human trafficking laws. Tokyo has since been trying to
rid itself of the embarrassing label.
Japan has been criticized for its insufficient measures to prevent human
trafficking. The revised criminal law on human trafficking "is a step forward
because it clearly determined as victims women who were until now viewed only
as foreigners illegally staying in Japan," said lawyer Yoko Yoshida, who was
involved in compiling the NGO's report.
But she noted that Japan still lacked protective measures for human trafficking
victims and called for public subsidies and medical aid for NGOs that help such
women. Still, women from overseas have continued to suffer from human
trafficking to Japan, according to the nongovernmental organization Japan
Network Against Trafficking in Persons.
The JNATIP recently compiled a report of more than 150 pages based on a survey
of people mainly from Thailand, the Philippines and Colombia over an 18-month
period.
The report showed that human trafficking continues to destroy the lives of
countless foreign women in Japan.
According to the NPA, the women in all 29 cases of human trafficking so far
this year were brought to Japan to work as bar hostesses. Many were forced into
prostitution to repay debts they were told they owed the brokers. They entered
Japan on entertainment visas and their passports were taken from them after
entering the country.
The JNATIP's report goes further in detailing the misery endured by these
women.
The women were told they would become dancers, work in karaoke bars or even
fish factories in Japan. Many had high hopes and dreams before they entered the
country, the JNATIP report said.
One Thai woman said she wanted to earn enough money in Japan and open a beauty
parlor back home to provide a stable life for her children.
Not all of the women duped by the traffickers are from poor backgrounds,
according to the report. An increasing number of highly educated women,
including a former bank employee from Thailand, have been brought to Japan by
brokers since the 1997 financial crisis in Asia, according to the report.
But after landing in Japan, their hopes are dashed. First, they are told they
have debts of 2 million yen to 8 million yen (about $18,000 to $72,000) for the
expenses needed to bring them to Japan.
The work they were promised never existed, the report said. Instead, the women
are forced to work as hostesses, prostitutes and strippers to make their
repayments.
Some of the workers were told not to wear stockings and to "let customers at
bars touch their bodies," the report said.
Some were ordered not to use condoms.
Of the 200,000 yen or so monthly salary usually paid to a woman, 150,000 to
170,000 yen is deducted to pay the brokers in Japan and in the woman's home
country in the name of travel fees.
About 70 percent of the 183 women a support group helped had less than 100,000
yen with them when they sought refuge.
A woman who was taken into protective custody at a private-run shelter said she
was ordered to work at a farm and was then forced to buy the vegetables she had
cultivated.
Escape from their nightmare is often impossible. The women's passports are
taken away often on arrival in Japan, and they are forced to live in
accommodations provided by the bars and other workplaces.
They are also kept under close watch by their employers, who often threaten to
harm the women's families in their home countries if they try to escape, the
report said.
The report mentions that a Thai woman said she gave up any hope of escaping
after she saw a colleague who tried to run away brought back and gang-raped.
One victim gave birth thinking that she could return home if she became
pregnant. But she was forced to continue working while caring for her infant
son in a foreign country, the report said.
The report also touched on the practice of "resales" of women trafficked into
Japan.
One victim who worked for a month at a bar in Nagano Prefecture was sold to
similar establishments in Chiba and Nagano prefectures before being sent back
to her original employer. With each change in employer, her so-called debts
increased, the report said.
IHT/Asahi
