RESULTS OF A RECENT CONFERENCE ON COMBATING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TOKYO 002780 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP: CHRIS CHAN-DOWNER E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2019 TAGS: KTIP KWMN PHUM JA SUBJECT: RESULTS OF A RECENT CONFERENCE ON COMBATING COMMERCIAL AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN S.E. ASIA REF: TOKYO 2458 TOKYO 00002780 001.4 OF 003 Classified By: DCM James P. Zumwalt per reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: According to a recent conference held in Tokyo, despite strong efforts by the Government of Japan to improve law enforcement cooperation between Japan and its major source countries, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia -efforts which have resulted in good working relations for identifying TIP victims- the commercial sexual exploitation of children remains a problem in S. E. Asia. Although tourists from Japan, China, and Korea now rank as the largest source countries for tourists to the region, arrests of citizens from Korea and China for child sex tourism are non-existent, and only a small number of Japanese have been arrested. The pornography and child pornography industries, which are closely linked to child sex tourism, also continue to exhibit robust growth. The pervasive use of internet-mediated sex worker-client, and child-sexual exploiter meeting methods (including "virtual" sex), complicates law-enforcement efforts and betokens an aggressive, worldwide new face to this phenomena. END SUMMARY. THE 8TH SEMINAR -------------- ¶2. (U) As part of Japanese government efforts to be the leader in Asia in anti-TIP efforts, the National Police Agency (NPA) hosted "The 8th Seminar on Combating the Commercial and Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia" on November 25 and 26. Day one featured presentations by police investigators from Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Cambodia on the current state of affairs. IOM (International Organization of Migration) outlined the role it is playing in helping to identify and reintegrate victims in the region. Carmen Madrinan, Executive Director of ECPAT (End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes),analyzed the changing face of the problem and the problem of under-identification. Day two was devoted to working-level seminars between police investigators in the region. As Makoto Kinugasa, Chief of the NPA's (National Police Agency) Juvenile Protection Office put it, "By establishing personal relationships with the officers in the region it has made it much easier for us reach out to each other and cooperate." On the Japanese side, police officers from all of Japan's 43 prefectures were in attendance. JAPAN'S NEW ANTI-CHILD PORN PROGRAM -------------- ¶3. (C) Asked to comment on media reports that the NPA had set up a special unit to combat child pornography on the Internet (consisting of five officers with experience in high-tech crimes and foreign language ability),Kinugasa said "this is part of a 'Strategic Program to Combat Child Pornography'" that went into effect in June 2009. The program has three areas of focus: investigation, prevention of the circulation of child pornography (including raising awareness),and assistance for child victims. The NPA has already started an Internet Hotline Center to report illegal imagery, and an Anonymous Reporting System for Protecting Children and Women. This latter system was put in place to facilitate reporting on the criminal exploitation of juveniles, and trafficking in persons, crimes that are unlikely to be reported by the victims themselves and which often tend to go unnoticed. ¶4. (C) Asked about the new Japanese administration's plans for introducing a bill to criminalize the simple possession of child pornography, Masahiro Nakagawa, Professor at the TOKYO 00002780 002.6 OF 003 National Police University said, "It doesn't appear to criminalize simple possession per se, rather it criminalizes downloading these images with the 'intent to possess.' From the law enforcement point of view this isn't ideal, but we think the law will still be useful." Nakagawa added that the NPA's Strategic Program and the new special unit were created partially in anticipation of a new anti-child porn law being passed. JAPAN'S FOUR LAWS: STATISTICS -------------- ¶5. (U) Japan at present uses four laws to prosecute people suspected of being involved in the commercial sexual exploitation of children. These are: the Prostitution Prevention Act; the Child Welfare Act; the Act on Punishment of Activities Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Protection of Children, and; the Youth Protection Ordinance. From 2000 through 2008 there has been a gradual increase in the total number of arrests under these four laws: from 4,518 in 2000, to 5,318 in 2008. Similarly, there has been an increase in the number of child victims identified under these four laws: from 3,749 in 2000, to 5,019 in 2008. Arrests related to child prostitution showed an interesting trend: starting at 985 in 2000, they peaked at 1,902 in 2002, and have steadily declined since to reach 1,056 in 2008. This decline corresponds with