Human trafficking in Japan

Human trafficking in Japan
	Red-light districts are popular hangouts for sex workers. (Nakasu, Fukuoka)
Sources	Japan, China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Post-Soviet states, Latin America
Perpetrators	Snakehead, Yakuza, Russian mafia, Triads, Iranian gangs, Nigerian gangs, American gangs

According to the United States' State Department, Japan is a major destination, source, and transit country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Victims of human trafficking include male and female migrant workers, women and children lured to Japan by fraudulent marriages and forced into prostitution, as well as Japanese nationals, "particularly runaway teenage girls and foreign-born children of Japanese citizens who acquired nationality." 'According to the 2024 U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, The Government of Japan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.' ^[4]

U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2024.^[5] Japan ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol on July 11, 2017.^[6]

In 2005 Irene Khan, then the Secretary General of Amnesty International, stated that the country received the largest number of trafficked persons globally, with the most common points of origin of victims being Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America.^[7]

History

Karayuki-san was the name given to Japanese girls and women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were trafficked from poverty stricken agricultural prefectures in Japan to destinations in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Siberia (Russian Far East), Manchuria, and British India to serve as prostitutes and sexually serviced men from a variety of races, including Chinese, Europeans, native Southeast Asians, and others.

Sex trafficking

Japanese and foreign^[8]^[9] women and girls have been victims of sex trafficking in Japan. They are raped in brothels and other locations and experience physical and psychological trauma.^{[dubious – discuss]}^[10]^[11]^[12]

Labor trafficking

Japan has a declining population, and is therefore experiencing an extreme labor shortage. As a result, it is an attractive destination for foreign migrant workers, especially from South East Asian countries. Many workers enter the country on a student visa as part of the Technical Intern Training Program,^[13] a government sanctioned program where workers can learn a trade while earning a living. The original intent of the program was positive, but due to many loopholes there is widespread exploitation of the vulnerability of workers. The government has now decided to abandon the program,^[14] but it will take several years to implement the changes and critics are not convinced that it will solve the problem.

Child trafficking in Japan

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Japan take the form of exploiting children under 18 for prostitution or child sexual abuse material.^[15] Increasingly, children are also the victims of online sextortion, coerced into producing nude images or videos of themselves and then extorted for money or more images. These images may be sold online or on the dark web.^[16]

The sexual objectification of children through manga, anime and other art forms is normalized in society, and the general public does not consider it to contribute to the physical exploitation of children. This kind of content is not illegal in Japan.^[17]

In performing arts, sexual objectification of children is also normalized in the country's J-POP Idol industry. The decades long sex trafficking of Japanese boys by Johnny Kitagawa was exposed in a BBC documentary^[18] in 2023, and came as a huge shock to the nation.^[19]