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1) News from Polaris Project Japan Office
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***Upcoming events: Please join us and take action!***
[Workshop] "Does human trafficking have nothing to do with you?―What we can do
to combat human trafficking~"
Meguro City Office invited Polaris Project staff to undertake the workshop for
raising awareness about human trafficking. The workshop will be conducted in
Japanese
DATE: March 22, 2008(Sat) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Gender Equality Center at Naka-Meguro Square, 2-10-13 Naka-Meguro
Facilitator: Polaris Project
42 seats available. To register, please call or fax the Meguro City Gender
Equality Center, with the workshop title, your postcode, address, name (with
furigana/pronaunciation), phone/fax number.
Phone: 03-5721-8570, Fax: 03-5721-8574
[Workshop] “How to outreach to those who are unaware of the crime of human
trafficking”
At this workshop which focuses on practical PR strategy for NPO/NGO, Polaris staff
will report on Polaris’s PR strategy as a panel. The workshop will then have
a discussion with participants on how we can effectively outreach to those who
are not aware of human trafficking and raise awareness of the issue. Please join
us! The workshop will be in Japanese.
DATE: March 22, 2008(Sat) from 14:00 to 16:00
WHERE: Seminar Room 202, JICA Earth Square (One minute walk from Hiroo station
of the Hibiya-line)
40 seats available. To register, please contact Tenohira:
TEL：050-1445-6947 FAX：020-4624-7480
E-mail：tenohira_ycatip@hotmail.co.jp
HP：http://www.geocities.jp/tenohira_trafficking
***Polaris received donation from American Chamber of Commerce in Japan***
American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) held its annual “Charity Ball” in
Dec. 2007 and we were among 5 organizations to receive benefit from the event.
We thank all of ACCJ and its members for continuing to support our victim services
and advocacy again.
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/blog-entry-731.html
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Final Report of Our Activity in 2007
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☆Polaris Project’s final report of activity in 2007 (in Japanese) is now
available on our web site. English Report will be available this week on our
website as well.
Some Highlights from Interim Report:
＞http://www.polarisproject.jp/programs_p3/2007.htm
-In 2007, we are able to receive 191 hotline inquiries, and provided direct
services to 30 cases of trafficking as well as at high risk of trafficking cases.
-To outreach to the victim populations, we have created various outreach
materials and advertisement in 3 languages, and made trip to the community where
trafficking victims may be held, and distributed total of over 4700 outreach
materials (with hotline numbers) around Tokyo and Kanagawa by weekly trip.
-On the advocacy side, we have presented the issue of trafficking and trained
community members as well as police and social service providers in total of
16 locations. Total number of people we presented reaches up to 1770 this year.
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Report of an IOM Seminar “On providing Direct Assistance to Victims of
Trafficking in Persons”
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☆Polaris put together a report on the seminar in December 2007 which was
sponsored by IOM and The Canada Embassy with cooperation from MVT Japan. Polaris
staff took a part in the seminar as a panel and reported on providing direct
support for victims of human trafficking in Japan.
For the report (PDF, in Japanese), please go to
http://www.polarisproject.jp/current/advocacy/SeminarReport_12072007.pdf
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Past Events
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・2/2-2/9: Polaris had an exhibition booth at a symposium for 25th anniversary
of With Shinjyuku, a gender equality center
・2/12: Polaris held a meeting for Campaing Team Volunteers
・2/18: Polaris staff gave a lecture at Foreign Women Lawyers Association (FWLA)
for lawyers and graduate students
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2) Human Trafficking: Know the Signs
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Victims of Human Trafficking~ Diversification of victims of human trafficking~
* Many of us tend to imagine victims of human trafficking as “poor foreign women
who come to Japan with little knowledge.” Yet, today, people with various
backgrounds are victimized by human trafficking.
Some victims of human trafficking from foreign countries are rather wealthy in
their home country or have professional job but fell victims before realizing.
In addition, there has been media coverage on news that Japanese women and
children are threatened, trafficked, and forced to prostitute. Thus, victims
of human trafficking are not necessarily from poor countries or people with
“special” backgrounds. People who live unrelated to any crime can become victims
of human trafficking.
(Polaris Project, “Human Trafficking: Know the Signs,” 2006, p 9)
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Please check out our Trafficking Alerts for news related human trafficking at
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/
・Minister of Justice considering to punish possession of child pornography
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/blog-entry-676.htm (in Japanese)
・Decision made by the Cabinet meeting on the amendment of the regulation for
the internet dating site
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/blog-entry-717.html (in Japanese)
・The largest number of cases of child abuse and child porn since the start of
data collection
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/blog-entry-710.html （in Japanese）
・The least number of charges of human trafficking case: Filipinas were the largest
group among the victims
http://polarisproject.blog96.fc2.com/blog-entry-708.html (in Japanese)
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3) Join and Support Polaris
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☆Language Volunteer:
We are looking for those who can help us with translation from Japanese to English.
For more information and other language volunteer information, please visit
http://www.polarisproject.jp/GN_p3/Volunteer_en.htm
☆Campaign Team Volunteer:
We are looking for people who are interested in and participating in our
awareness-raising campaign and putting awareness-raising events together with
other volunteers and staff.
For more information, please visit
http://www.polarisproject.jp/GN_p3/Volunteer_en.htm#camvol
☆Other volunteer positions (Web Development, Design and professional
volunteers):
http://www.polarisproject.jp/GN_p3/Volunteer_en.htm
☆Fellowship Program: http://www.polarisproject.jp/GN_p3/GN_Fellow_Main.htm
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★Donation==============================================
Polaris Project needs your kind help. Your donation will be used directly to
support our activities, including toll-free hotlines that provide help to
victims of violence in the sex entertainment industry and victims of human
trafficking.
Also Polaris Project created a booklet about human trafficking in 2006. The first
edition was all distributed to our supporters and organizations working for
victim support. Currently, we are preparing the second edition and your donation
will be spent for reprinting the booklet and PR.
We would greatly appreciate financial donations to support our programs as well
as contribution of your time and skills as a volunteer.
●Post Office Transfer
Account No.：00150-9-370561 Account Name：Polaris Project Japan
●Online Donation (Make a Secure Donation via Paypal!)
http://www.polarisproject.jp/616241/giving_p3/giving_main.htm
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4）Editor’s Note
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Polaris Project sent "Request on Approach against Child Prostitution and Human
Trafficking"
to 135 members of the Diet last year. Meantime, we may see a huge change in
the regulation of child pornography in Japan in the near future. Currently, the
ruling party has been discussing the regulation of child porn, and it is likely
that the new regulation includes a ban of possession of child porn, which has
not been punishable crime in Japan for a long time.
The Japanese government has been under pressure from the international society
to ban possession of child porn. UNICEF has issued a statement to urge the
Japanese government to take a step further and to ban images of abused children
in comic books. Major internet media companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft
support UNICEF’s statement. Formerly untouched, regulation of child
pornography may see a new light in Japan. As we finalized our activity report
of 2007, we had a chance to look back what we have achieved. We will continue
awareness raising with our Grassroots Network and we would like to put more
effort in victim support in 2008.
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Polaris Project Japan 〜For a World Without Slavery〜
P.O. Box 716, Shibuya Post Office, Tokyo 100-8692
email: info@polarisproject.jp | Tel: 050-3496-7615
website: www.polarisproject.jp
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