ASIA-CHILDREN: Japan Urged to Turn up the Heat on Child Abusers

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 2 1996 (IPS) - Child rights activists are stepping up pressure on the Japanese government to enact new laws to deter rich Japanese men from sexually abusing young and poor children in less developed Asian countries.

Activists say more and more young girls and boys in the Philippines and Thailand are falling prey to sexual exploitation by Japanese and Westerners, who if caught, often bribe parents and police alike to prevent prosecution.

And even when brought to trial, the activists say the men walk away from the courts with a mere fine, but would almost certainly have faced long prison terms if tried in Tokyo.

Current Japanese laws on sexual crime against minors stipulate that those accused of having sex with a child under 13 years — in Japan or overseas — can be tried only if the victim’s parent or guardian files charges within a period of six months.

What the activists are seeking is more cooperation among regional governments and an extension of the Japanese time-limit for which suspected abusers can be brought to trial in Japan. In this way, they want suspected abusers tried in Tokyo even if the alleged crimes take place in another country.

“The going is tough at the moment. The government is dragging its feet on the issue,” charges Shiro Yoshioka, of the Campaign to Stop Prostitution of Asian Children and Protect Their Rights, an Japanese non-governmental organisation (NGO) comprised of parliamentarians, academics, lawyers, and concerned citizens.

“These laws more or less allow Japanese paedophiles to get away scot-free,” says Yoshioka who points out that two Japanese men who had been convicted in 1991 for molesting Filipina children, are now living in Japan after paying minor fines in the Philippines when they were caught.

According to documents provided by the NGO, the two men faced charges of raping and taking obscene pictures of boys and girls between the ages of seven to 13-years-old. They paid the children for their services.

Activists here report that another 38-year-old man posing as a paediatrician, forced nine children to have sex with him. He also took photographs of the children naked and involved in various sexual acts.

Yet, say activists who obtained court documents of the trial, the man was only fined 90,000 yen (900 dollars) when convicted on related charges, and is now back in Japan.

“(The judges and police) do not understand the loss of dignity, the problems the children face, and hand out light sentences to the offenders,” says Amihan Abueva, executive secretary of the Bangkok-based End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT).

ECPAT, formed in 1990, is planning to hold a major meeting on the issue in Sweden in August. The organisation estimates there are now more than a million child prostitutes in Asia.

The Philippines and India each have some 300,000 juveniles working in the sex industry, while Thailand and Taiwan each have about 100,000 child sex workers.

“The resources being devoted to the issue are very, very minimal,” Abueva told IPS in an interview in Bangkok this week. “We spend millions of dollars (to combat child prostitution), but we are talking about a billion-dollar industry.”

Child rights activists note that poverty and to a large extent ignorance, are the main contributing factors. Parents often willingly allow their children to engage in illicit acts because they need the money. As a consequence, parents are often reluctant to come forward and testify.

Persuading uneducated and poverty-stricken people, who in some cases have actually sold their children to pimps in order to survive, to come forward and identify the criminal is not easy, notes Yoshioka. Furthermore, investigating cases where the police themselves have been bribed also takes a long time, he added.

“A time period of six months (to bring a Japanese sex offender to court) is too short when you are facing this kind of situation in poor countries,” Yoshioka explained.

Lawyer Genji Tsuda, an expert on the issue, agrees. “What we need, he suggests “is a new law that would empower a third party, like a non-governmental organisation, to represent the victim. It would ease the barriers we face.”

According to Tsuda, “The laws assume that parents are in control of their children. In many of the cases we follow, pimps dupe parents telling them their children are working in restaurants.”

Another major problem say Japanese activists, is that laws across the region often do not protect the privacy of the children because it forces them to give testimony in open court.

In many conservative Asian countries female victims and their parents are reluctant to reveal themselves fearing the consequences of ostracism in their society.

Activists in Tokyo are pressing the government to enact new laws before the ECPAT meeting.

Draft legislation also addresses the sale of child pornography which is on widely available in Japan in magazines or on through the Internet service. Japanese laws do not prohibit the sale of such material through Internet.

“Politicians must take the initiative in this issue. New laws would improve Japan’s image as a responsible member of the international community,” said Seiko Noda, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, the senior partner in the coalition government.

But while the campaign has some parliamentary support Yoshioka laments that some sectors of Japanese society view child prostitution as a necessary evil that should be tolerated.

“We come-up against arguments such as poor people need to sell their children to be able to combat poverty. Some people point out that even in Japan the practice was rampant soon after World War ll when the nation was struggling to survive,” said Yoshioka.