C S E C The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Japan.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of child prostitution are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring how children got started, how they survive, and
how some succeed in leaving. Perhaps
your paper could focus on runaways and the abuse that led to their
leaving. Other factors of interest
might be poverty, rejection, drug dependence, coercion, violence, addiction,
hunger, neglect, etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to write about the manipulative and dangerous adults
who control this activity. There is a
lot to the subject of Child Prostitution.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims Polaris Project Japan – 050-3496-7615 International Organization for
Migration -35 45 24 87 Country code: 813- ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** JAPAN: 'Dating
cafes' fostering child prostitution Yomiuri OnLine, 7 October 2008 www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=18620 [accessed 5 June
2011] Cases of child
prostitution involving dating-service cafes have been increasing sharply,
prompting some local governments to take measures such as banning people under
18 from entering such establishments.
Inside the cafes, men choose women from among the female clientele and
try to secure dates with them. The system has triggered many cases of
prostitution involving minors. In a
sizable number of such cases, minors who entered the cafes purely out of
curiosity have been targeted. One such facility
near JR Yokohama Station displays a sign saying, "Coffee shop with manga
library--no entrance fee for women." The floor is separated into two
areas by a one-way mirror with the height of the floor in the men's area
about 50 centimeters lower than that of the women's. Male customers, some wearing business
suits, gaze at young women sitting on sofas through the one-way mirror. Female customers cannot see the men. The Protection
Project - The Paul H. www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/japan.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING
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Child prostitution and child pornography are serious problems in ***
ARCHIVES *** Hot Line Reaches
Out To Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery In Chie Matsumoto, Asian
Sex Gazette, April 30, 2005 www.asiansexgazette.com/asg/japan/japan04news19.htm [accessed 16
February 2011] After the State
Department listed ECPAT Country Overview
- A report on the scale, scope and context of
the sexual exploitation of children [PDF] Kevin Ryu, ECPAT International, 2018 www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ECPAT-Country-Overview-Japan.pdf [accessed 1
September 2020] Desk review of
existing information on the sexual exploitation of children (SEC) in Japan.
The overview gathers existing publicly available information on sexual
exploitation of children in travel and tourism (SECTT), online child sexual
exploitation (OCSE), trafficking of children for sexual purposes, sexual
exploitation of children through prostitution, child early and forced
marriage (CEFM) and identifies gaps, research needs, and recommendations Human
Rights Reports » 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 10, 2020 www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/japan/ [accessed 1
September 2020] SEXUAL
EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - Child prostitution is illegal, with penalties
including prison sentences or fines. Statutory rape laws criminalize sexual
intercourse with a girl younger than age 13, notwithstanding her consent. The
penalty for statutory rape is not less than three years’ imprisonment with
mandatory labor. The law was enforced. Additionally, national law and local
ordinances address sexual abuse of minors. Possession of child pornography is
a crime. The commercialization of child pornography is illegal; the penalty
is imprisonment with labor for not more than three years or a fine not
exceeding three million yen ($27,600). Police continued to crack down on this
crime. The continued
practice of enjo kosai
(“compensated dating”) and the existence of websites for online dating,
social networking, and “delivery health” (a euphemism for call-girl or escort
services) facilitated the sex trafficking of children and other commercial
sex industries. The government’s interagency taskforce to combat child sex
trafficking in joshi kosei
(or “JK” businesses)–dating services connecting adult men with underage
girls–and in forced pornography continued to strengthen its crackdown on such
businesses. In 2018 authorities identified 137 of these operations
nationwide. A total of 69 individuals alleged to have been engaged in
unspecified criminal activities surrounding the JK business were arrested,
and seven major prefectures passed 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. NGOs helping girls in the JK business
reported a link between these activities and the commercial sexual
exploitation of children in prostitution. The country was a
site for the production of child pornography and the exploitation of children
by traffickers. No law addresses
the unfettered availability of sexually explicit cartoons, comics, and video
games, some of which depicted scenes of violent sexual abuse and the rape of
children. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 30
January 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/japan2004.html [accessed 28
February 2011] [51] The Committee
welcomes the adoption and implementation of the Law on Punishing Acts related
to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and on Protecting Children
(1999). However, it is concerned that:
(a) The Penal Code maintains a narrow definition of rape as an act
committed by a male against a female;
(b) All victims of sexual exploitation do not have access to
appropriate recovery and assistance services;
