Sakanaka, who now directs the Japan Aid Association for North Korean Returnees,
is credited with pushing through revisions to the law to combat trafficking
while in his former post. Passed by the National Diet last month, it has helped
abate international concerns about a country that has long been criticized for
a too-tolerant an approach to trafficking.
On Saturday, the National Police Agency said police had 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.
Despite these and other promising moves by Japan--brought about in part by the
activism of Japanese women's groups--international and local advocates continue
to worry about the country's problem with human trafficking, the world's
third-largest underworld business after trade in drugs and arms, netting $9.5
billion annually.
In a recent report the Japan Network against Trafficking in Persons said that
the government's heightened anti-trafficking efforts had so far not "made a
dent."
Fact-Finding Mission Last Week
Last week, Sigma Huda, the special rapporteur on trafficking for the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, came here on an unofficial fact-finding mission
with activists, lawyers, lawmakers, academics and others concerned about human
trafficking. The visit followed widespread reports--including by Amnesty
International Japan--of South Asian women from developing nations being
trafficked in this highly developed country.
"It's the dark side of globalization," says Huda, who is based in Bangladesh.
Reports indicate that about 130,000 women come to Japan on entertainer visas
every year, but only about 10 percent of them actually perform in legitimate
shows at hotels and other venues. Many obtain entertainment visas through
agents who recruit them to Japan with promises of jobs that don't exist.
Sakanaka traces the problem to immigration officials who bend to politicians
and businessmen who hire foreign women for illicit purposes. "Some men even
said I was out of my mind to try to do something about human trafficking," he
says. "They claimed it was part of Japanese culture to have sex with foreign
women. They were addicted to the parlors. I received phone calls from
politicians and anonymous threats on my life."
Japan Kept Off Worst-Trafficker List
Earlier this month, the U.S. State department removed Japan from a special
watch list of countries that were to be included on an updated listed as the
worst condoners of human trafficking after the Japanese government compiled an
action program to combat human traffickers. The State Department had put Japan
on that list a year ago.
Under the new Japanese legislation, those who "purchase" people in order to
control their activities will face punishment of up to five years in prison.
The maximum punishment could be increased to seven years imprisonment if the
victim is a minor.
The new legislation will also grant victims, on a case-by-case basis, special
residency status even if they have overstayed their original visa, so that they
can be rehabilitated.
Before these revisions, police dealt with trafficking by arresting the victims
as illegal aliens, jailing them and deporting them as soon as they had enough
money to fly home. Traffickers received a fine or a short jail sentence.
One of the most notorious traffickers, Koichi Hagiwara, known as Sony for his
habit of videotaping his victims while he humiliated and tortured them, was
sentenced in March 2003 and served less than two years in prison for violating
labor laws.
Japanese Women Enraged
Japanese women have also pressured the government to do something about human
trafficking.
"Many women were enraged by an article in the Asahi Shimbun, a major daily
newspaper in Japan, about the practice," says Sakanaka, the former director of
the Immigration Bureau, referring to an investigative article published Oct.
18, 2003. "Until this article came out, Japanese women knew little about the
situation. Women's groups mobilized, and called up magazines and newspapers to
protest the treatment of the women victims."
The government, Sakanaka says, has neglected to investigate many of the abuse
cases. These women, he says, live horrific, lonely lives, forced into having
unprotected sex and perform other risky acts with dozens of customers a day.
"These new laws are valuable. But they also need to strike at the center of
organized crime."
Sakanaka is concerned that most foreign women will be too scared to go to the
police because they think they will be killed if they try to escape.
Chieko Tatsumi, an official in the International Organized Crime Division of
Japan's Foreign Ministry, disagrees. She believes the victims would seek
protection from the police.
"There has already been an increase in the number of women asking for
protection," Tatsumi says. "In 2002, there were only two Thais who sought help,
but in 2004 there were 25."
She says that the government set a budget of $100,000 in April for helping
women who come to a public shelter.
"The government will pay for rehabilitation for the victims of sexual
enslavement and tickets for them to return to their home countries," Tatsumi
says. Not enough, says Sono Kawakami, campaign manager for Victims of Violence
of Japan Amnesty International. The government's measures fail to sufficiently
protect victims and the amount of money budgeted to stop trafficking is
insufficient, she says.
Her organization wants separate facilities for trafficking victims, rather than
housing them with victims of domestic violence. Many victims are so traumatized
that they won't talk to anyone, so they require specialists to handle them,
Kawakami says. Since many do not speak Japanese she also wants language
translation support for the victims and specialists in human trafficking to
assist them. Although she believes the government can do more, she says the
revisions to the criminal law affecting trafficking are a good start.
Keiko Otsu, director of Asian Women's Shelter in Tokyo, is also pleased with
the new laws, but says there are currently only two shelters available for
these women.
"The women don't have any income, assistance or support," she says. "Some may
be pregnant and many have mental and other health problems, including AIDs and
other sexually transmitted diseases and need expensive medial care."
Copyright 2005, Women's E-News; Catherine Makino is a freelance writer in Tokyo.
