11/01/04 19:53:08 giaXeIRg0
JAPAN (Tier 2)
Japan is a destination, and to a much lesser extent, source and
transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking
in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Male
and female migrant workers from China, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Vietnam, and other Asian countries are sometimes subject to conditions
of forced labor. Some women and children from East Asia, Southeast
Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia, South America, and Latin America who
travel to Japan for employment or fraudulent marriage are forced into
prostitution. Japanese organized crime syndicates (the Yakuza) are
believed to play a significant role in trafficking in Japan, both
directly and indirectly. Traffickers strictly control the movements of
victims, using debt bondage, threats of violence, and other coercive
psychological methods to control victims. The media and NGOs continue
to report abuses of the Industrial Trainee and Technical Internship
Program (the “foreign trainee program”), including debt bondage,