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Notes
1 Women came mainly from Southeast Asia, but many Colombian women were also trafficked and subsequently escaped to a private shelter beginning in the 1990s (Joseino ie HELP, Citation2006). One of the Colombian survivors, Marcela Loaiza, wrote about her two-year slavery-like experience in Japan in 2009 in a Spanish-language book titled “Atrapada por la mafia YAKUZA,” which was translated and published in Japanese in 2016.
2 The penal code of conspiracy was forcibly passed in 2017, despite the fact that this was not mandated in order to ratify the UNTOC. Bills of code of conspiracy failed to pass three times in the past. Main aim of the bills were to prevent any plans of terrorist attacks, which was not necessary to ratify the UNTOC. Most nonprofit organizations, attorneys’ associations, and anti-trafficking advocates insisted that the bills would deny freedom of thought and speech, and lead to a surveillance society.
3 Although this is one of the important outcomes in terms of anti-trafficking efforts in Japan, criticisms also exist that actual applications of the code have been few, while many perpetuators have been arrested via related laws that carry lighter sentences.
4 Yearly data via the “Zairyu Gaikokujin Tokei” is available (in Japanese) from the Ministry of Justice Immigration Bureau.
5 There are two types of residence statuses in Japan. One is “activity-related” and regulates the purpose of residence, such as “Business Manager” or “Student”; while the other is “family-related”, including “Spouse or Child of Japanese Nationals” or “Long-term resident”. The latter category does not limit the areas of employment. For details, see “List of Statuses of Residence” on the website of the Immigration Bureau of Japan at http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/kanri/qaq5.html [2018/1/10].
6 Although some foreign women were protected by private shelters as a result of trafficking, most of them in the beginning of the 2000s were survivors of domestic violence who had escaped from Japanese husbands. Some of these women had originally been trafficked in the 1980s or 1990s and had subsequently married Japanese men.
7 Women’s Counseling Centers used to serve Japanese women who had engaged in prostitution and who had suffered from related issues, but since 2001 when the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims was passed, the main role has come to protect and support survivors of domestic violence. Although they have protected and provided supports temporally for trafficked victims, some staff would recognize that needs are different from those who have survived from trafficking and domestic violence (Ezeilo, Citation2010, p. 14).
8 Amendment of the program in 2017 allowed extensions up to 5 years under certain circumstances in the case of several occupations.
9 The program expanded occupational areas to Japanese style care work, “Kaigo”, in 2017 (as is discussed later in this essay).
10 Data for each year may be found in the “Gaikokujin Ginoujisshuusei no jisshuujisshisha ni taisuru kanntokushidou soukento no jyokyo” document available from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
11 There was one case that the victim held a visa for TITP in 2017 although it is not clear that she/he was actually a TITP intern. Also, lack of recognition of labor trafficking does not only occur under the TITP. The government hasn’t counted as human trafficking, but many cases have been identified by nonprofit organizations and labor unions, and sometimes litigated to get unpaid wages back from attorneys. For example, see (Ibusuki, Citation2018, pp. 47–49).
12 Sexual exploitation cases have been mainly prosecuted by a combination of the Prostitution Prevention Law, the Child Welfare Law, and the Law for Punishing Acts related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, even after the government recognized “Japanese” women as trafficking victims since Japan doesn’t have a comprehensive law on human trafficking. The amended penal codes were applied only a few times until now.
13 It is a phenomenon that teenage girls get money in exchange for dating middle-aged men. The TIP report before 2014 also pointed out that “enjo kosai” have facilitated child sex trafficking and Japanese domestic sex trafficking, but it was not until 2007 when the Japanese government have started to recognize Japanese as victims of sex trafficking for the first time after the implementation of the Action Plan 2004.
14 “JK” stands for “Joshi Kosei,” meaning high school girls.
15 According to the government report, the human rights division of the Ministry of Justice started providing a temporary shelter which male victims can access since 2015 (Council for the Promotion of Measures to Combat Trafficking in Persons, 2016).
16 The polices didn’t provide information on nationality of the victims since these were unsolved as criminal cases at that time.
17 The report is available at https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/jinsintorihiki/pdf/honbun1.pdf (only in Japanese).
18 The applicant should be under 20 years old and has to have a legal representative when he/she is under 15 years old.
19 They also had to sign a contract that stated, “I will never place responsibility upon the company, even in the event of my death.” Ten women sued the company, and the case was reconciled at a total of $10,000 in 2017. (Mainichi newspaper, Citation2017).
20 Human trafficking is still understood in the framework of sexual or gender-based violence against women and children.
21 Although the government’s focus has been domestic sex trafficking in this phase, it could be fair to say that the government has started to identify a few international labor trafficking cases every year since 2015, such as in construction, food industry, and service industry. Cases are indicated in the annual report published each year by the Council for the Promotion of Measures to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
22 As the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Ms. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio officially visited Japan in October 2015. Her statement that“13% of schoolgirls have experienced ‘Enjo Kosai’ (compensated dating)” was strongly affected on the Japanese society. She initially reported 30% of schoolgirls but was subsequently amended as an erroneous interpretation to 13%. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a demarche to the OHCHR, and she apologized stating that the data were not based on completely unconvincing, and that the comment was inappropriate and highly regrettable. For more information, please visit at https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press4e_000912.html (July 2019).
23 “Kaigo” means Japanese-style care work.
24 A social welfare corporation was charged with violating the Labor Standard Act in 2017 after forcing six Sri Lankan international students to sign a contract to pay a penalty if they quit studying and working, and forcing them to work against their will (Sankei West, Citation2017).
25 These seminars are also targeted to prospective trainees of the TITP. See https://www.vn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/ginojisshuryugakuatarashiijohohasshinseminar.html?fbclid=IwAR087yyZ0UgKr7wYnvnJtm6scgSEbzmqDHxuYi5oT5spBERDm6tPjLiSzhM [2019/03/15].
26 Discussion began in 2014, and this change was officially implemented in 2017.