Activity Report for June 2025
- Admin
- 3 日前
- 読了時間: 7分
Hello, this is PAPS.
As always, we bring you updates on the developments and challenges from our support and hotline activities this month.
With the intense heat continuing across the country, we hope everyone is taking good care of themselves.
An Alarming Surge in New Inquiries
This month, we received a high number of new hotline—398 in total. Among them, at least 81 were from children, based on what we have been able to confirm so far.
As the number of hotline increases, so does the burden on our support staff. Strengthening our support system is an urgent priority, but the reality is that we are currently struggling to keep up.
This month, we received a notable number of hotlines related to deepfake videos created using generative AI. In just one week, two separate cases were reported—an alarming sign of both the growing seriousness of such harm and the fact that younger individuals are increasingly becoming victims.
These incidents are not only about the spread of sexual images and videos. They profoundly affect victims’ self-worth, disrupt their studies, and damage their relationships with others. As such, both rapid response and long-term care are essential.
But urgent responses alone are not enough. From the frontlines of support, a critical question arises:
How can we build a society where such harm doesn’t occur in the first place?
Countermeasures for the “Dark Summer Vacation”
1.Alarming Rise in Sextortion Cases and Our Emergency Press Briefing
“Sextortion” refers to the act of blackmailing someone for money using sexual images or videos as leverage—a combination of the words “sex” and “extortion.”
In the United States, a series of tragic cases since 2022—many involving teenage boys who lost their lives—prompted congressional hearings and led to government and platform-level countermeasures.
However, since last year, these international crime groups have shifted their focus from American children—who are now better protected thanks to strengthened safeguards—to children in Japan, where institutional protection remains limited. This alarming shift has made Japanese youth increasingly vulnerable to cross-border digital exploitation.
At PAPS, the number of sextortion-related hotline has surged dramatically:
648 cases in FY2022 1,863 cases in FY2023
And already 907 cases reported this fiscal year alone.
With summer vacation approaching—a season when young people spend more time online—we are seeing a concerning rise in financial sextortion targeting minors.
In response, PAPS will hold an emergency parliamentary briefing on July 17 to raise awareness and call for urgent countermeasures.
Click here to register: https://qr.paps.jp/6wGrp You can sign up for the event through this
2. Grooming That Forces Children to Share Sexual Images
This month, we received numerous serious reports of “grooming” cases, in which young girls were lured into sexual exploitation through social media.
Grooming refers to the process by which perpetrators gradually gain a child’s trust—often through kindness and attention—before manipulating them emotionally. Abusers disguise themselves as friends or confidants, slowly breaking down a child's defenses in order to gain control.
In recent years, there has been a disturbing and ongoing pattern of girls being targeted via social media and coerced into sexual acts or image sharing.
Back in the summer of 2021, PAPS collaborated with NHK to conduct a study on grooming behaviors. The majority of contact we investigated was sexual in nature, with many perpetrators expressing a desire to meet in person for sexual purposes.
What makes grooming especially insidious is that it doesn’t begin with overt abuse. Instead, offenders approach children with gentle words, shared interests, and empathy, saying things like:
“We have the same hobbies,” “You can talk to me about anything,” “You’re special to me.”
These statements create a false sense of safety and trust. Victims begin to believe, “This is the only person who understands me.” The groomer isolates the child from others and exerts increasing control. They may say:
“This is our little secret,”
“You can tell me things you can’t even tell your parents.”
Eventually, the child finds themselves trapped in a relationship they feel they cannot refuse. Even when asked to send sexual images, they feel unable to say no.
The true danger of grooming lies in this shift—from someone who feels safe and supportive, to someone whose demands cannot be defied. The child moves from believing they are cared for, to believing they must obey.
Following the grooming phase, perpetrators often escalate their actions to extremely malicious offenses—many of which clearly fall under the Act on Prohibition of Child Pornography (for aiding and abetting the production of illegal material) or Japan’s Penal Code provisions criminalizing the solicitation of sexual images.
At PAPS, we are working to address these crimes by collaborating with social media platforms. Our goal is to improve both the identification of actual cases and the development of systems that facilitate criminal investigations and legal action.
3. Street-Based Sexual Solicitation: An Overlooked Form of Sexual Exploitation
At PAPS, we receive numerous reports—primarily from women in their teens and twenties—about being sexually solicited on the street. Some survivors have suffered sexual violence during such encounters and, in collaboration with local police, are now working toward pressing criminal charges.
These incidents often begin with sudden, unsolicited approaches while simply walking down the street.
“I’ll pay you—just let me do it,” “If you don’t have a place to stay, come with me.”
