Japan Govt Starts Discussions on Punishing Sex Buyers

Tokyo, March 24 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Justice Ministry held the first meeting of its expert panel on prostitution control Tuesday, with participants discussing making it a crime to pay for sex. The panel will talk about the introduction of punishments against those who buy sex under the prostitution prevention law, which currently penalizes acts related to selling sex, such as soliciting customers in public places and mediating prostitution. The ministry will consider revising the law based on the discussion results. The law, enacted in 1956, lacks provisions to penalize buyers. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi in November to consider revising the law, after lawmakers criticized it as being unfair at a parliamentary meeting. The panel has 11 members, including a criminal law researcher, a judge, a public prosecutor and a lawyer. They will refer to foreign systems in their discussions. At the first meeting, a member said the appropriate level of a fine should be discussed given that the current maximum amount stands at 20,000 yen for soliciting customers. Other members called for hearing from people involved in prostitution and officials of support organizations for prostitution victims. There has been a series of cases in Japan in which women who became heavily indebted to host clubs were made to take to the streets to seek prostitution customers. According to the ministry, public prosecutors handled 634 cases of alleged violation of the law in 2024. Of the total, 301 cases, the largest share, involved solicitation. Offenses related to provision of prostitution venues accounted for 135 cases, and those involving mediation made up 133 cases. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]