Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Japan (Ratification: 1932)

Articles 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation. 1. The Committee notes the communications received from the Kanto Regional Council of the All Japan Shipbuilding and Engineering Union (ZENZOSEN) dated 24 May and 29 August 2005, as well as communications received from ZENZOSEN dated 27 and 28 August 2006. These communications all contain information on the problem of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation in present-day Japan. Attached to the May 2005 communication from ZENZOSEN is a report of the ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour and the ILO Office in Japan entitled “Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Japan”.

2. The Committee notes the Government’s communication dated 20 October 2005, in which it responds to the communications of ZENZOSEN in 2005, regarding the problem of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation. The Government’s report includes a summary report dated 7 December 2004 and entitled, “Japan’s Action Plan of Measures to Combat Trafficking in Persons”. This report refers to the Inter-Ministerial Liaison Committee, a task force established in April 2004 to address the problem of trafficking in persons, and it summarizes a series of measures being carried out or contemplated under the Action Plan. These include data collection activities, said to be needed to arrive at a “thorough understanding of the current situation of trafficking in persons”, as well as a series of “general and comprehensive measures to combat trafficking in persons”. The report indicates that the task force would undertake to examine and review the implementation of the Action Plan, the “status of progress in the policies of the Action Plan, information-sharing among ministries and agencies concerned and necessary policy coordination” and that in doing so, it “will cooperate and coordinate as necessary with the institutions concerned in order to protect victims of trafficking in persons”.

3. The Committee also notes the amendments in 2005 to the Penal Code and to immigration laws, which, inter alia: criminalize the act of buying and selling of persons and raises the penalty of imprisonment to seven years, ten years in the case of human trafficking for commercial purposes; institute tighter controls on the immigration and residency status of workers employed in entertainment, amusement, and sex industries; and provide for the granting of temporary residency status to protect victims of trafficking in persons.

4. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that it would provide the Committee with a report on “the full range of measures” it is taking to combat the problem of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation. The Committee requests that the Government in its next report include information regarding the ongoing work of the inter-ministerial task force as well as the results of its review and examination of progress on the implementation of the Action Plan.

5. Statistics on protection measures. The information from the MFA Internet site indicates that, in fiscal year 2005, 112 victims received protective services at Women’s Consultative Centres, an increase of 88 from the previous year, and that in April 2005 the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare began subsidizing private shelters and other facilities as an additional source of protection. The Immigration Bureau is reported to have granted temporary residency status to 47 victims in 2005 and, as of 31 March 2006, the International Office for Migration (IOM), with funding from the Government of Japan of approximately US$ 160,000, reportedly had assisted in the safe repatriation of 67 victims to their home countries.

6. Statistics on enforcement measures. The Committee notes the “Record of Trafficking in 2005” attached to the communication of the AFSEU dated 28 August 2006. This is a report of statistics for the year 2005 prepared by the Government’s National Police Community Safety Bureau, which indicates that: 83 persons were arrested (an increase of 25 from the 58 of a year earlier), of whom 57 were employers and 26 brokers; that 117 victims from nine different countries (an increase of 40 from the 77 victims of the previous year) received protection at Women’s Consulting Offices; and that the new criminal code provisions on trafficking were applied for the first time in the arrest and prosecution of a Taiwanese owner and the arrest of two Indonesian brokers on the charge of selling persons. Statistics from the MFA Internet site indicate that the number of prosecutions for trafficking in persons increased from 48 offenders in 2004 to 75 offenders in 2005.

7. The Committee hopes that the Government will continue to provide updated information regarding its efforts to address the serious problem of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation and, in particular, that it will keep the Committee informed regarding: progress (and difficulties) in the application of the 2005 Penal Code reform and other legislative amendments, including difficulties in establishing the level of documentary evidence required for proving a trafficking crime; statistics that include the number of trafficking prosecutions under the revised Penal Code that have resulted in the conviction and incarceration of traffickers.