TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo prosecutors have decided against pursuing human trafficking charges against a sex club operator and an employee accused of prostituting a 12-year-old Thai girl, citing hurdles in proving the child was explicitly “purchased” from her mother.
Masayuki Hosono, 52, who operated the establishment in Bunkyo Ward, and Thai national Punsilpanya Pakaporn, 39, who allegedly recruited employees, are currently standing trial for violating the Child Welfare Law. Both have denied the charges.
The prosecution had considered hitting the pair with additional human trafficking charges. However, investigative sources revealed they abandoned the plan due to difficulties proving that the money exchanged between the shop and the girl’s mother constituted a direct payment for the transfer of the child.
Confirming the mother’s intent was also deemed difficult, as she has already been indicted in Thailand.
“I don’t speak Thai”
Under Japan’s penal code, human trafficking charges require strict proof of an agreement and a financial transaction to “buy” or “sell” a person. Ryoko Minagawa, a lawyer familiar with human trafficking cases, noted that Japan’s narrow legal definition creates a significant gap compared to international standards, making it hard to prosecute peripheral trafficking offenses.
“There is a gap with international standards,” says Minagawa, “and one idea is to include peripheral acts such as the transfer of people associated with human trafficking as part of the crime of human trafficking, which should also be subject to punishment. Everyone needs to recognize that human trafficking is an issue that society as a whole must address, and discussions on new legislation could serve as an opportunity to raise awareness of how we should address human trafficking.”
Both defendants deny the current Child Welfare Law charges. Hosono claimed in court that he did not know the girl was a minor, stating, “I don’t speak Thai, so I left hiring to the Thai manager. The manager colluded with the girl’s mother and deceived me.” Punsilpanya also pleaded not guilty, claiming no knowledge of the girl’s age and denying being a trafficking broker.
The 12-year-old victim was brought to Japan by her mother on a 15-day short-term visa in late June of last year. She was immediately taken to the shop in the Yushima area and told by her mother to provide sexual services to send money back to her grandparents in Thailand.
The mother vanished the following day, abandoning the child. Over the next month, the girl slept in the shop’s kitchen and was forced to service approximately 70 male customers. She generated over 620,000 yen in sales, which were divided between the shop operators and her mother.
“I thought my family couldn’t survive if I didn’t work, so I had to endure it,” the girl previously told authorities. In mid-September, she fled to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Minato Ward to seek help, stating she was prepared to be arrested just to go home. She has since returned to Thailand and is receiving psychological care at a government facility.
Deported to Thailand
The girl’s mother was later detained in Taiwan for illegal overstay and deported to Thailand last December. She recently pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges in a Thai court and is awaiting sentencing. Tokyo police had obtained an arrest warrant for the mother for violating the Child Welfare Law by handing her daughter over to the shop, but investigators plan to let the warrant expire and close their probe into her.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of human trafficking victims subjected to forced labor or sexual exploitation in Japan reached a five-year high of 77 last year.
The harrowing case mirrors other trafficking incidents in Japan. A Cambodian woman in her 40s recently spoke out about being lured to Japan a decade ago with promises of lucrative restaurant work, only to be locked in a Gunma Prefecture eatery and forced into prostitution.
Expressing horror at the 12-year-old’s ordeal, the survivor warned, “For someone so young to suffer such abuse, her future has been plunged into darkness.”
