Activity Reports

Stop Sex Trafficking of Children & Young People Campaign

  •  In August 2009, ECPAT International and The Body Shop International teamed up on a three year campaign ‘Stop Sex Trafficking of Children & Young People. ‘This campaign was created to bring worldwide awareness to this crucial issue. It is an extraordinary situation that an organization like the Body Shop stamped its logo on such a campaign and in tandem, we are working to eradicate the trafficking of children and young people.
  • As part of this campaign, a detailed global report called ‘Their Protection is in Our Hands-The State of Global Child Trafficking for Sexual Purposes’ was created. This report provides the latest information on this issue to every country in the world and consists of 60 A4 pages. An abbreviated version of this report in Japanese was published and can be viewed on the home page of The Body Shop Japan. This version includes information on child trafficking including who at risk of falling victim to traffickers , why the business of human trafficking is profitable and what kind of people are involved in this horrific crime.
  • The significance of the 3rd World Congress was to call on each nation to establish laws to deal with the trafficking of children and young people. With much dismay, Japan does not measure up with the global standard on this issue and therefore our campaign aims to achieve three goals by 2012. 1) to make government take appropriate prevention measures on child trafficking . 2) to enact laws in Japan harmonized with international standards and 3) to provide administrative service to victimized children.
  • On August 21st 2009, ECPAT/STOP Japan and The Body Shop held a press conference at its Tokyo Shinjuku store. It was a really successful event and received a lot of media attention. The Body Shop spoke about the aims of our joint campaign and present situation of the sex trafficking of children in Japan and in relation to the rest of the world.
  • During the first year of the campaign, from September 4th until October 29th, proudly, all Body Shop stores participated in our campaign. On September 19th, our combination of both staff members distributed campaign t-shirts with Body Shop and ECPAT/STOP Japan logos.
  • By November 19th, 103,146 NONO stickers were given out and displayed by Body Shop customers. In addition to our stickers and t-shirts, the first ever limited edition product Soft Hands Kind Heart Hand Cream was marketed for our campaign and its proceeds have raised over 1,581,504 yen. By the end of the campaign in 2011, we raised not only money but a great deal of awareness was brought to the issue of the trafficking of children.

72nd Peace Boat Cruise

  • On April 8th, 2011, co-representatives of ECPAT/STOP Japan embarked on a 10 day cruise from Singapore to Manila, the Republic of the Philippines, a pilot mission to raise awareness to the issue of child prostitution. Keiko Saito, co-representative of ECPAT/STOP Japan gave a lecture and presentation on this issue and met with the ECPAT secretariat of the Philippines and other participants.
  •  On April 23, 2011, ECPAT/STOP Japan participated in the NONO parade sponsored by The Body Shop Japan and Earth Day Tokyo. Our marching from the United Nations University of Tokyo Shibuya to Harajuku and ending in Yoyogi Park was to raise a voice against child trafficking. Up to that date an estimated 1,800,000 children had been and are still being exploited every day around the world. The event was a huge success and the Body Shop Japan collected approximately 200,000 signatures on our petition ‘Stop Trafficking of Children and Young People’ campaign.

Field Work in Akihabara

  • On May 8th, we did field work in Akihabara, an area where child pornography is accessible, to tackle the issue of Chakuero. We entered shops selling electronic products but as we advanced further into the store the scenery changed from video games to a so called Eroge* section. Materials and games found in these sections had disturbing titles and packaging such as “How violent we could conquer her” and “If you make her pregnant, you lose.”  At another shop we visited, numerous DVD’s and magazines of young girls in swimsuits, school uniforms and leotards were displayed and being sold.

Urgent Congregation

  • On June 21st, the members of the Diet continued to dedicate themselves to the plight exploited children by holding an important meeting, ‘Urgent Congregation: Protect Children! and calling for the revision of the Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. This congregation was held to bring further attention to the public on this matter and to also make the simple possession of child pornography a crime.
  • 27 nonpartisan Diet members including the New Komeito Party (the New Clean Government Party), the Liberal Democratic Party and the Ruling Party as well as new and old activists who have greatly contributed to this issue gathered. ECPAT/STOP Japan emphasized the magnitude and severity of the problem of child pornography and the world’s trend towards the punishment of even simple possession of child pornography. We spoke on our mission to change the law in Japan to further protect the rights of children.
  • We submitted the petition ‘ Stop Trafficking of Children and Young People’ to each party including the New Komeito Party’s vice delegate Matsu, representative Tomita, Jiminto (Liberal Democratic Party), vice chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council Takaichi, Kokumin Shinto Party (Peoples New Party) and the Chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council, Kamei representative.

Taiwan Youth Round Table Meeting

  • On August 17th, 2011 ECPAT Taiwan Youth Round Table Meeting took place. Approximately 15 individuals participated in the meeting.

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