Japan jails man for forcing Thai girl, 12, into sex work

A Japanese court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old man to five years in prison and fined him 1 million yen (US$6,500) for forcing a 12-year-old Thai girl to provide sexual services at his private-room massage parlour in Tokyo.

The Tokyo District Court found Masayuki Hosono guilty of violating the child welfare law, saying the owner of the establishment had created a disorderly workplace environment and failed to verify the girl’s age. Prosecutors had sought a six-year prison term and a 2 million yen fine.

Judge Hiroshi Ikegami said that while the girl’s 30-year-old mother deserved the strongest condemnation for pressuring her daughter to engage in sex work, Hosono had caused the child emotional distress “beyond imagination” by forcing her to serve customers in a foreign country and making her practise on him.

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Hosono had denied the charges by claiming the female store manager Punsiripanya Phakhaphon, 39, who is also on trial, was responsible for recruitment.