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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TOKYO 006538 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ELAB SOCI SMIG JA
SUBJECT: A REVIEW OF JAPAN'S ANTI-TIP POLICY: PROGRESS AND 
RELAPSE (CORRECTED COPY) 
 
 
TOKYO 00006538  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
¶1.  (U) This cable contains an action request.  Please see 
paragraph 18. 
 
¶2.  (U) Summary and Comment:  Increased vigilance by police 
and immigration officers as well as new legislation has 
brought positive change to the trafficking-in-persons (TIP) 
situation in Japan.  These measures have forced traffickers 
to change their business model and move deeper underground, 
according to Japanese officials, police, immigration 
officers, and NGOs consulted during G/TIP Senior 
Coordinator Mark B. Taylor's October 10-11 visit to Tokyo 
and a Political Officer's trip to Osaka in September. 
Government-provided shelters are a step in the right 
direction, but they need better resources and direction. 
Prosecution remains a problem area for Japan.  Embassy 
recommendations for further action/follow-up are outlined 
in paragraph 18.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
Japan is Taking Significant Steps to Prevent Trafficking 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
¶3. (U) Changes in visa requirements have significantly 
reduced the number of women entering Japan as 
"entertainers," MOFA Consular Affairs Bureau contacts told 
us.  Over the last 18 months the government of Japan has 
made several changes to the criteria for entertainer visas, 
requiring applicants to prove that they have two years of 
experience in the industry, obligating sponsoring 
organizations to pay a higher salary, and placing a heavier 
burden on Japanese clubs to prove their legitimacy.  As a 
result, the number of Filipinas entering Japan as 
entertainers has fallen from 7,000 per month in 2004 to 
only 1,000 per month this year, according to statistics 
provided by the Consular Affairs Bureau. 
 
¶4.  (U) To raise awareness about human trafficking inside 
Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National 
Police Agency have produced tens of thousands of glossy 
brochures and pamphlets in the past year that describe the 
trauma of trafficking-in-persons, report what the 
government is doing to combat trafficking, and explain how 
a victim can find assistance.  These materials have been 
distributed to immigration offices and police stations 
throughout Japan, according to MOFA Human Rights Division 
officials.  This program seems to have been successful in 
raising the awareness of working level police and 
immigration officers; Japan Network Against Trafficking In 
Persons (JNATIP) representatives say that the increased 
knowledge of trafficking among law enforcement officials 
has been one of the most visible improvements in the last 
two years. 
 
¶5.  (U) Japan has also expanded efforts to protect victims 
of trafficking.  In addition to allocating funds to 
subsidize private shelters, the Ministry of Health, Labour, 
and Welfare (MHLW) has been pushing police and immigration 
officers to use its pre-existing network of shelters for 
domestic violence victims as temporary housing for foreign 
trafficking victims awaiting repatriation.  Women 
identified by immigration authorities as victims who have 
overstayed their visas are now eligible for a special 
status that allows them to leave the country legally.  The 
government now pays for victims' medical care and 
subsidizes repatriation via a grant to the International 
Office of Migration (IOM).  The MHLW reported that last 
year, 112 women were protected in private and public 
shelters, and IOM representatives told us that they helped 
50 women return home with the government's support. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In addition, during an October 11 inter-agency 
meeting set up for G/TIP Senior Coordinator for Reports 
Mark Taylor, MOFA officials told us that Japan has held 
bilateral meetings with 11 source countries including the 
Philippines (2004), Indonesia (2006), and Thailand (2006). 
As part of the Japan-Thailand Joint Task Force on Counter 
TIP, a Japanese Immigration Officer has been in Bangkok for 
the past year training Thai officials to recognize 
fraudulent Japanese documents.  According to Japanese 
Consular officials, few Thais enter Japan on entertainer 
visas; most victims have entered the country using 
 
TOKYO 00006538  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
fraudulent documents.  Reports from private shelter 
operators that the number of Thai women working in brothels 
and clubs in Japan appears to have decreased significantly 
in the past year support the Japanese government's claim 
that the Bangkok Immigration Officer training program is 
helping to keep Thai women out of the sex trade. 
 
