Japan's sex workers fight for their rights

BY the time police arrived at the dingy brothel in Shimodate, the middle-aged mamasan had bled to death from multiple stab wounds. Japanese police classified the case as a routine murder and robbery. But for the tens of thousands of Thai prostitutes operating in Japan, the incident has become a cause celebre of the amorphous rights of sex industry workers. The three Thai women on trial for the murder of the brothel-keeper claim they were driven to kill by their daily enslavement in the massage parlour, where they were forced to perform sexual acts under threat of torture and intimidation. ''Even prostitutes have dignity. We should never forget that,'' said Friends of Women in Asia, a group helping Thai women working in Japan. ''We hope this case will open people's eyes to the violence faced by foreign women in the entertainment field.'' Their plight has attracted little sympathy at official levels in either Thailand or Japan. The women were illegal immigrants who knew they would be employed in the foreign sex industry; and the arrests brought diplomatic attention to a problem that is unwelcome for both countries. But women's groups are determined that the murder will not be filed away as another sordid chapter in the Asia-wide trafficking in women. They say it raises the wider, and perhaps indefinable, question of client rape. ''If women are being held against their wishes and forced to engage in sex against their will, that constitutes rape - even if they are prostitutes who knowingly entered the profession,'' said the Friends of Women in Asia spokeswoman. In effect, the Thais lost all personal rights when they were sold at a Japanese flesh market to the brothel in Shimodate. Never permitted to be alone, they surrendered their passports on arrival and were accompanied by bodyguards from the yakuza crime organisation when they left the building to entertain customers. Indiscretions were punished with deductions from their wages, which were not paid at all for the first three or four months while they settled the cost of getting them to Japan. The mamasan, who was herself Thai, threatened to kill the girls and their families in Thailand if they did not keep working, even during illness and menstruation. Direct violence, usually carried out by the mamasan or hired thugs, allegedly occurred on almost a daily basis, ranging from cigarette burns to deliberate facial disfigurement, which would rob the girl of her livelihood. Defendants in a similar trial earlier this year unsuccessfully cited rape and slavery as defences after they were accused of murdering a Singaporean mamasan under provocation. The five women, all Thais, claimed they had lost any freedom of choice in their employment because money was being withheld from them at the time of the offence. Each was required to repay about 800,000 baht (HK$250,000) to the mamasan, who had earlier given about half that amount to brokers linked to the yakuza. They were kept under 24-hour surveillance by closed-circuit TV to prevent escape and given little food in case of weight problems that might affect their work. But the rape argument was rejected by a Japanese judge, who sentenced two of the five women to six years in prison. Three others cc11p2face later sentencing. ''The court did not take into consideration at all that the crime was committed to escape enslavement,'' said Shogo Suzuki of Hand-in-Hand, a Japanese-based group supporting abused prostitutes. A Thai parliamentary committee which visited Japan earlier this year found an alarming escalation in the incidence of violence involving prostitutes, with 30 reported cases in the first four months of women being murdered or committing suicide. About 500 violent incidents involving female sex workers were reported last year, including 48 killings of Thai prostitutes blamed on the yakuza, which controls the illegal flow of women and often the brothels where they work as well. While some women are lured to Japan under false pretences, as many as 90 per cent are believed to have gone voluntarily. And despite the dangers, most of those sent back to Thailand after police raids return immediately to Japan, where they can earn as much as two million baht (HK$625,000) for a year's work. There are believed to be 75,000 Thais involved in the sex trade in Japan, with another 25,000 working illegally on building sites. In the six months to June, 55,383 Thais were found to have entered Japan without valid entry permits. Voluntary groups complain that there is little understanding of the need to protect sex industry workers by police and government officials, with most prepared to accept violence as an unfortunate by-product of prostitution. ''Whether the women went to Japan to work illegally as prostitutes is not the issue, as they are still entitled to be protected,'' said Friends of women in Asia. ''Unfortunately they are just regarded as commodities to be traded, and when they are raped or abused, no one is listening.''