Government starts discussions on punishing sex buyers

Members of an expert panel on prostitution control hold a meeting at the Justice Ministry in Tokyo on Tuesday
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The Justice Ministry held the first meeting of its expert panel on prostitution control Tuesday, with participants discussing making it a crime to pay for sex.The panel will talk about the introduction of punishments against those who buy sex under the prostitution prevention law, which currently penalizes acts related to selling sex, such as soliciting customers in public places and mediating prostitution
The ministry will consider revising the law based on the discussion results.The law, enacted in 1956, lacks provisions to penalize buyers
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi in November to consider revising the law, after lawmakers criticized it as being unfair at a parliamentary meeting.The panel has 11 members, including a criminal law researcher, a judge, a public prosecutor and a lawyer
They will refer to foreign systems in their discussions.At the first meeting, a member said the appropriate level of a fine should be discussed given that the current maximum amount stands at ¥20,000 ($126) for soliciting customers
Other members called for hearing from people involved in prostitution and officials of support organizations for prostitution victims.There has been a series of cases in Japan in which women who became heavily indebted to host clubs were made to take to the streets to seek prostitution customers.According to the ministry, public prosecutors handled 634 cases of alleged violation of the law in 2024
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Justice Ministry(https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/justice-ministry), prostitution(https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/prostitution)
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