Human Trafficking in [Japan] [other countries]Street Children in [Japan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Japan |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children In the
first ten years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2009
|
||
|
CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** JAPAN:
'Dating cafes' fostering child prostitution www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=18620 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 - Japan [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Child prostitution and child
pornography are serious problems in Japan. Child prostitution is reportedly
rising in Japan, thanks in part to the growing use of the Internet. Of
Japan’s more than 3,000 pornographic sites, 40 percent contain images of
minors. Between January and November 2002, 666 cases of child prostitution
relating to online dating sites were filed, nearly 300 more than those filed
in 2001. ***
ARCHIVES *** Hot Line
Reaches Out To Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery In Japan After the State Department listed www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/EAP/Global_Monitoring_Report-JAPAN.pdf Matchmaking or dating websites
have become a well-known channel for commercial sexual exploitation of
children (CSEC) in Japan. Many underage Japanese schoolgirls fall prey to ‘enjo kosai’ (‘compensated
dating’) by using ‘deai kei’
websites: through which they can make their contact details available, and
use pagers, computers and mobile phones (the most common method) to arrange
‘dates’ with customers who are older and often married. Research has shown
that many such girls do not engage in ‘enjo kosai’ out of poverty, but rather to be able to purchase
brand name clothes, bags, shoes, mobile phones, etc., which, according to
them, boosts their self-esteem. They often come from dysfunctional families
(sometimes middle-class) or experience problems at school. Some of them
suffer the additional abuse of being videotaped during sexual activity. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - 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. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2004 [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 www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090220TDY02304.htm
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:
'Dating cafes' fostering child prostitution www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=18620 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. Child porn cases up 17%, setting first-half record www.crnjapan.com/abuse/aarticles/2008/en/20080808-child_abuse_2008_first_half.html
Child prostitution cases fell 26.0
percent to 523, with the number of child victims falling 28.3 percent to 439. The practice of an older man
taking a young, school-aged Japanese girl out on a "date" in
exchange for money in Japan is referred to as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating". To say that enjo kosai is prostitution or -
in a Western view - child prostitution, may not always be accurate. The date
may not necessarily include sex, and the inherent cultural complexities can
strain perceptions of the practice. 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. 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: Southeast Asia's sordid secret [scroll down to >>> Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:52 pm ] Cyber
child prostitution on rise in Japan For child prostitution, in which
minors meet with adult clients on dating and other websites, the number of
cases jumped 62.7 percent. Nagoya pair arrested for using teenage prostitute www.crnjapan.com/articles/2007/en/20070829-teen_prostit_pair_arrested.html Two Both men reportedly got to know
the girl through a cell-phone voice-mail dating service. As for child pornography, which
was also included in the bi-annual report, the Mainichi cites: “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 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 - February 15, 2007 www.crnjapan.com/articles/2007/en/20070215-abuse_record_number.html The contents of this article had
been republished within a blog and may possibly
still be accessible [here]
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 www.fortium-ica.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=139 At one
time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
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 www.crnjapan.com/articles/2006/en/20061005-buddhist_busted_child_porno.html Ikarashi paid 20,000 yen each to two
third-year junior high school girls to have sex with him at a hotel in
Niigata in January 2005, local police said. The priest had got acquainted
with the girls through a telephone dating club in Niigata, according to investigators. 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. The
Protection Project - Japan [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Child prostitution and child
pornography are serious problems in Japan. Child prostitution is reportedly
rising in Japan, thanks in part to the growing use of the Internet. Of
Japan’s more than 3,000 pornographic sites, 40 percent contain images of
minors. Between January and November 2002, 666 cases of child prostitution
relating to online dating sites were filed, nearly 300 more than those filed
in 2001. ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for
Action [DOC] www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/publication/other/english/Doc_page/ecpat_5th_a4a_2001_full.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – JAPAN
– The main weaknesses of the plan are that it does not contain specific
objectives or programs to be implemented, it has no timeframe for implementation,
and it lists no progress indicators. Furthermore, there is no mention of a
central coordinating body that would be both accountable and responsible for
implementation of activities. Prostitution
ring earned 100 million yen using underage girls 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] CHILD PROSTITUTION - In Japan, it was reported by
the National Police Agency (NPA) that the rate of child prostitution was
rising due to the growing use of the Internet by teenagers soliciting sex. A
total of 666 cases of child prostitution relating to online dating sites were
filed by the NPA in Japan between January and November 2002, 286 more than
those filed in 2001. The NPA report said that girls below the age of 18 years
solicited sex mostly by using web sites to contact cell phone users. At the
World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in
Yokohama, in December 2001, the Japanese Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama
expressed concern over the fact that the internet is making it more difficult
to tackle the explosion in rate of child prostitution. The exploiters were increasingly cunning
and there was a huge increase in paedophile sites
on the Internet. Is the Eroticisation of Children in Japanese Anime a Serious Social Problem? www.ecpat.net/eng/ECPAT_news/japantime.htm At one
time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
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, Japan Is
Shamed Into Outlawing Child Prostitution 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 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 Japan Summit Host country Enjo kosai or child prostitution in Japan 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 Far East In this treatise, we will examine
the cultural attitudes and special relations regarding the plague of sexual
abuse of children in the 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 - |
Human Trafficking in [Japan] [other countries]Street Children in [Japan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Japan