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Introduction
When Marcela Loaiza was twenty-one, a stranger approached her in her hometown in Colombia and offered her the opportunity to work as a professional dancer in Japan.1 After Loaiza lost her two jobs due to her daughter's illness, she accepted the "talent scout's" offer to provide for her daughter and mother.2 Upon arriving in Japan, three members of the Yakuza mafia received her, promptly took her passport, and informed her that the costs of bringing her to Japan amounted to the equivalent of $50,000.3 For the following eighteen months, members of the trafficking industry forced her to sell sex on the streets of Tokyo.4 She serviced anywhere from fourteen to twenty clients a day, with a Yakuza pimp always checking how much she earned and keeping her on a strict diet.5 She shared a three-bedroom flat with six other women from various countries across the world, including Russia, Venezuela, Korea, China, Peru, and Mexico.6
Fortunately, Marcela Loaiza escaped to tell her story, but the same does not hold true for thousands of women who remain under the power of their captors in Japan.7 Compared to their counterparts in similarly situated countries, Japanese authorities face extreme difficulty in combating sex trafficking.8 In 2012, forced prostitution in Japan alone, including those trafficked from other countries, comprised of an estimated 54,000 victims in a $73 billion industry.9 Traffickers usually approach the victims in their home countries, trick them into coming voluntarily to Japan, and then force them to work in one of the more than 21,000 sexrelated businesses.10 Many of the victims face regular physical abuse.11
Other countries, such as Australia and Sweden, combat the problem of sex trafficking within their borders more successfully by focusing on a victim-oriented network.12 Japan's current legal system, however, treats the problem as an immigration issue rather than as a human rights violation.13 The international community, including the United Nations and the United States,14 consistently takes note of Japan's ineffective approach and has called upon Japan to change its laws and ratify the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (U.N. Trafficking Protocol or Protocol).15
This Note argues that Japan should implement a victim-oriented approach to combat its sex trafficking industry by utilizing...