2021/1/19

Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation : The Asahi Shimbun
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Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation
By MAKI OKUBO/ Senior Staff Writer
December 18, 2020 at 07:30 JST
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A woman, who left home to escape sexual abuse and lived with men she found on social media while
suffering mental problems, poses in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. (Naoko Kawamura)

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As a young woman participated in a Flower Demonstration in front of Tokyo Station toeradicate sexual violence, she suddenly had a "me too" moment.

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Listening to other participants’ stories, she began thinking she “might be a victim, too.”She received a red gerbera flower from an elderly woman, which nearly brought tears to hereyes.
“I felt that I was not alone for the first time in many years,” she said.
The woman's troubled past echoes a succession of cases where runaway children were foundat locations such as homes of men whom they got to know via social media and online videogames.
The head of a Tokyo group that helps runaway children find a safe haven said a society-wide
effort is needed as the problem has worsened, particularly during the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
RUNAWAY AT 14
The troubled young woman who attended the Flower Demonstration earlier this year inFebruary sold sex for the first time in her early teens for a paltry sum.
The woman, now 20, until recently continued seeking out men online who would offer her aplace to stay.
When she posted a message on social media, saying, “I have no place to stay,” a plethora ofreplies instantly came from strangers.

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Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation : The Asahi Shimbun

One of the responses said, “I can listen to your problems,” while another expressed ostensible
tenderness, stating, “You can use my apartment in a Tokyo ward. You need not pay. You canlive there yourself, and I will not be there.”
The woman wrote, “Is that really so?” in response to one of the posts, and the recipient
quickly sent back questions, such as “Will you live here?” and “How are you? Don’t you feelcold?”
Raised in eastern Japan, the woman found her patrons in this manner since she ran awayfrom home when she was only 14.
Before that, she lived with her parents and younger brother. Her father, who worked as an
association staff member, would often punch and kick her and her mother when he was in afoul mood. He once pushed her down the stairs.
“I do not need you,” the daughter recalled her father saying. “My life has been ruined because
you was born to me.”
When she turned 13, the father crawled into her bed at night. He molested and raped hisdaughter. The father then started sneaking into the bath with her.
While stroking her entire body with his hands, the father called the practice part of “parentchild communications.” He told her that “this is nothing unusual. I will make your bodyclean.”A mother of two sons recounts thedays when she lived with the novelcoronavirus.

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Her mother must have been aware of her husband’s misconduct, but pretended to know
nothing.
Tormented by the thought that “I do not want to stay at home,” the woman left her house forthe first time on a rainy day in November when she was 14. After being severely beaten by her
father, she ran out shoeless in her pajamas.
Shivering in the cold, she was found by a convenience store staffer. Police were called andcame to pick her up. As she could only say she did “not want to go home” without explaining
why, she was soon returned to her family.

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Since that time, she started feeling that “everything bad that occurs was because I was born.”
Several months later, the youngster spent time at a comic book cafe with a man she met on asocial media site. She had sex with him for 5,000 yen ($48).
“It was horrific but it was still better than staying at home,” she recalled.

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After suffering repeated sexual exploitation and violence at the hands of her father, thewoman could no longer feel safe at home. She thus repeatedly ran away.

LinkAlthough she was once taken to a child consultation center, she could not confess that she
was being sexually abused. After going to a children’s training facility, she started working as
a live-in employee at a restaurant when she was 17.

