> > While Japan was removed from the U.S. State Department
> > watch list the year following its placement in recognition of
> > its efforts to fight human trafficking, it still remains in the list
> > of "Tier 2" nations, according to the most recent report
> > released in June of this year...
> > While it states that Japan is beginning to address the
> > demand for trafficking through education programs in
> > secondary schools, it also chastised the Japanese
> > government for failing to criminalize the demand for
> > prostitution that fuels the industry.
The suggestion here is that criminalisation of prostitution would eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) trafficking. The experience of countries where prostitution is illegal has not borne that out. In some respects criminalisation actually facilitates traffickers by discouraging their victims from going to the police. A 2002 UNICEF report into trafficking in South Eastern Europe found that this is one of the most effective means of control used by traffickers, and one of the major reasons that women trafficked into prostitution don't contact the authorities even when they have the ability to do so.
The US Government's position on this is really quite appalling given their practice of blocking funding for international NGOs who don't share their zeal for criminalisation - which means a significant proportion of those organisations that do direct outreach to sex workers. The effect of this ideological fatwa has been similar to that of the ban on funding for pro-choice family planning agencies.