Since the 1980s, nongovernment organizations have identified Japan as a haven of human trafficking. For more than two decades, Japanese authorities closed their eyes to violations of human and labor rights, including its regulations prohibiting foreigners from working as hostesses.

The situation in Japan was unique since working in its nightclubs and bars was considered a relatively good employment opportunity. The 2005 International Labor Organization (ILO) report Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Japan, for instance, says that Japan’s entertainment industry generally offers “highly paid, low-risk work without provision of sexual services.”

Industry pioneers say there was a small sector within its ranks that was responsible for illegal activities such as prostitution and exploitative working conditions. But since Japan’s entertainment industry is so huge, the “small” problem areas could still mean thousands falling into sexual slavery.

The initial batches of Filipino entertainers sent to Japan were “real performing artists” for hotels and clubs. But as more and more clubs opened during its economic boom in the 1980s, the demand shifted to hostesses, young women who sit with customers, serve them drinks, and go on dates with them. Hostesses enabled clubs to earn more revenues from sales of drinks and other sales quotas. They were also pressured to “conduct sexual services to customers in order to attract steady customers,” says Keiko Tamai, Asia Foundation senior program officer and human trafficking specialist.

Mel Nuqui, executive director of the Development Action for Women Network (DAWN), says that the existence of an estimated 200,000 Japanese-Filipino children, which resulted mainly from relationships that began in nightclubs, is an indication that entertainers were encouraged to have sex with customers.

Japan’s entertainment industry was open to entertainers from all over the world, but it was the Philippines which dominated the market. There were two main reasons for this. One was the Filipino’s English-speaking ability, which made conversations with Japanese customers easier. The second was the Philippine government’s certification of entertainers as “performing artists.”

Philippine government official documents—the Artists Record Book and its predecessors—became the basis for Japan’s issuance of its three-to-six-month entertainer visas. The Philippines is the only country with such a certification system, and it allowed Japan to say that Filipino women entering Japan were not hostesses but “authentic” artists.

From 1984 to 2006, the Philippines officially deployed nearly one million Filipinos to Japan, around 90 percent of whom were entertainers. In 2003, the year before Japan adopted its action plan, the Japanese government said there were 80,048 Filipino entertainers in Japan. They made up 60 percent of all entertainers there.

By the turn of the 21st century, however, Japan began to feel the pressure from two fronts: the US government and its own civil society. Japanese officialdom had been embarrassed by the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reports, beginning in 2001, which placed Japan in the category of countries that were not doing enough to eliminate trafficking.

In the 2004 TIP Report, Japan was even placed on a special watch list, given the magnitude of “sex slavery” there and the minimal effort being done by the government. Concerned civilians also increased pressure from below with the creation of the Japan Network Against Trafficking in Persons (JNATIP), a coalition of 28 Japanese NGOs, in 2003.

In 2004, Japan finally decided that something had to be done.

Closing the Doors

The Philippines, as the largest source of entertainers for Japan, naturally became a target where reforms had to be undertaken. In the case of Filipino entertainers going to Japan, the Japanese government acknowledged that “almost all Filipino entertainers in Japan are illegally working as hostess etc. in amusement-sex related industries.”

Citing experiences of Filipino entertainers who became trafficking victims, the Japanese government said its immigration bureau “receives many appeals from victims that they are sexually exploited (nude dancing, date or dohan, prostitution, etc.)” and “sexually harassed by being touched all over the bodies, etc.”

A study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1997 reveals that 80 percent of 100 victims experienced “forced prostitution” and confiscation of their passports. In November 2004, nine Filipino victims were found in Miyazaki Prefecture; they were “battered and raped and forced sexual exploitation such as oral sex at club and prostitution.”

The US State Department’s TIP reports had identified Japan’s entertainer visas as the way by which women are able to enter the country and fall under the control of traffickers. The 2005 report, for instance, says that these visas were being used by “traffickers to enslave thousands of Filipinas in Japan each year.”

Starting in March 2005, Japan no longer accepted the Philippines’ certificate “as a fulfillment of criteria for entertainer, which is issued by the Philippine government testifying that the holder is an authentic artist.” Instead, it reverted to its old requirement—that an entertainer must have two years’ work experience in an entertainment facility outside Japan.

In December 2004, after consultations with NGOs, the Japanese government adopted a national action plan to combat trafficking in persons. It amended its penal code and passed new laws against traffickers. Instead of treating victims as criminals subject to deportation, it amended its immigration rules and gave special permission for residence to trafficking victims. The Japanese government, with the help of NGOs, began providing repatriation assistance and shelter to victims.

Bruce Reed, regional representative of the IOM in Manila, says the “whole situation is improving a lot” in Japan. “Awareness is increasing, the immigration bureau, the police, foreign affairs, all of the agencies are starting to work together more in Japan. And it’s a very positive spirit there in Japan. It changed a lot from even five years ago,” he says.
IOM has repatriated 50 Filipino trafficking victims from Japan in the past two years.

After three decades, the business of sending entertainers to Japan had become so large and so profitable that it became difficult to close it. A Philippine official once estimated that with an average of 50,000 entertainers working in Japan at any given time, and with an average of US$500 (P25,000) being deducted from entertainers and given to promoters and recruiters monthly, promoters and recruiters were raking in $25 million a month or $300 million a year.

