Posted on 01/25/2003 3:33:27 PM PST by Enemy Of The State
Sex trade exploitation: Destination Japan By Suvendrini Kakuchi
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."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.