This image was taken in Yoshiwara. A high class and very private sex district in Tokyo, Japan. I was taking a picture of the dark alley way as a prostitute stepped out into it. Caught off guard she tried to return back inside but found she was locked out.

“There are over 30 million victims of human trafficking and modern day slavery in the world today.” –US trafficking and persons report 2004

The legal system in Japan is a huge factor in keeping the sex industry in operation. The government of Japan has only recently acknowledged the problem, and began criminalizing the practice in 2005. Japan is still following the ‘Prostitution Prevention Law’, which was enacted in 1957.  There are many problems to be found within this law. The law simply states that it is forbidden to have “intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment”. This is easily by-passed. When a man goes into the club he will sit and talk with the girl for a short amount of time before anything else happens.  Then, if the police come in, they can say they know each other; they are acquaintances. The only other law in place is that the girls working the clubs must be eighteen. Because of this, the majority of arrests are of under-aged girls. Even if the police shut down a club it does not matter because they have no way of tracing it back to the owner.  The Yakuza have organized everything in such a way that they will not be caught. If a club closes, a new one will open in the exact same spot under a different name.

Photo and writing credit: Kyle Jaster