(c) There have been reports of child victims being treated as criminals; (d) There have been reports of the practice
of "enjo kosai",
or compensated dating; (e) The low
minimum age of consent, which might contribute to the practice of "enjo kosai", hampers the
prosecution of sexual abuse of children. Web solicitation of
kids shifting from dating sites Yomiuri
Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri, February 20, 2009 www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-194177660/web-solicitation-kids-shifting.html [partially accessed
5 June 2011 - access restricted] The number of
children who became victims of crimes, including child prostitution, last
year via Web sites other than dating sites rose to 792, compared with 724 who
became involved in crimes via dating sites, according to the National Police
Agency. The NPA is stepping
up its efforts on the presumption that the conduit for communication leading
to possible child prostitution is shifting away from dating sites to
self-introducing "profile" sites … Japan child porn
cases surge to record high Agence France-Presse AFP, www.globaltimes.cn/world/asia-pacific/2011-02/627237.html [accessed 4 October
2012] A total of 618
children under 18 were recorded as having fallen victim to pornographic
exploitation, up 52.6 percent, police said. The head of the
Polaris Project, a US-based anti-human trafficking group, last week told
Japanese lawmakers that “significant percentages of the images involve
children being gagged, bound, tied with ropes or even blindfolded”. The young ones William Sparrow, www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JE10Dh01.html [accessed 5 June
2011] The practice of an
older man taking a young, school-aged Japanese girl out on a "date"
in exchange for money in Japan has one of
the lowest ages of sexual consent in the world; it's as low as 13 in metro Tokyo
and the national age of consent ranges between 13 and 18 depending on the
province. In fact, in Japan, the practice of having sex with teenage girls is
not prosecutable if the young woman says "yes". This is where enjo kosai acts a loophole; any
girl saying "yes, but for 50,000 yen" (US$495)immediately
renders the situation illegal. The brunt of punishment, however, falls on the
male customer, generally for solicitation and prostitution. Such cases can be
aggravated by the fact the female is a minor, or under 18 in terms of recent
legislation. This is where the
loophole becomes a pedophile's dream scenario. If he "dates" the
underage woman, buys her gifts and occasionally provides her with cash
ostensibly for shopping, buying books or spending time with friends, then the
money or gifts were not technically provided on a sex-for-money transaction.
Otherwise, this would equal prostitution and be punishable by law. Japan National
Police Agency Targets Online Dating Sites / Agency Wants Stricter Regulations
as Current Law Being Ignored WUNRN News, Jan. 18,
2008 www.wunrn.com/news/2008/02_08/02_04_08/020408_japan.htm [accessed 5 June
2011] [accessed 11
November 2016] The NPA aims to
directly impose stricter regulations and beef up its monitoring of Internet
dating service operators, because the law governing such services, which
prohibits minors under 18 from using them, has been largely ignored. As a result, there have been numerous cases
of child prostitution in which many minors became victims. The service operators also would be obliged
to delete messages connected with underage girls posted on their Web site. According to the
NPA, there are about 5,000 dating service sites on the Internet. The number
of young people under 18 who were victims of sex crimes in connection with
dating service sites in 2006 increased 92 from the previous year to 1,153. Of
the victims, 95 percent accessed the sites via cell phone. Paedophilia: Agence France-Presse AFP, www.talkaboutsexxx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10531&sid=6d81ba7838387a49b17a4868be26b31c#p10531 [accessed 5 June
2011] [scroll down to
>>> Posted: Thu Oct
25, 2007 4:52 pm ] Cyber child
prostitution on rise in Japan Agence France-Presse AFP, newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20070823-84327/Cyber_child_prostitution_on_rise_in_Japan [accessed 5 June
2011] Arrests were made
in 1,808 cases of Internet crime, up by six cases from the same period last
year and the highest since 2003 when police started compiling similar
half-year data. For child
prostitution, in which minors meet with adult clients on dating and other
websites, the number of cases jumped 62.7 percent. August 29, 2007 www.crnjapan.com/articles/2007/en/20070829-teen_prostit_pair_arrested.html [[Last access date
unavailable] Two Both men reportedly
got to know the girl through a cell-phone voice-mail dating service. Child pornography
numbers hit record high in Japan Brad Rice,
08/14/2007 www.japanator.com/child-pornography-numbers-hit-record-high-in-japan-6333.phtml [accessed 5 June 2011] Police said that 718 child prostitution cases were
reported during the period. The number of child victims in these cases
totaled 651. Two of the children were elementary school students, 210 were
junior high school students and 265 were high school students. High school pimp
arrested for forcing 3 girls into prostitution Mainichi Daily News,
July 9, 2007 fighthumantraffickingnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/high-school-pimp-arrested-for-forcing-3.html [accessed 5 June
2011] A high school boy
has been arrested for forcing three teenage girls into prostitution, police
announced Monday. Investigators are
interrogating the boy on suspicions that he forced the girls, aged 16 to 17,
to sell themselves to around 120 men between September last year and March
this year, netting about 3.8 million yen. The boy solicited
customers by placing an advertisement on a Website. He gave 60 percent of his
earnings to the girls while pocketing the reminder, according to
investigators. Record 316 child