Such words can cause deep psychological and emotional harm to the women targeted.
Sex Tourism by Foreign Visitors: A Growing Concern
In recent years, we have grown increasingly alarmed by sex tourism targeting young Japanese women, especially by visiting foreign tourists.
PAPS staff themselves have experienced sexual harassment on the street—being approached with phrases like:
“Hey baby, how much?”
Unfortunately, while child prostitution is punishable by law in Japan, there are no legal penalties for soliciting sex through verbal approaches such as “How much?” As a result, these behaviors often go unchecked and unpunished.
Sexual Solicitation as a Gateway to Human Trafficking
Many of these seemingly casual approaches are, in reality, gateways to human trafficking.
They strip young women of their freedom to move safely in public and undermine their right to bodily autonomy and personal choice.
Moreover, when the perpetrator is a foreign visitor staying in Japan only temporarily, victims often face significant barriers to reporting. The difficulty of tracking offenders leads many women to suffer in silence, without ever seeing justice served.
Sex Tourism and the “Commodification” of Young Women in Japan
Since around 2016, in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s sex industry began developing inbound strategies aimed at foreign tourists under the guise of “hospitality.”
This included a rise in adult entertainment directories and booking platforms available in English and other languages, effectively promoting sexual experiences in Japan as a form of tourism.
However, these inbound strategies came to a halt with the global outbreak of COVID-19. Yet since Japan relaxed its border restrictions in 2023 and tourism surged once again, this trend has returned—more aggressively than before.
Prostitution involving foreign male tourists has become increasingly normalized, and the way young Japanese women are treated as disposable “experiences” reflects a systemic human rights violation, far beyond individual cases of harm.
A Market Built to Enable Exploitation
Behind this exploitation is a growing infrastructure:
Social media platforms
Brokers and intermediaries
Sex industry websites with multilingual support
These tools facilitate the commodification of women—especially those in their teens and twenties, whose voices are largely absent from political discussions and legal protections.
The fact that these women are positioned as the “consumed” within this structure is a serious and urgent issue. Their lived experiences and concerns remain invisible within Japan’s current policy and institutional frameworks.
Moving forward, PAPS will strengthen its efforts to:
Conduct field research on street-level sexual solicitation
Critically examine and challenge the social and institutional systems that enable sexual exploitation by foreign tourists
We will continue this work in collaboration with domestic and international organizations, striving to amplify the voices of those affected and promote meaningful structural change.
Unwanted Filming and the Public Objectification of Young Women
In recent years, PAPS has seen a significant rise in hotlines related to non-consensual photography and filming in public spaces, particularly in urban nightlife areas. These images and videos are often posted on social media or platforms like YouTube without the subject’s consent.
Especially troubling are cases involving young women who, due to poverty or housing insecurity, are forced to be on the streets. They are filmed without permission and exposed online as “unusual scenes” or “shocking content”—treated not as people, but as spectacles.
The Exploitation of Women Through "Street Interview" Content
One increasingly common form of exploitation involves videos titled “Trying to talk to girls on the street” or “Interviewing strangers”, uploaded for views and ad revenue on YouTube.
These videos are part of a growing ecosystem in which women’s dignity is routinely violated for entertainment, and where structures of sexual exploitation and gender discrimination are reproduced and amplified through digital media.
Toward Collective Support: Organizing Victims’ Voices
PAPS is currently considering the formation of a “Support Group for Victims of Street Filming on YouTube” (working title). This initiative aims to bring together the voices of those affected and shed light on the extent and impact of these violations.
Unauthorized filming is not merely a privacy issue—it jeopardizes the very livelihoods and safety of those affected.
It further isolates individuals from support systems by creating barriers to access and trust.
Call for Testimonies and Solidarity
Moving forward, PAPS will call for testimonies from individuals who have experienced or witnessed similar incidents.
If someone close to you has been affected by non-consensual public filming, please consider sharing that information with us. Your input will help us better understand the scope of harm and advocate for stronger protections.
Your support brings healing to those affected by sexual exploitation.Thanks to your generosity, we are making meaningful progress toward ending sexual exploitation.Every contribution you make helps restore hope and dignity to survivors.
For just 1,000 yen a month—only 33 yen a day—you can help provide a night of safety and dignity for a woman who has no place to stay. 
A monthly donation of 3,000 yen allows us to keep our hotline services running—for at least one full day a year—for those affected by digital sexual violence. 
Your monthly donation of 500 yen enables us to walk alongside a young woman we reach through nighttime street outreach—offering her care, trust, and connection once a year.