The government maintained insufficient efforts to prevent trafficking, including by continuing to demonstrate a lack of political will to adequately do so among highly vulnerable migrant worker populations. Human trafficking in Japan; L. Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims ; Liu Lianren; S. Sex trafficking in Japan; Urairat Soimee; This page was last edited on 4 October 2020, at 05:03 (UTC). • Develop, systematize, and implement standard interagency procedures for the identification of, and referral to protective services for, victims of forced labor among migrant workers, including those in Japan under the auspices of the TITP and other visa-conferring statuses, and among those in immigration detention. Civil society organizations reported that reliance on this series of overlapping statutes continued to hinder the government’s ability to identify and prosecute trafficking crimes, especially for cases involving forced labor with elements of psychological coercion. Faith-based or­gan­i­sa­tions and oth­er agen­cies are us­ing their le­git­i­mate fronts across the world to con­duct il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing. Highly organized commercial sex networks target vulnerable Japanese women and girls—in many instances those living in poverty or with cognitive disabilities—in public spaces such as subways, popular youth hangouts, schools, and online, and subject them to sex trafficking in commercial sex establishments, small musical performance venues, retail spaces, and reflexology centers, often through debt-based coercion. The Labor Standards Bureau (LSB) also conducted on-site inspections of more than 9,000 TITP work places but did not report additional information on corrective measures; some of these likely overlapped with the aforementioned OTIT inspections. • Increase efforts to identify male victims of sex trafficking and forced labor. Despite the prevalence of forced labor indicators identified through increased OTIT inspections, the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any individuals for involvement in the forced labor of TITP participants. Since 2000, the United States has actively moved to combat human trafficking, and Japan did not fare well in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. • Establish formal channels allowing all foreign workers to change employment and industries if desired. In 2016, the Japanese government identified 50 trafficking victims, of whom 37 were victims of sexual exploitation, nine were forced to work as hostesses, and four were victims of labour exploitation, of whom two were forced to work as manual labourers and one was forced to work i… Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Bureaus and Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Office of the U.S. Women and children are trafficked to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation from China, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Latin America. Brothel operators sometimes arbitrarily impose “fines” on victims for alleged misbehavior, thereby extending their indebtedness as a coercive measure. • Increase implementation of the TITP reform law’s oversight and enforcement measures, including by training Organization for Technical Intern Training (OTIT) personnel and immigration officials on victim identification, improving OTIT coordination with NGOs, reviewing all contracts prior to approval of TITP work plans, increasing employer inspections, and terminating contracts with foreign recruitment agencies charging excessive worker-paid commissions or fees. The government maintained memoranda of cooperation (MOC) with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, India, Laos, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, as well as a newly signed MOC with Indonesia, affirming it would accept TITP trainees only from state-approved organizations that would not charge participants “excessive fees” known to place workers in high debt. Washington – The United States on Thursday downgraded its assessment of Japan’s efforts to meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking… It … National Jun 26, 2020. The government continued to fund a program through an international organization to provide counseling, temporary refuge, social reintegration, and repatriation services to trafficking victims; however, it significantly reduced the relevant budgetary allocation during the reporting period. NGOs alleged police avoided entertainment districts known for “JK” business activities due to perceived connections to organize crime syndicates. If you're not sure how to activate it, please refer to this site: Japan's immigration agency to adopt stricter measures to curb disappearances of foreign trainees, Japanese businesses hit by lack of Chinese trainees amid virus outbreak. Although the law ostensibly protected victims from denial of entry into or deportation from Japan, inadequate screening of vulnerable groups reportedly led to the arrest and deportation of some victims due to immigration violations or other unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit. Receipt of compensation awards was therefore nearly impossible in practice. Victims had the right to file civil suits to seek compensation from their traffickers; some foreign workers, including potentially unidentified victims, and sex trafficking victims filed civil suits for non-payment of wages in 2018. Without accurate data on the number of human trafficking incidents, victims, and offenders in the state, Texas cannot efficiently dedicate resources to anti-trafficking efforts. Private Japanese immigration brokers help Japanese-Filipino children and their Filipina mothers move to Japan and acquire citizenship for a significant fee, which the mothers often incur large debts to pay; upon arrival, some of these women and their children are subjected to sex trafficking to pay off the debts. Some of these workers experience restricted freedom of movement and communication, confiscation of passports and other personal and legal documentation, threats of deportation, physical violence, poor living conditions, wage-garnishing, and other conditions indicative of forced labor. The government identified 12 women and girls forced to work as “hostesses,” some of whom may have also been subjected to sex trafficking (three in 2018), and 35 female sex trafficking victims (20 in 2018; 31 in 2017; 37 in 2016), including at least five children. Date. In 2018, the government established a new “Special Skilled Worker” visa regime to allow an additional 354,000 migrant workers to enter Japan and fill positions in construction, shipbuilding, nursing care, and 10 other sectors with known labor shortages over a five-year period. Temporary, long-term, and permanent residence benefits were available to foreign victims who feared the