Free Human Trafficking Around the World by Stephanie Hepburn Page B

promote them within that organization” (McCurry, 2009, p. 26). Yakuza networks work with organized crime groups from other nations, such as China, Russia, and Colombia. One example involves a Colombian woman living in Tokyo who acted as a broker between Japanese and foreign organized crime networks and a theater for nude dancing in Okinawa. The woman enticed Colombian women and girls with false promises of work as waitresses. Upon arrival in Japan the women were forced to work as nude dancers (Vital Voices, 2004; PBS, 2009).
    Prior to adoption of the national action plan, immigration law was typically used to arrest traffickers. In June 2004 Okinawa police arrested the Colombian broker for offenses against the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law on the grounds that the trafficked women were working without work visas (Vital Voices, 2004; PBS, 2009). Immigration law was also utilized to secure the 2002 arrest and prosecution of trafficker Koichi “Sony” Hagiwara. The former head of Japan’s largest known human trafficking ring was arrested for brokering two Colombian women into the sex industry. He was sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment and a fine of $3,321.71 (Vital Voices, 2004; PBS, 2009).
    Commercial sexual exploitation is the only acknowledged form of trafficking under Japanese law. Forced labor is largely ignored and overlooked. After an official visit to Japan in 2009, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the United Nations special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, noted in her preliminary report: “Although trafficking for prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation constitute the vast majority of the recorded cases in Japan, trafficking for labor exploitation is also of great concern” (OHCHR, 2009b). Forced labor is prohibited but essentially unenforced. Under Article 5 of the Labor Standards Act, “An employer shall not force workers to work against their will by means of physical violence, intimidation, confinement, or any other unfair restraint on the mental or physical freedom of the workers.” Offenders face 1 to 10 years’ imprisonment or a fine of between $2,615.32 and $39,233.95 (Labor Standards Act, 2005).
    Forced-labor victims seem to be made up primarily of foreign migrants, but it would not be a surprise if some of the marginalized Nikkei population—Japanese emigrants and their descendants—were also affected. Most of the Nikkei who have returned to Japan are from Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. In 1990 the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act was revised to allow Nikkei back into Japan under the visa status of long-term resident for up to three years, which can be renewed. The work available to them is typically short-term and low-wage labor (MOFA, 2000; Sour strawberries, 2008). Taro Kono, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and at the time a senior vice-minister for justice, said the policy was changed in order to obtain cheap labor. “I was in charge of this immigration,” Kono told National Public Radio in a 2009 interview “I apologize to those Brazilians or Peruvians who came to Japan with high hope[s]. Our policy was very wrong. We just wanted the cheap labor, but we don’t want to open our market to … foreign countries” (Kuhn, 2009).
    In the current global economic crisis, Japan’s unemployment has been on the rise. In order to reduce these numbers, the government of Japan has encouraged unemployed Nikkei to leave. They are given at least $3,000 plus $2,000 per dependent if they repatriate to the nation whence they originally emigrated (McCabe, Yi-Ying Lin, & Tanaka, 2009; Arudou, 2009). James Farrer said the general population disapproves of this move by the government.
    Japan has a complex view of migrant workers. Currently, there is public support for a more progressive policy that is welcoming to foreigners. The Nikkei were presumably allowed into Japan because they were persons of Japanese origin whose ancestors had been sent away as part of