TOKYO - Street prostitution in areas such as Tokyo’s Kabukicho district has increasingly become a social issue, prompting the Justice Ministry to consider revising the Anti-Prostitution Law to introduce penalties for those who purchase sex, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Under the current law, penalties apply mainly to those who sell sex, including acts such as soliciting or waiting for customers in public spaces, while there are no provisions that punish the buyers, a legal gap that support groups for women and other organizations have long criticized as unbalanced and ineffective.
Amid growing calls for tighter regulation of so-called “sex buying,” the Justice Ministry has begun examining revisions to the law that would extend penalties to the purchasing side as well, marking a potential shift in the framework of Japan’s prostitution controls.
The ministry plans to establish a panel of experts as early as March to begin formal discussions on the proposed changes, including whether buyers should be added to the list of those subject to punishment for solicitation-related offenses, as it moves toward a broader review of the decades-old legislation.
Source: TBS