Measures Forcing Traffickers to Change their Business Model 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
¶7.  (SBU) In Osaka and Tokyo, the number of establishments 
selling sex with women under coercive conditions has 
fallen, according to several contacts that conduct research 
on sex trafficking in the cities' red light districts. 
Police are taking advantage of the new Law on Control and 
Improvement of Amusement Businesses to shut down egregious 
violators in large numbers.  Restrictions on advertising 
are also being enforced, compelling consultants in the "Sex 
Service Information Centers" that replaced many of the 
brothels to remove the posters from their interior and 
exterior walls and wait for clients inside instead of 
hawking their service on the corners.  A photojournalist 
who published a book about Kabukicho, Tokyo's most famous 
red-light district, told us that this crackdown has 
noticeably reduced the seedy appearance of the 
neighborhood. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Fewer trafficking victims are escaping to private 
or public shelters this year, according to shelter 
directors.  We asked about this in every meeting, and our 
contacts cited a variety of positive and negative trends in 
the sex industry to explain this change.  On one hand, the 
situation in some sex shops has improved, especially in 
urban centers.  Restrictions on visas have made workers 
more valuable and their escape more costly, forcing some 
brothel owners to provide better working conditions and 
salary.  The influx of women holding spouse visas who tend 
to be familiar with Japan, as well as know their rights and 
some Japanese language, has also put upward pressure on 
hostess-club salaries and conditions.  As the demand for 
foreign wives in rural Japan increases, brokers are taking 
advantage of this widening immigration channel to traffic 
women into Japan, according to Japanese Consular Officials 
and shelter operators. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Absent stricter punishment for brokers and club 
owners, however, the economics of hard-core exploitative 
trafficking have not changed.  To maintain the 
astronomically high profits of trafficking women for sex, 
many brokers have shifted into "Delivery Health" services, 
a representative from an NGO specializing in migrant labor 
explained.  One advantage of this model for the traffickers 
is that a "bodyguard" accompanies the victim to and from 
the call, eliminating any opportunity for escape. 
Representatives from JNATIP say that the conditions in 
rural areas are as bad as ever, far away from NGO scrutiny 
or central government law enforcement activity.  A former 
police reporter and TIP researcher agreed with JNATIP's 
assertion, saying that entrance to the clubs with the worst 
working conditions has become more restrictive, usually by 
membership or referral only. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Brokers are also using more coercive 
psychological methods to control women, minimizing the 
numbers who attempt to flee, sources explained.  Globalized 
communication means that victims must fear retaliation 
against their families more than ever, the migrant labor 
NGO worker said.  TIP activists who work with victims also 
report that many clubs wait three months before requiring 
the women to engage in sex.  Because they don't receive 
their wages until the end of the six-month stay, most women 
choose to "stick-it-out" and prostitute themselves rather 
than lose three months of investment.  Even in hostess 
clubs that do not provide sexual services, punishing women 
who do not meet quotas psychologically compels them to 
sleep with clients in order to persuade them to become 
regular customers, said the director of a half-way house 
for former Filipina hostesses. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Police misconceptions about the definition of 
 
TOKYO 00006538  003.4 OF 005 
 
 
"victim" are still evident in many areas, sources related. 
Women found working in clubs and sex shops during police 
raids are still often treated as illegal aliens by 
default.  Social workers running a shelter for victims in 
Kanagawa say that the police often adopt a negative 
attitude towards women who say they want to stay and work 
in Japan, deporting them as illegals, even though they were 
freed from obviously coercive conditions.  According to the 
shelter representatives, a woman must say she wants to go 
back to her country immediately in order to be classified 
as a victim and receive special-stay status. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The fact that the sex industry has become less 
visible also makes it harder to measure the extent of 
trafficking and harder to investigate it.  Embassy contacts 
in the Osaka Office of the National Police Agency report 
that the police do not like to investigate human 
trafficking cases; it takes too many officer-hours to close 
a case and is not career enhancing.  In addition, 
restrictions on long-term undercover work and the 
nonexistence of plea-bargaining in Japan impose limitations 
on the ability of police to investigate TIP cases.  NGO 
representatives agree that although the decreasing 
visibility of Japan's trafficking problem is a sign of 
progress, it makes the road ahead even more difficult. 
 
Despite Good Intentions, Some Backsliding on Protection 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
¶13.  (SBU) As part of its 2004 action plan to fight human 
trafficking, Japan designated its prefectural Women's 
Consulting Centers (WCC) as shelters for victims of 
trafficking.  Originally only used as shelters for victims 
of domestic violence, we could see in a visit to the 
Kanagawa shelter with G/TIP Mark Taylor that shelters 
currently lack the resources they need to provide adequate 
services to TIP victims.  While private shelters usually 
have full-time staff able to speak seven or more languages, 
the WCCs must rely on interpretation services from outside 
providers.  Even the Kanagawa WCC, referred to by NGOs as 
the "Cadillac of WCCs," had full-time ability to provide 
counseling only in Japanese.  Without counseling in their 
native language by professionals familiar with the special 
needs of trafficking victims, the foreign women staying at 
WCCs elect to repatriate as quickly as possible.  Private 
shelter representatives say they are worried that the WCCs 
are just repatriation centers, and not providers of 
protection or rehabilitation. 
 