repercussions of returning to their countries of origin. Employers require many migrant workers to pay fees for living expenses, medical care, and other necessities, leaving them vulnerable to debt-based coercion. Millions of human trafficking victims are hidden in plain sight. The government reported allocating more than 3.5 million yen ($32,250) for sheltering trafficking victims, compared with 3.4 million yen ($31,330) in 2018, and 3.5 million yen ($32,250) for male victims alone in 2017. Some sending organizations require participants to sign “punishment agreements” charging thousands of dollars in penalties if they fail to comply with their labor contracts. The government reported arresting and initiating investigations into 39 individuals for 57 alleged crimes related to trafficking in 2019—including at least 15 men for alleged sex trafficking and four men and one woman for forced labor that may have involved corollary sex trafficking—compared with 39 cases in 2018 (unreported in 2017; 44 in 2016). Civil society groups noted the government had no procedure for screening foreign nationals in immigration detention for possible trafficking indicators (at least nine attempted forcible deportations among 8,000 interviewees in 2018, with five successful interventions and two employee-reinstatements). These efforts included identifying more victims than the previous year; funding a service provider organization to implement an innovative and highly effective online outreach program; and increasing on-site inspections of businesses employing migrant workers. Despite these efforts, contacts noted an acute need for additional training to address the lack of awareness among key law enforcement officials and judicial stakeholders. Attorney General Alan Wilson said there were 139 cases of human trafficking and 179 victims reported in South Carolina in 2020. Authorities relied on formal manuals instituted by an Inter-Ministerial Liaison Committee in 2010 encouraging government bodies to develop broad protection measures for trafficking victims. An unknown number of additional victims received assistance in NGO shelters, where they could access government-subsidized medical care. • Reduce migrant workers’ vulnerability to debt-based coercion by amending relevant policies to eliminate the imposition of all worker paid recruitment and service fees. Through this program, 14 foreign victims received repatriation assistance (five in 2018; seven in 2017; 23 in 2016). Countries with poor human rights records including China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela remained on Tier 3, the lowest level of the rating system which also includes a Tier 2 Watch List. However, these efforts were not serious and sustained compared to those during the previous reporting period. Although there were no specific reports in 2019, in previous years, authorities arrested some child victims in connection with their trafficking situations; service provision NGOs believed enduring definitional discrepancies continued to leave child victims at risk of penalization. Japan has been a major country of destination for human trafficking, especially into its notorious sex industry. Employees of two foreign airlines are involved in human trafficking from Bangladesh: police Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com Published: 01 Dec 2020 08:04 PM BdST Updated: 01 Dec 2020 … Although the TITP reform law ostensibly expanded participants’ rights to change employers at will once in Japan, civil society observers and officials noted most TITP participants were still barred from doing so; some participants reportedly fled from abusive conditions in their contracted workplaces, thereby violating the terms of their visas and becoming more vulnerable to trafficking in unemployment. Law enforcement bodies continued to identify children exploited in commercial sex without formally designating them as trafficking victims, in some cases hindering their access to protection services and judicial recourse. Some TITP employers continued to threaten participants with punitive fees, deportation, and harm to their families, if they attempted to leave. Japan did not have a comprehensive anti-trafficking statute that included definitions in line with international law. In its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the State Department placed Japan in Tier 2. Maxwell Matewere, a Malawian crime prevention expert with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been active in the anti-human trafficking field for more than two decades. Seven major prefectures maintained ordinances banning “JK” businesses, prohibiting girls younger than 18 from working in “compensated dating services,” or requiring “JK” business owners to register their employee rosters with local public safety commissions; one additional municipality adopted these ordinances in 2019. Civil society groups continued to express concern the OTIT was too understaffed to adequately investigate allegations of abuse, including forced labor, within such a large program—particularly as the number of participants continued to grow. It said that “the government did not fully implement legally mandated screening procedures aimed at blocking foreign-based labor recruitment agencies from charging excessive fees — a key driver of debt-based coercion” among such foreign trainees. The government did not report statistics on arrests or prosecutions of cases involving “children in prostitution.” In previous years, authorities processed hundreds of such cases without formally identifying them as trafficking crimes (more than 700 cases involving nearly 600 suspects in 2018; 956 in 2017). DPS must report human trafficking data by August 1, 2020. The government reportedly also prosecuted trafficking-related offenses using the Child Welfare Act, which broadly criminalized transporting or harboring children for the purpose of causing them to commit an obscene or harmful act and prescribed penalties of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, or a fine of up to three million yen ($27,640), or both, although authorities claimed courts did not implement provisions allowing for fines. However, the owners of abusive supervising organizations and subsidiary businesses employing TITP participants frequently filed for bankruptcy or falsified administrative changes in order to shield themselves from civil or criminal liability, enabling forced labor to continue throughout the program with impunity. Pages in category "Human trafficking in Japan" The following 5 pages are in this category, out of 5 total. Some authorities were reportedly unaware of the crime or unsure how to prosecute it, often citing prohibitively high evidentiary standards. However, authorities did not report on the status or outcome of its implementation. “Although there were no reported cases of