Proposals submitted on Thursday are likely to change laws that have been in place for decades.
Currently, street sex workers face fines or imprisonment for public solicitation, but their clients are not punished – this is what distinguishes Japan from other developed countries.
Urging the elimination of this asymmetry, a group of legal experts proposed in a report that clients should also be penalized for solicitation both in public and online.
It is almost certain that the Ministry of Justice, based on the expert group’s conclusions, will adopt legislative changes.
Actions such as negotiating paid sex in public and loitering on the street to “inspect” sex workers should be considered punishable behavior, experts said.
Some activists have demanded the “Nordic model,” under which selling sex is decriminalized, but paying for it becomes a crime – this model is applied in countries such as Sweden, Norway, and France.
However, the group did not recommend fully decriminalizing sex work or redefining prostitution to include not only vaginal intercourse.
Some sellers, according to experts, entered the sex trade “of their own free will,” and their solicitation “undermines social order.”
Risa, a member of the group “Toka” (“Light”) of people who have survived the sex trade, said that if laws continue to target sellers, “they will not be able to report violence and other horrific experiences to the police for fear of being labeled criminals.”
Read more Russia’s «peace plan» also includes Lithuanian territory: who really created this map?
The concept of free will in sex work is a myth, as difficulties such as poverty, trauma, and disability push many women into this business, a 37-year-old woman told the AFP news agency under a pseudonym.
In her twenties, “I thought I was doing it voluntarily,” trying to survive hardships such as an abusive, alcoholic father, job loss, and depression, Risa said.
But “it’s interesting how many people would still say they want to continue” if they had the opportunity to retrain, get a job, and treat their mental health, she added.
“I had to act like a doll, turn off all emotions, and pretend I was satisfied, no matter what was done to me,” she said.
When Japan’s anti-prostitution laws were enacted in 1956, sex workers were considered “evil,” seducing married men, and the opposite of society’s expectations of “chaste wives,” feminist lawyer Yukiko Tsunoda said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
“No one even thought that sex trafficking was violence” against women, she said.
Any legal changes have long been needed, said Nao, a member of “Toka,” who escaped maternal abuse and lived under a bridge from the age of 14, resorting to street prostitution to “survive the day.”
At dawn, “usually middle-aged men on their way to work” would approach her and offer about 5,000 yen (about 28 euros) for sex, she told AFP.
At that time, “I needed to feel that I had something that made my life meaningful,” recalled now 25-year-old Nao – a pseudonym she uses in public activities.
“But now I know I was a victim of sexual exploitation,” she said.