¶14.  (U) The Japanese government earmarked USD 100,000 in 
April 2005 for subsidizing victims' stays in private NGO 
shelters that specialize in assisting victims of human 
trafficking.  According to MOFA contacts, of the total 112 
victims protected in all shelters, 52 were protected using 
this fund in fiscal year 2005.  However, this year no 
victims have been referred to private shelters.  Victims 
will only be sent to private shelters in the case of WCC 
overflow, the director of the MHLW's office responsible for 
WCCs told Embassy and G/TIP officers October 11. 
 
¶15.  (U) Critics of Japan's protection policies also 
complain that financial realities preclude any alternative 
to repatriation.  Although Japan has a law to distribute 
seized assets to victims of crime, TIP victims are not 
eligible for this compensation, according to JNATIP 
lawyers.  Victims of trafficking are also ineligible for 
social welfare and are not authorized to work, forcing them 
to return to their country of origin, whether voluntarily 
via the special stay permit or by deportation.  Although 
Japan has made grants to organizations assisting 
repatriated victims of human trafficking in their home 
countries, there isn't any systematic assistance provided 
to victims who return home, where they face discrimination 
and further psychological trauma. 
 
Prosecution not Sufficient to be a Deterrent 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶16.  (U) A suspended sentence remains the most common 
punishment meted out by Japanese prosecutors for those 
convicted of TIP-related crimes.  In 2005, only six out of 
 
TOKYO 00006538  004.4 OF 005 
 
 
75 convictions resulted in incarceration with an average 
two-year sentence, according to Ministry of Justice 
statistics.  All but one of the six offenders who were 
imprisoned were foreigners.  Police, government officials, 
and NGO representatives all agree that Japanese organized 
crime syndicates (the Yakuza) are the controlling investors 
in the sex industry, but so far only one Yakuza member has 
been prosecuted.  Ministry of Justice officials say that it 
is "difficult to tell the level of involvement" of the 
owners of bars and clubs selling the sexual services of 
trafficking victims.  The reality is that without a program 
to encourage victim testimony, long-term undercover work by 
the police, or the ability to plea bargain, it is extremely 
difficult to build a case, a National Police Agency 
official explained.  In addition, an entrenched reluctance 
to move against the sex establishments persists, according 
to a JNATIP lawyer, noting that although buying sexual 
services is illegal in Japan, clients are never arrested 
and the establishments are permitted to operate relatively 
unconstrained. 
 
Comment and Action Request 
-------------------------- 
¶17.  (U) Japan is clearly making progress in preventing TIP 
activities, as demonstrated by the gradual shut down of sex 
shops throughout the country and the marked decline in the 
number of women entering the country on entertainer visas. 
The picture on protection of victims and prosecution of 
perpetrators, however, is not as positive.  Women's 
Consulting Centers need more resources, especially 
interpretation services, in order to be effective as 
shelters for foreign trafficking victims.  Some activists 
have also suggested that the Centers also serve as 
reception centers for private shelters that specialize in 
TIP victims.  Separately, Japanese prosecutors are lagging 
behind the rest of the government in taking significant 
measures to address the crime of human trafficking. 
 
¶18.  (U) ACTION REQUEST: Embassy Tokyo requests that the 
Department provide a non-binding roadmap to Tier 1 
classification under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 
for presentation to Japanese officials.  Following are the 
Embassy's suggestions for inclusion in the roadmap. 
 
a.  Increase prosecutions using the new trafficking law. 
Increase the percentage of convictions that result in 
incarceration.  Use longer sentences according to the 
guidelines of the new trafficking law. 
 
b.  Increase the availability of native language counseling 
to victims. 
 
c.  Provide compensation from seized criminal assets and/or 
public welfare assistance to victims.  Encourage victims to 
file suits against their former employers and/or 
participate in prosecutions. 
 
d.  Fully utilize earmark for sheltering victims in private 
shelters. 
 
e.  Create a program to verify employment and exit of 
Filipina nurses and caregivers coming to Japan under the 
new Free Trade Agreement. 
 
f.  Create one centralized, nation-wide hotline for 
victims, available in multiple languages. 
 
g.  Sponsor police and prosecutors to travel to the United 
States for liaison/training in the Voluntary Visitor 
program. 
 
h.  Organize broad prosecutor participation in a digital 
videoconference with Department of Justice prosecutors. 
 
i.  Create special anti-trafficking units within the 
National Police Agency. 
 
j.  Distribute awareness-raising materials more widely, 
including posting in commercial/nongovernmental locations. 
 
TOKYO 00006538  005.4 OF 005 
 
 
DONOVAN