forced labor within this system in 2019, observers continued to express concern that it would engender the same vulnerabilities to labor abuses, including forced labor,” as those inherent to the technical intern program, the report said. The number of victims and incidents is taken from several different data sources, but none are complete. Texas is often cited as the state with the second highest number of human trafficking incidents and victims. • Aggressively investigate, prosecute, convict, and punish Japanese citizens who engage in child sex tourism overseas. Japanese authorities published the names of “discredited” TITP sending organizations on a website and reported 73 “inappropriate organizations” to sending governments, but they did not report steps to ensure incoming TITP participants avoided those organizations. Washington – The United States on Thursday downgraded its assessment of Japan’s efforts to meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, citing concerns over the abuse of migrants working in the country. Answers sought: Was the U.S. Capitol attack planned? Authorities raised awareness on trafficking by disseminating information online and through radio programs, posters, and brochures, as well as through leaflets distributed to NGOs, immigration and labor offices, and diplomatic missions in Japan and abroad. Men, women, and children from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa travel to Japan for employment or fraudulent marriage and are subjected to sex trafficking. The government continued to implement the 2016 Act on Proper Technical Intern Training and Protection of Technical Intern Trainees (TITP reform law), including by allocating more human and financial resources to OTIT—its oversight mechanism; increasing the number of inspections of TITP implementing and supervising organizations and worksites; and continuing the issuance of corrective orders for labor violations detected during inspections. The government did not fully implement legally mandated screening procedures aimed at blocking foreign-based labor recruitment agencies from charging excessive fees—a key driver of debt-based coercion among TITP participants. Enjo kosai or “compensated dating” services and variants of the “JK” business, often with ties to organized crime, continue to facilitate the sex trafficking of Japanese boys and girls; underage youth from China, South Korea, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam are also reportedly exploited in these establishments. In practice, interagency stakeholders followed disparate, often insufficient victim identification procedures—especially among child sex trafficking victims and migrant workers. Police continued to treat some potential child sex trafficking victims as delinquents—particularly LGBTI children—and counseled them on their behavior instead of screening them for victim status, investigating their cases, or referring them to specialized services. NGOs claimed courts set prohibitively high evidentiary standards for forced labor cases involving foreign victims, including overreliance on physical indicators of abuse in lieu of evidence supporting psychological coercion, thereby stymying appropriate law enforcement action. Entities located in a county with a population of 500,000 or less must report human trafficking data by August 1, 2021. “I think we are making our sex disposable, like a fast food. An official website of the United States government, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Office of the U.S. Officials investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned fewer traffickers than in previous years. • Amend anti-trafficking laws to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment, and to increase the penalties for trafficking crimes to include a maximum of no less than four years’ imprisonment. • Increase enforcement of bans on “punishment” agreements, passport withholding, and other practices by organizations and employers that contribute to forced labor. In a departure from prior years, the Immigration Services Agency did not report data from its own process for notifying TITP organizations of misconduct (more than 100 employers notified in 2018, leading to approximately 170 corrective notifications), and the MOJ did not report how many organizations it banned from receiving interns in 2019 (over 100 in 2018). Authorities reportedly continued to fine persons convicted of the latter without incarcerating them, particularly first-time offenders; civil society experts asserted this leniency was permissive of continued commission of the crime. The National Police Agency announced recently that there were total of 44 human trafficking cases confirmed by police across Japan in 2012, and a dramatic uptick in the number of domestic trafficking cases. According to the 2004 report, Japan was ranked as a Tier 2 Watch List country. The government has never identified a forced labor victim within the TITP since its inception, nor during the tenure of its predecessor organization founded in 1993, despite substantial evidence of trafficking indicators. You crave for it and you buy it. The Japan Times LTD. All rights reserved. The COVID-19 pandemic created new risks and challenges to victims of trafficking (VoTs) and survivors of trafficking, as well as having exacerbated the vulnerabilities of … Japan’s fast-growing foreign student population is also at risk for trafficking in the unskilled labor sector due to abusive and often deceptive work-study contract provisions. The government decreased law enforcement efforts. Traffickers coerce their victims into forced labor and prostitution. Entities located in a county with a population of more than 500,000 must report human trafficking data by August 1, 2020. Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. OTIT authorities could request that sending countries investigate allegations of recruitment fee violations, but the decision to penalize or ban sending organizations for the practice was at the discretion of sending country authorities; OTIT offices did not report requesting any such investigations. Many prosecutors reportedly avoided using the ESA and LSA due to a perception that the relatively high penalties were more likely to trigger appellate processes that would decrease their overall conviction rates and negatively impact their professional standing. Directory of who’s who in the world of business in Japan. NGOs highlighted a lack of language interpretation services as a particular challenge to the protection of foreign victims. Due to the limited scope of laws prohibiting commercial sex, widespread victimization of minors and adults took place within a legalized but largely unregulated range of “delivery health service” sex acts in urban entertainment centers. 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