VZCZCXRO7329
PP RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHJO RUEHKW RUEHMA
RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHVC
DE RUEHKO #5646/01 3550544
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 210544Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0530
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCLC/CHILD LABOR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCRI/VIENNA CRIME COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA PRIORITY 5122
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA PRIORITY 3826
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA PRIORITY 7518
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE PRIORITY 8787
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO PRIORITY 5752
RHMFIUU/FBI WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/JUSTICE DEPT WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TOKYO 005646 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EAP/J - MARC JACKSON, G/TIP - MARK TAYLOR, EAP/RSP - RUTH 
KURZBAUER, L/LEI - SUSAN TORRES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM KCRM KWMN JA
SUBJECT: TIP: FINAL CLARIFICATION OF JAPAN'S ROADMAP TO 
TIER 1 
 
REF: A. TOKYO 3186 
 
     ¶B. HANSEN + G/TIP + EAP/J + EAP/RSP + L/LEI EMAIL 
     ¶C. TOKYO 4953 
     ¶D. TOKYO 3955 
     ¶E. TOKYO 3817 
 
TOKYO 00005646  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  This cable contains an action request.  Please see 
paragraph 4. 
 
¶2.  Japan has begun taking steps to follow the "Roadmap to 
Tier 1" (Ref A), MOFA International Organized Crime Division 
TIP Officer Hiroko Sasahara told us December 20.  Embassy 
Tokyo Political Officer delivered Ref B's "Clarification of 
Tier 1 Roadmap" (full text in paragraph 5) to explain and 
answer the Japanese government's Ref E concerns about the 
"Roadmap to Tier 1."  Sasahara described a number of Roadmap 
Actions that the government is working on including securing 
native-language counseling for victims, posting warnings 
about child sex tourism in airports, and studying victim 
identification procedures.  She said that she will forward 
the new document to the other members of Japan's anti-TIP 
inter-ministerial committee. 
 
¶3.  Sasahara asked for specific examples of trafficking 
crimes that the United States does not believe are 
criminalized by Japanese law.  Noting that there are 225 
possible combinations of the Act, Means, and Purpose elements 
trafficking in persons, Sasahara said that Ministry of 
Justice officials believe that they have already provided 
numerous examples of prosecuted trafficking cases, and would 
like to know what specific crimes remain in doubt. 
 
¶4.  ACTION REQUEST:  Please provide Post with specific 
combinations of the Act, Means, and Purpose that the 
Department doesn't believe are criminalized by Japanese law. 
 
¶5.  Begin paper text: 
 
------------------------------- 
Clarification of Tier 1 Roadmap 
------------------------------- 
 
--Summary-- 
 
On July 2, 2007, the U.S. Government delivered a roadmap for 
meeting the Minimum Standards of the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act (TVPA) to the Japanese Government.  To clarify 
the Tier 1 Roadmap, and to answer the Japanese Government's 
concerns over the roadmap, the United States presents the 
following clarification: 
 
--General Clarification-- 
 
The "Actions" of the Tier 1 Roadmap with their corresponding 
suggestions for "best practices" were designed specifically 
for Japan in order to provide the information necessary for 
Japan to achieve a Tier 1 ranking in the TIP Report.  They 
are directly linked to the minimum standards in the U.S. 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (the "Act" or "TVPA"), 
which the Department of State is required to apply in 
assessing the anti-TIP efforts of every country with a 
significant number of victims of severe forms of trafficking 
in persons, as defined in the Act. 
 
Although the specific action items identified by the United 
States for a country to improve its Tier ranking in the TIP 
Report may differ from country to country, the U.S. 
Government has defined steps that all countries must take to 
demonstrate compliance with the minimum standards.  For 
example, to achieve a Tier 1 ranking, all countries must 
demonstrate a proactive and systematic effort to identify 
victims of trafficking by law enforcement officials as well 
as other front line responders. (An example of these 
procedures can be found in UNODC's "Toolkit to Combat 
Trafficking in Persons," starting on page 104: 
www.unodc.org/pdf/Trafficking toolkit Oct06.pdf).  For more 
information about how Tier 1 countries demonstrate compliance 
 
TOKYO 00005646  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
with the minimum standards, please see the 2007 Trafficking 
in Persons Report. 
 
--Clarification of Action 1-- 
 
Please see the document: "Clarification of Action 1." 
 
Please also note that to meet the minimum standards of the 
TVPA, Japan must provide adequate sheltering services for 
trafficking victims, both women and men.  Victim-support NGOs 
report that there are isolated cases of domestic trafficking 
in Japanese men for employment in "Host Clubs" as well as 
trafficking in foreign men for labor exploitation.  Although 
the U.S. Government has not confirmed these reports, they are 
echoed by major Japanese newspapers.  Japan's efforts to 
complete Action 1 will be evaluated in the 2008 TIP Report by 
whether the government provides adequate services to actual 
victims of human trafficking only. 
 
--Clarification of Action 2-- 
 
Minimum Standard 4, Criteria 2 of the TVPA examines whether 
governments provide victims with "legal alternatives to their 
removal to countries in which they would face retribution or 
hardship."  Trafficking victims do not qualify for social 
welfare, and the residential status authorized by Japanese 
law for victims of human trafficking prohibits them from 
operating businesses or engaging in activities for which they 
receive payment.  Without the ability to support themselves 
financially, victims have no alternative to repatriation, 
even if they will face hardship or retribution. 
 
Speedy repatriation is inevitable in Japan's current 
protection policy, regardless of possible hardship or 
retribution.  The government automatically sends identified 
victims of human trafficking to Women's Consulting Centers 
(WCCs) for temporary protection, but WCC personnel 
acknowledge that they accept victims with the understanding 
that the victims will be repatriated.  The average stay in a 
WCC is two weeks.  In addition, the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) conducts Japan's only 
assessment of the consequences of repatriation, but IOM's 
mandate is to prepare victims for repatriation.  Even if a 
victim will face hardship or retribution, IOM has no choice 
but to repatriate. 
 