a decreased use of "telephone club" businesses and an increased use of on-line dating sites, and social networking sites as the medium of contact. ¶6. (C) Over the same period, the number of arrests for child pornography in Japan has increased from 170 in 2000, to 676 in 2008. The number of child pornography victims identified over this period rose from 123 in 2000, to 351 in 2008 with 436 reported in the first six months of 2009. This is against a background of a Japanese pornographic DVD market that has increased in scale from 1,820,000,000 yen (21,105,800 USD) in 2003, to 77,100,000,000 yen (893,946,124 USD) in 2008. The Japanese 'manga" (comic) market for 2007 was estimated to have reached the 3.6 billion USD level. (Note: Estimates are that some 30 to 40% of manga content is of a sexual nature, much of it involving school girls and children in sado-masochistic and/or rape scenarios. Experts report Japanese child-porn sites are also easily found on the Internet. End Note) FEW ARRESTS FOR CHILD SEX TOURISM IN S.E. ASIA -------------- - ¶7. (C) Director Madrinan in her presentation pointed to the fact that 5 out of 10 ASEAN countries were popular destinations for child sex tourism (CST). Of concern however is the fact that although Japan, China, and Korea rank NO.1, NO.2, and NO.3 respectively in numbers of tourists traveling to this region, there have been virtually no arrests of nationals from these countries. (Note: Between 1998 and 2008 a total of six Japanese have been arrested for CST. End Note) Asked on the margins of the seminar to explain this phenomena Madrinan said, "Asian child sex tourists appear to be more discrete. They patronize Japanese-only, or Chinese-only exclusive 'clubs.' Moreover, an Asian man with an Asian child does not stand out so easily." Madrinan said she also agreed with the observations of the Thai police that "when arrests are made, they inevitably find video-taping equipment also." A NEW TYPE OF GLOBAL CHILD PROSTITUTION PHENOMENA -------------- --- TOKYO 00002780 003.4 OF 003 ¶8. (C) Director Madrinan also outlined the ways in which the global phenomena of child prostitution is changing. The main features are: vulnerable children provide information that makes contact possible; there is no middleman or pimp involved and often no overt evidence of poverty; the exploiters access and groom children via mobile phones and the internet; exchanges include prized commodities and not just money. She listed the vulnerability factors as: pressures of consumerism; media influence; social and peer pressure; sexualization of children; lack of communication with the adult world; loneliness and feelings of inadequacy; exposure to child pornography. On the margins of the seminar Director Madrinan said, "Japan has created a context and environment that makes it easy to domestically traffic women. The Japanese are under-identifying their trafficking problem because they are misidentifying the real context." Madrinan added that this new internet-based child prostitution phenomena was in fact a worldwide phenomena, and pointed to that fact the cases she cited in her presentation were from the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, and Portugal. ¶9. (C) COMMENT. Japan is making major efforts to address its TIP problem. It is in fact the leader amongst Asian countries in terms of establishing working-level police cooperation, providing funding for anti-TIP grassroots and institutional-level programs in source countries, and setting up bilateral and regional MoUs for identifying, protecting, and rehabilitating TIP victims. The NPA in particular has also recognized that what is essentially domestic trafficking is also occurring. To combat this and protect young Japanese women and children it has started a strategic program to combat child pornography, including a special Internet child porn unit. Statistics on arrests using the four laws which Japanese employ in this area show sophistication on the part of the NPA for tracking the new and expanding Internet-based solicitation phenomena. ¶10. (C) Although Japan has been criticized for the declining number of foreign TIP victims identified annually (from a peak in 2005),when the number of arrests, and domestic (trafficking) victims identified are taken into consideration two conclusions emerge: 1) Japan is probably having some success in its anti-TIP efforts in so far as foreign victims are concerned, and this fact (coupled perhaps with a declining Japanese economy) has increased the number of domestic trafficking cases, (as Japanese NGOs have also reported); 2) the apparent decrease in identified TIP victims may be an artifact of the reporting: although the number victims identified under anti-TIP laws has been decreasing, as the GOJ has often said, the number of victims identified using all of the above-mentioned laws, has in fact been increasing. The low number of arrests for child sex tourism of Japanese nationals is certainly an issue of concern, but at least some arrests have been made, while there are no arrests of citizens from that of the other main sources of tourism to S. E. Asia, including Korea (which enjoys a Tier 1 ranking in the TIP Report). END COMMENT. ROOS