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Global Monitoring Report on the Status of Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children - Japan

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ECPAT International, 2006.

Matchmaking or dating websites have become a well-known channel for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Japan. Many underage Japanese schoolgirls fall prey to ‘enjo kosai’ (‘compensated dating’) by using ‘deai kei’ websites: through which they can make their contact details available, and use pagers, computers and mobile phones (the most common method) to arrange ‘dates’ with customers who are older and often married. Research has shown that many such girls do not engage in ‘enjo kosai’ out of poverty, but rather to be able to purchase brand name clothes, bags, shoes, mobile phones, etc., which, according to them, boosts their self-esteem. They often come from dysfunctional families (sometimes middle-class) or experience problems at school. Some of them suffer the additional abuse of being videotaped during sexual activity.

Pornographic images featuring children from other Asian countries are sold in some public places and on the Internet, taking advantage of the loopholes in the anti-CSEC law enacted in 1999 and amended in 2004. Furthermore, child pornography is widely seen in ‘anime’ or ‘manga’ (Japanese comics) and in computer games, which are available in bookshops and convenience stores and often depict female child characters in pornographic and erotic contexts. Sections of civil society, including producers and consumers of child pornography, some academics and lawyers, seem to be desensitised and accepting of this form of child pornography on the grounds of ‘freedom of expression’, which is prioritised to the detriment of greater protection for children. They argue that there are no actual victims or real children portrayed in such materials, and fail to grasp the implications that their availability may have on public attitudes towards children and on sexual crimes against children. Even though little research has been conducted in Japan to demonstrate such inter-relationships, studies undertaken in other regions of the world have clearly exposed it.

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Global Monitoring Report on the Status of Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children - Japan