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Japan

Enjo Kosai, also known as “compensated dating,” and other variants of JK Business continue to facilitate the sex trafficking of Japanese minors. Highly organized prostitution networks target vulnerable Japanese women and girls –who often live in poverty or are cognitively disabled– in public places like the metro, popular meeting places for young people, schools, and the internet, and subject them to sex trafficking. Some groups pretending to be modeling or acting agencies use fraudulent recruiting techniques to force Japanese men, women, and girls to sign vague contracts, then threaten them with legal action or the publication of compromising photographs unless they participate in pornographic films. Japanese private immigration brokers help Japanese-Filipino children and their Filipino mothers move to Japan and gain citizenship for a large fee. Upon arrival, some of these women and children are sex trafficked to pay their debts (US Department of State, June 2018).