INTRODUCTION: ESTABLISHMENT OF the “Japan's 2014 Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons”

Trafficking in persons is a grave violation of human rights and requires a prompt and appropriate response from a humanitarian perspective as trafficking in persons causes serious psychological and physical pain for the victims and recovery from such damage is very difficult. Moreover, as trafficking in persons is a serious international concern, the international society takes great deal of interest in the measures against trafficking in persons.

Article 3 of the “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” (hereinafter referred to as the “Trafficking in Persons Protocol”) defines trafficking in persons as follows:

ARTICLE 3

• (a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or sendees, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

• (b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;

• (c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;

• (d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.

International society defines these acts as trafficking in persons. To conclude the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, Japan closely examined whether punishments were imposed for these acts under domestic laws.