Lorenzo Langomez, president of the Philippine Association of Recruitment Agencies Deploying Artists (PARADA), says that half a million Filipinos have been hurt by the sudden drop in deployment of entertainers to Japan.

Evading Restrictions

But it remains to be seen whether Japan’s campaign against trafficking can be considered a success. Although deployment of Filipino workers to Japan fell to a historic low of 10,615 in 2006, other routes for trafficking are being used.

A Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the Philippine government warned the Japanese government that the new system could worsen the problem of human trafficking. They raised the possibility of entertainers in Japan overstaying and becoming illegal workers. Another possibility was fake marriages to get a spouse visa.

One way out of the new restrictions was for a Filipino woman to marry a Japanese national, which would allow her to work, even as a hostess. Hostessing is banned only for foreign workers.

Andrea Anolin, executive director of Batis Center for Women, the principal NGO assisting victims from Japan, says that during a visit to a club in Japan in 2006, she met a Filipino entertainer, a graduate of Ateneo de Davao, who entered Japan through a spouse visa.

“The first time she went to Japan, she was invited by her older sister who had been working in Japan before and had married a Japanese. In order to be able to work there, they found a Japanese she could marry so she can enter. But they don’t see each other,” she says.

Anolin says authorities should also investigate the recruitment of Japanese-Filipino children of working age, mostly male, who use “visiting relatives visas” but end up working in factories.

A DFA official recalls the case of a Filipino woman, a tourist-visa holder, who wanted to marry a Japanese. As required by Philippine embassies, Filipino citizens intending to marry abroad must apply for a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage, also known as LCCM. This document is basically intended to help prevent bigamy. If a Filipino citizen is between 18 and 21, he or she must present an authenticated parental consent; if between 21 to 25, he or she has to present an authenticated parental advice.

The Filipino tourist visa holder’s birth certificate and passport were in order, but her parental advice gave her away. As stated in the advice, her parents said they were allowing their child to marry a Japanese national but the document did not specify the name of the Japanese she was going to marry. It was like signing a blank check for marriage, the official says. Thus, the embassy refused to issue her an LCCM.

An entertainment promoter, speaking to NEWSBREAK on condition of anonymity, says a Japanese syndicate now charges P150,000 for “fixed” marriage visas. “I have about 800 talents, 20 percent are already in Japan on marriage visas,” she says. “The talents are going out in that manner, and there are Japanese fixers.”

More Marriages

One indication that this is being used to go around the new system is the sudden increase in marriages between Filipinos and Japanese. Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) data show that the number of marriages between Filipinos and Japanese jumped from 5,430 in 2004 to 6,322 in 2005 to 8,601 in 2006.

From 2003 to 2004, there was a 2.5 percent increase in marriages. But from 2004 to 2005, it further went up to 16 percent, and from 2005 to 2006, after the new restrictions took effect, there was a 36 percent upsurge.

Asia Foundation’s Tamai says many of the nightclubs that haven’t been shut down have tapped former Filipino entertainers, between 30 and 40 years old, married to Japanese to work as hostesses. She says the big drop in deployment has “created new job opportunities for housewives.”

Japan’s December 2004 action plan against trafficking includes “countermeasures against false marriages.”

“Recently, many foreigners working as hostesses at drinking establishments are recognized as possessing the status of residence as ‘spouse or child of Japanese national.’ Therefore, crackdown measures will be implemented by checking identity cards of persons who possess a ‘spouse or child of Japanese national’ status of residence and investigating those who are suspicious concerning the validity of their marriage,” the action plan says. The government says it will file criminal charges and annul the status of residence of those found guilty.

Nobuki Fujimoto, of the Asian Human Rights Information Center, one of the organizations in JNATIP, says some brokers have been arrested in Japan for arranging fake marriages and suspected marriage-for-convenience.

“We are aware that the Immigration Bureau realized the increasing or alarming tendency of marriage between Japanese men and Filipinas after the requirement of entertainer visa became strict,” he says. “It is said they became more cautious in granting the spouse visa.”

Another way out of the stricter rules was to get certificates of two-year work experience in clubs, even if no such experience had been acquired. An entertainment promoter says: “The Japanese comes here to choose a girl in the clubs. Once a girl is chosen, she is issued a certificate by the club that says she has two years’ experience. If she’s under 18, they’ll doctor the birth certificate. Her papers go straight to the embassy. The applicant no longer goes through the POEA although she still uses a licensed agency. The licensed agency will process her papers just so they can earn money.”

Ferdinand Lavin, chief of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division, says he has received reports these club certificates are being sold for P10,000-P20,000. Another entertainment promoter says that although this is being resorted to, the Japanese embassy is still denying many applications for entertainer visas.

New Destinations

Tamai says new destinations have opened up for entertainers as a result of Japan’s stricter policies. “Interestingly, Korea has relaxed in accepting Filipino entertainers,” she says. (See related story.)

“Some syndicates have transferred operations to Hong Kong and Singapore, because things have become stricter in Japan,” says Ricardo Paras, acting chief of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking-Department of Justice (IACAT-DOJ).

Anolin says Japan should conduct an assessment of its action plan to see if “it reduced trafficking to Japan or have we merely dispersed the problem. Maybe they’re going to other countries. If it’s the same kind of work, then it means new destination countries for trafficking victims.”

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This story was made possible with support provided by The Asia Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development under the terms of Award No. 492-A-00-06-00034-00. The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Asia Foundation or the U.S. Agency for International Development."

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