Note: we learned from the International Organization for 
Migration that there may have been a victim who after being 
repatriated to her home country, was then re-trafficked into 
Japan where she was deported as an illegal immigrant. 
Neither IOM nor the Embassy was able to confirm the truth of 
the report.  To prevent cases like this from occurring, it is 
critical for Japan to implement a program to assess the 
consequences of repatriation before referring the case for 
repatriation assistance, and to provide alternatives when 
victims would face hardship or retribution if repatriated. 
 
--Clarification of Action 3-- 
 
Please see the document: "Clarification of Action 3." 
 
--Clarification of Action 4-- 
 
Minimum Standards 1-3 of the TVPA examine whether a country 
prohibits and sufficiently penalizes all "severe forms of 
trafficking in persons."  The TVPA definition of human 
trafficking can be broken into three elements: 
 
--Element 1: The act - recruiting, harboring, transporting, 
providing, or obtaining of a person 
--Element 2: The means - the use of force, fraud, or 
coercion, or where the victim is under 18 years old 
--Element 3: The purpose - commercial sexual exploitation, 
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery 
 
In order to establish that Japan's laws are comprehensive, we 
asked for evidence that any combination of one of the above 
 
TOKYO 00005646  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
three elements is criminalized by Japanese law and is 
punishable by sufficient penalties.  We understand that 
providing and obtaining a person through force for commercial 
sexual exploitation is illegal in Japan, but it is not clear 
to us whether Japanese law criminalizes other combinations of 
the elements.  For example, is it illegal to recruit a person 
through fraud for debt bondage if the recruiter receives a 
fee from the broker, but does not "sell" the person himself? 
As requested by Ambassador Lagon during his July 2, 2007 
meeting with Government of Japan officials in Tokyo, please 
provide information on trafficking cases prosecuted in Japan 
that show that Japan prohibits and sufficiently penalizes all 
combinations of the three elements, including severe forms of 
trafficking that do not involve "buying" or "selling" a 
person. 
 
--Clarification of Action 5-- 
 
The National Police Agency has been cooperative with the U.S. 
Embassy in sharing information about the decrease in the 
number of protected victims during the last year.  The United 
States requests continued cooperation from the Japanese 
Government as we prepare to write the 2008 TIP Report. 
 
Action 5 is related to Action 3, please also see the 
document: "Clarification of Action 3."  Formal training for 
law enforcement officials in victim identification procedures 
is also critical for a government to demonstrate that it 
"vigorously investigates and prosecutes" trafficking in 
persons. 
 
--Clarification of Action 6-- 
 
Although we are aware that the Ministry of Justice has 
announced that it will tighten guidelines governing the 
Industrial Trainee and Technical Internship ("foreign 
trainee") program, the United States maintains that the 
foreign trainee program is too vulnerable to abuse and should 
be eliminated.  We have heard numerous reports of working 
conditions that clearly meet the definition of trafficking in 
persons.  In every case that we reviewed, the exploited 
worker was not classified as a victim of human trafficking 
and did not have access to services provided for victims of 
sex trafficking. 
 
Note: These reports come from credible sources, including 
shelters that provided housing to trainees after they 
escaped, labor rights activists, and NGOs.  It is Department 
policy to protect the confidentiality of these meetings.  The 
U.S. Government did not independently verify the veracity of 
the reports.  Japan's efforts to complete Action 6 will be 
evaluated in the 2008 TIP Report by whether proper victim 
identification procedures are being used by official 
personnel who have contact with foreign trainees and other 
laborers, NOT by whether these procedures have a 100% success 
rate. 
 
Please see the document "Clarification of Action 3" for a 
detailed explanation of victim identification procedures that 
would meet the minimum standards of the TVPA. 
 
--Clarification of Action 7-- 
 
We are aware of the arrest under a law with extraterritorial 
application of 10 Japanese offenders during the last 7 years 
who committed acts of child sexual abuse in foreign 
countries.  We have heard a report from an NGO in a Southeast 
Asian nation that a Japanese Consular Officer assisted a 
Japanese man in returning to Japan before he could be 
prosecuted for engaging in sex with a minor child.  The U.S. 
Government was unable to verify the veracity of the report. 
Japan's efforts to complete Action 7 will be evaluated in the 
2008 TIP Report by whether the Japanese Government sends 
periodic instructions to the National Police Agency and to 
Japanese Embassies and Consulates instructing officials to 
cooperate with foreign authorities in prosecuting possible 
child sexual exploitation cases against Japanese nationals. 
 
TOKYO 00005646  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
--Clarification of Action 8-- 
 
Although the Japan Association of Travel Agents and the 
Overseas Tour Operator Association adopted the "Code of 
Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual 
Exploitation from Travel and Tourism" in 2005, Japanese men 
continue to be visibly prevalent in Southeast Asian 
neighborhoods known for child prostitution.  This information 
comes both from reports by NGOs in Japan and in Southeast 
Asia as well as from informal U.S. Government surveys. 
Japan's efforts to complete Action 8 will be evaluated in the 
2008 TIP Report by whether the government conducted a 
widespread campaign to raise public awareness of the terrible 
impact of child sex tourism and warn potential Japanese 
offenders of prosecution under the extraterritorial 
provisions of the child prostitution law.  For example, these 
warnings would be especially effective if prominently 
displayed in airport departure lounges. 
 
--Clarification of Action 9-- 
 
Please see the document explaining the U.S. position on child 
pornography legislation in Japan. 
 
End paper text. 
DONOVAN