JAPAN (Tier 2)

Japan is a destination, and to a much lesser extent, source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking
in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Male and female migrant workers from China, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Vietnam, and other Asian countries are sometimes subject to conditions of forced labor. Some women and children from East Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia, South America, and Latin America who travel to Japan for employment or fraudulent marriage are forced into prostitution. Japanese organized crime syndicates (the Yakuza) are believed to play a significant role in trafficking in Japan, both
directly and indirectly. Traffickers strictly control the movements of victims, using debt bondage, threats of violence, and other coercive
psychological methods to control victims. The media and NGOs continue to report abuses of the Industrial Trainee and Technical Internship Program (the “foreign trainee program”), including debt bondage, restrictions on movement, unpaid overtime, and fraud - elements which contribute to situations of trafficking. Women typically faced debt upwards of $49,000 upon commencement of their contracts, and had to pay employers additional fees for living expenses, medical care, and other necessities, leaving them predisposed to debt bondage. “Fines” for misbehavior added to their original debt, and the process that employers used to calculate these debts was not transparent. A growing and significant number of Japanese women and girls are victims of sex trafficking in the country, a highly lucrative industry for criminal networks and other operators in Japan. In the case of domestic victims, the threat of blackmail, credit card debts, and other debts from loan sharks are often used as coercive mechanisms in trafficking.

Japan is a transit country for persons trafficked from East Asia to North America. Japanese men continue to be a significant source of
demand for child sex tourism in Southeast Asia.

Polaris Project presents
An Evening with Jake Adelstein

Thursday, May 27,
2010 7.00 - 10.00pm
The Tokyo 21c Club

co-hosted by the Ivy League Alumni Associations of Japan