abuse victims reported in 2006 Mainichi Daily News,
February 16, 2007 [accessed 14
September 2011] Child prostitution
and pornography cases in which police apprehended suspects increased to a
record 2,229 incidents, an 8.8 percent increase compared with the previous
year. The figures highlight the difficult conditions under which many
children are being brought up. Police to promote
cell-phone filtering to stop students accessing 'harmful' sites Mainichi Daily News,
20 Jan 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5 June
2011] Between January and
November last year, 41 junior high school students involved in child prostitution
incidents uncovered by the MPD were found to have met their clients through
mobile dating sites. Police plan to approach school parent-teacher
associations to make them more aware of filtering systems that can block out
such content. Buddhist priest
busted for child prostitution Mainichi Daily News,
October 5, 2006 www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/09_10/2006_10_05_MainichiDailyNews_BuddhistPriest.htm [accessed 5 June
2011] Ikarashi paid 20,000 yen
each to two third-year junior high school girls to have sex with him at a
hotel in Internet crimes
peak in Japan Martyn Williams, PC
Advisor, 17 August 2006 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/opinion/internet/3268753/internet-crimes-peak-in-japan/ [accessed 5 June
2011] Cases of child
prostitution involving under-18s met through Internet dating sites totalled 169 cases in the six month period, a jump of 18
percent on the year-ago, while child pornography crimes totalled
97, up 43 percent. Five Years After
Stockholm [PDF] ECPAT: Fifth Report
on implementation of the Agenda for Action ECPAT International,
November 2001 www.no-trafficking.org/content/web/05reading_rooms/five_years_after_stockholm.pdf [accessed 13
September 2011] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – Prostitution
ring earned 100 million yen using underage girls Mainichi Daily News,
www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51294 [accessed 5 June
2011] The operators of a
Fukuoka-based prostitution ring called "Candy Club" sent 61 teenage
girls to customers some 3,000 times over an 18-month period beginning in
March last year, raking in sales of about 100 million yen, police
investigators have learned. The club
reportedly solicited clients through cell-phone based sites. Some of the
girls were as young as 14, and none were older than 17. One of the girls
reportedly brought in 3 million yen for the ring over two months. Child Exploitation on the Internet [DOC] Mofolake Akinwonmi,
CS5038 www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~fguerin/teaching/CS5038/assessment/essays/essays_from_2006/groupI/Child
Exploitation On the Internet.doc [accessed 5 June
2011] CHILD PROSTITUTION - In Is the Eroticisation of Children in Japanese Anime a Serious
Social Problem? Tony McNicol, The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 5 June
2011] ECPAT released an
annual report drawing attention to "compensated dating" or "enjo-kosai," a form of amateur teenage prostitution
they say is a serious problem in At
Last, Roger and Machiko Buckley, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/1999/05/28/opinion/28iht-edbuck.t.html [accessed 5 June
2011] The Diet's belated
passage of legislation banning child prostitution is evidence of shifting
attitudes in Japanese society. Law
for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution INTERPOL,
Legislation of INTERPOL member states on sexual offences against children,
Spring 2006 www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaJapan.asp [accessed 5 June
2011] ARTICLE 1 -
OBJECTIVE
- The objective of this Law is to protect the rights of children by
prescribing punishment for acts related to child prostitution and child
pornography, and by establishing measures including the giving of appropriate
protection to children who have suffered physically and/or mentally from the
said acts. Child
Prostitution Problem Focus Of Canadian Television
Network CTV, Dec. 16 2001 www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/CTVNewsAt11/20011216/ctvnews832857/ [accessed 5 June
2011] Host country Enjo kosai or child prostitution in Japan My www.mynippon.com/culture/culturehome.htm [accessed 5 June
2011] This fact of
Japanese life, if not understood without complete context, sounds
repulsive. Most non-Japanese people analyze
this situation by saying, “Oh! These teenage girls have no idea about the
risks that they are putting themselves to – both physical and emotional. There should be a law banning all this”. We believe that enjo
kosai is definitely not a healthy practice but here
are some facts about Japanese society that better explain the background of
this trend in Japan. A Living
Hell; A cultural perspective on Child Prostitution in the Jim Blaylock, 27
Feb, 2001 www.ageofconsent.com/comments/alivinghell.htm [accessed 5 June
2011] In this treatise,
we will examine the cultural attitudes and special relations regarding the
plague of sexual abuse of children in the ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** ECPAT Global
Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of
children - JAPAN [PDF] ECPAT International,
2006 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/EAP/Global_Monitoring_Report-JAPAN.pdf [accessed 5 June
2011] Matchmaking or
dating websites have become a well-known channel for commercial sexual
exploitation of children (CSEC) in Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61610.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] CHILDREN
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Trafficking of minors, teenage prostitution, dating for money, and child
pornography continued to be problems. According to the government, during the
year there were 1,582 sex‑related crimes associated with Internet
dating sites. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution - |
