Punishing Buyers Won't Solve Japan's Sex Trade Problem Japan's anti prostitution laws have consistently prioritized punishing sex workers over protecting them from violence and exploitation.
This approach is an outlier among developed countries, where laws often decriminalize or even encourage sex workers to report crimes against them.
Historically, Japan's anti prostitution laws were rooted in the ideology that women who engaged in sex work were "evil" and responsible for corrupting married men.