At least 40,000 women, mainly Filipinas, Thais, Colombians, East Europeans or Chinese, work in Japan's sex industry, and the gangsters who bring them in and exploit them operate with virtual impunity, according to experts.
Economic stagnation has changed nothing. Japan still represents an Eldorado for the latter day slaves, especially those from countries such as Colombia which is suffering from economic hardship and civil war.
"Why Japan? Because it is a haven for traffickers, there are no penal laws to punish human trafficking. It is the second economy in the world and the people involved can earn exorbitant sums," said Omaira Rivera, a social worker at the Colombian embassy, at a conference organized by the Asia Foundation and the International Labour Organisation.
Citing justice ministry figures, Asian People Together (APT), a support group based in Kyoto, said that as of Jan. 1 last year 106,000 foreign women had overstayed their visa.
Three quarters of them had entered on a temporary visa and "nearly half of the undocumented female workers in Japan in 2000 worked as bar hostesses."
In addition, a significant proportion of the 50,000 six-month artist visas issued by the immigration authorities annually are destined for sex workers, according to experts.
Heafty profits
The constant influx of foreign women is reflected in the huge turnover of Japan's sex industry, widely acknowledged as worth ?10 trillion yen a year.
Almost all of it is earned by Japanese and international organized crime with the acquiescence of the police, according to APT.
Even if the newcomers know deep down before they arrive that they cannot expect to get away with just talking to customers in the hostess bars, strip joints, and massage parlors, the reality of prostitution is often much worse than they expect, the experts stressed.
The women are usually sold for three million to five million yen (US$25,400 to US$42,400) by their recruiters to the yakuza (mafia), who keep the unlucky ones shut up in brothels where they must service up to 15 clients a day.
The others are put to work in "pink" bars and "aesthetic salons" that abound in the nightlife districts in large Japanese cities, prostitution being officially illegal.
"When they arrive, they are told they are in debt bondage, sometimes for up to seven million yen," for the cost of the air ticket, food and lodging, said Keiko Otsu, director of the Asian Women's Shelter HELP.
False debts
"Those debts are false debts," she said.
"They are under debt bondage so they are actually forced to prostitution, confined 24 hours a day, monitored all the time."
Otsu believes Japan's economic woes have made things even worse because until about 10 years ago, a woman could pay off her debt and go home within a few months, "but now they can't give it back even after two or four years," she said.
Since they are staying illegally in Japan, the women have no right to social security benefits and often fail to seek treatment, which is very expensive without health insurance, even if seriously ill.
"In the past 15 months, we were confronted with 50 cases of death through AIDS," said Thailand's ambassador to Japan, Kasit Piromya.
"They did not go to hospitals because they were afraid and had no money," said Kasit who is very active in the fight against trafficking.
Every day, one or two Thai women trying to flee prostitution seek refuge at the embassy, Kasit said.
At present, it is often the women who are punished -- arrested for illegal immigration and deported -- with no regard for their suffering, experts said.
Lawyer Yoko Yoshida, a director of APT, was also sceptical about the authorities' good intentions, pointing out that Japan already has, but rarely uses, laws against abduction or confinement because foreign sex workers are still not perceived as victims.
"It never comes to court, and if it does, the perpetrators [traffickers and pimps] are never penalized, they only get a fine."
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