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But she failed to continue to work, and lost the job and the place to live. As the teen had littlemoney, she stayed briefly at the residences of the many men she met through social media.
Most of her patrons were company employees in their 30s to 40s. She would spend the nightat their homes and leave in the morning when they went to work.
During the day, the woman visited a “deai” cafe where customers can find partners forprostitution and other purposes.
As female customers were exempted from paying the entrance fee, she consumed snacks andjuice drinks there while waiting for a possible patron.
Finding someone interested in hooking up, they would leave the cafe together and she would
have the man buy her something to eat at a convenience store. They would then head to amotel.
In the event that she didn't find a man, she would stop by supermarkets for the free samples
offered to customers.
When she did go spend time with a man, she would occasionally be choked or hit, and one
john even tied her arms and legs.
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Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation : The Asahi Shimbun

At times, she thought she “might die here” at times, but she did not have any other choices tosurvive.
She estimated that she slept with some 100 patrons, including those she lived with for several
weeks to an entire year. Among them, there was no one who did not demand sex.
All the men, who didn't tell her their names, had sex with her and then left afterward as if
nothing had occurred.
The young woman said she knew all too well that she was simply being used to satisfy theirsexual desires.
“I longed for a moment of warmth,” she said. “I was not needed by anyone, so I wanted to feelthat I was necessary to someone even though they simply just wanted to sleep with me.
Because of that, I did not see myself as a victim.”
The woman said she even forget what it was like to experience such emotions as sorrow andpain. Still, while suffering emotionally, she could not stop cutting her arms with a utilityknife.
She also took prescription psychotropic tablets she kept in large amounts, because she tried
to take her mind off her suffering by hurting herself.
“I still am alive simply because I have not been killed or died,” she said.
She suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an eating disorder.
The woman saw her life turned around a year ago, when she found a support group on theinternet. The organization helped her to receive public livelihood protection assistance,
eventually finding her a home, as authorities decided her psychological condition issignificantly unhealthy.
The emotional experience at the Flower Demonstration at Tokyo Station does not appear to
be enough to make up for her loneliness. At times, she feels a strong impulse to return to her
gigolo club companions whenever she receives an e-mail from one saying, “I cannot livewithout you.”
The woman is now trying hard to protect herself, as she recently found a friend to talk overher problems with.
“I manage to survive one day at a time and just repeat doing that,” she said.
SOCIETY SHOULD PROVIDE HELP
Having children stay at one’s home without their guardians’ permission could constitute aviolation of the law against kidnapping of minors.
According to the National Police Agency, 260 or more abduction and human trafficking cases
involving minors were annually confirmed both in 2018 and 2019, far exceeding the averagenumber of 180 recorded in the past.
Some 17,000 boys and girls younger than 20 have been reported missing to police per year
over the past three years, after they run away from home.
Yumeno Nito, 30, head of a group called Colabo, which seeks to create a society wheretroubled children can live free from exploitation and violence, said she has received many
complaints from girls who cannot or feel reluctant to live with their families.
According to Nito, such girls attempt to seek help, though sometimes inexplicitly, at homes,
schools or child consultation centers. But they feel adults do not take their complaints
seriously, resulting in despair and distrust of them.
“The children have given up on themselves because adults have expressed disappointment atthem on many occasions,” said Nito. “Complaints come mainly from those aged 15 through18, and nearly all of them seek places to stay through social media and have been sexually
victimized at the men’s homes.”
As the novel coronavirus spread, 850 young people, 2.5 times more than usual, contacted
Colabo for advice between March and mid-November this year.
They reported problems such as not knowing where to spend time as their part-time
workplaces or schools were closed. One runaway lost a place to live in after a cybercafe shut
down.
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Young woman tries to cope after life of sexual exploitation : The Asahi Shimbun

Listening to their accounts, Nito has accompanied those needing assistance to visit childconsultation centers or municipal offices as necessary. Some of those seeking help wereallowed to stay at Colabo’s shelter.
The number of girls taking shelter at Colabo has topped 60, and Nito also helped children
who had fled from their homes to receive subsidies linked to the government's pandemic aid.
“Society and adults should determine why children ran away from their homes, although theyoften deem these girls as troublemakers,” Nito said. “No place or environment have beendeveloped in which the girls can share the issues they have with safety and security.”“Society and adults have not realized that they often victimize children in some way on theirown,” she continued. “The issue should be regarded as involving adults, not girls.”
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