ABSTRACT

Trafficking in persons and sale of human beings Both human trafficking and anti-trafficking law have existed since ancient times in Japan. In the seventh century, the buying and selling of Nuhi,1 the lowest class of people, was permitted, a practice influenced by Chinese law. On the other hand, making persons Nuhi through abduction and selling was severely punished.2 Later, the Nuhi class dissolved; however, poor peasants would sell their children during a famine. Even in modern Japan, there was a problem of shôgi, prostitutes who were often sold by their poor parents. In 1872, the Japanese government proclaimed the “Emancipation Decree for Prostitutes ( Shôgi-Kaihô-Rei), which prohibited “the sale of human beings.”3 This decree was a by-product of the Maria Luz incident. When the Peruvian ship Maria Luz called at the port of Yokohama, the Japanese government emancipated Chinese “coolie” laborers who were treated like slaves on the ship while being trafficked from China to Peru. The Peruvian party asserted that the sale of slaves was not prohibited under Japanese law because trafficking of prostitutes was a long-standing Japanese custom.4 Therefore, the emancipation decree was issued in response to the embarrassing comments by the Peruvian party but there was no true liberation of prostitutes. Thus, it was officially explained that licensed prostitutes were engaged in business by their own will rather than by compulsion; however, they were actually forced to engage in prostitution to repay advance payments.