A review of the legal regulations as well as efforts by all the relevant government ministries are needed to eradicate the damages like those caused by the trafficking of a 12-year-old girl at a massage parlor in Tokyo. 

The owner of the establishment was arrested on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Law for having the girl work there.

The girl came to Japan with her mother and serviced about 60 customers over a 33-day period.

After her mother left Japan, the girl sought help from the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau and was taken into protective custody as a victim of human trafficking.

A number of other Thai women also worked at the same massage parlor and there are suspicions that a mediation agency was involved.

The U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, adopted in 2000, defined human trafficking as acts of acquiring people through violence or threats for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.

Japan signed the protocol in 2017 and........

© The Asahi Shimbun