Japan Makes Progress to Eliminate Human Trafficking: U.S. Report

June 29, 2018

Washington- The Japanese government made "key achievements" to eliminate human trafficking, the U.S. Department of State said in an annual report on Thursday.

These achievements included "establishing a new interagency task force to combat child sex trafficking" in so-called JK businesses--dating services connecting adult men with underage girls, said the department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2018. JK stands for "joshi kosei," which means high school girls in Japanese.

For the first time ever, Japan was placed in the Tier 1 category, the highest on a scale of four created by the department for assessing countries' action to combat human trafficking.

Japan was upgraded after being kept in the Tier 2 category, second from the top, for 13 straight years.

The department also welcomed Japan's accession to the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the department said there are key areas of improvement that remain for Japan.

"Authorities continue to prosecute traffickers under laws carrying lesser sentences, which courts often suspended in lieu of incarceration," the official said.

Elsewhere in the latest report, Myanmar was downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest category, partly due to its use of child soldiers. The report also expressed concern over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in the Southeast Asian country.

China, North Korea and Russia were also placed in the Tier 3 category.

The department started releasing the human trafficking report in 2001. Jiji Press