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Sex Trafficking in Osaka (2024)

A sex trafficking case from 2024 in Osaka, Japan. 1 source on file.

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What happened

Women from Southeast Asia coerced into hostess clubs and forced prostitution. Debt bondage and deportation threats. Accused: Japanese-Filipino trafficking network.

Response and intervention

Osaka Prefectural Police anti-trafficking unit. Club operators and traffickers arrested. Japan Salvation Army trafficking program.

CSEC2008

Wakayama, Japan, 2008

Japan JP

The traffickers forced the victim, a 15-year-old, to have sex for money to cover her high phone bill. On one occasion in February 2008, the girl was forced to perform “an indecent sex act” with a man in a hotel room for 12,000 yen (£90). “Her mother was sentenced to three years and six months in prison along with a 100,000 yen (£750) fine, after being convicted of conspiring with the girl's stepfather to make the schoolgirl perform the sex act at the hotel.”

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
Forced Labor2022

Nagoya, Japan, 2022

Japan JP

Three Indonesian technical interns working for a Japanese casting company reported serious labor exploitation and unsafe working conditions. The workers performed dangerous metal-casting work and reported inadequate workplace protections, with workers suffering burns and other injuries. Their case highlighted vulnerabilities faced by foreign workers under Japan's Technical Intern Training Program. Accused: Japanese manufacturing SME and Indonesian broker.

1 source
Forced Labor2024

Tokyo, Japan, 2024

Japan JP

Foreign workers participating in Japan's Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), including workers from China, remained vulnerable to labor trafficking. Workers paid high recruitment fees to sending organizations for jobs including food processing, manufacturing, construction and other industries. Documented trafficking indicators included restricted freedom of movement and communication, confiscation of passports and other documents, wage garnishment, poor living conditions, threats of deportation or harm, and debt-based coercion. Accused: Japanese food processing companies and Chinese brokers.

1 source