The “Nordic Model,” in which only the customer who buys is charged with a crime, was a revolutionary system that changed the structure of sex trafficking!

The state of sex trafficking in Japan is being questioned. The Anti-Prostitution Law has been revised in response to the view that “it is unequal that only women are punished. How do countries around the world control sex trafficking? This is the first installment of a series of articles by sex journalist Akira Ikoma, who examines how Japan should deal with sex trafficking based on examples from other countries. This is the first part.

Review of the Anti-Solicitation Law is underway.

With the enforcement of the revised Entertainment Establishments Control Law in June last year and the consideration of making prostitution a punishable offense that began in March of this year, the way in which regulations of sex and entertainment are enforced has been attracting a great deal of attention.

On April 7, the Ministry of Justice’s expert panel for reviewing the Anti-Prostitution Law held a hearing with witnesses to ascertain the actual situation in Japan. The president of a non-profit organization that addresses the issue of sexual exploitation and a representative of an organization dedicated to the safety and health of sex workers expressed their views.

There are two sides to the issue of the Anti-Prostitution Law: those calling for punishment of those who buy and those opposing stricter regulations. The Ministry of Justice is discussing the matter with the aim of amending the law in either this fall’s extraordinary Diet session or next year’s ordinary Diet session.

In other countries, three main legal systems, the “Nordic Model,” the “Legalization Model,” and the “Decriminalization Model,” have become major trends due to differences in attitudes toward sex and entertainment. Other models include the “prohibitionist model” and the “regulatory model.

There are good and bad in each model, and no conclusion has been reached as to which one is correct. The question, “What is the best way to regulate the sex industry? is an eternal question that has been asked since ancient times.

This series of articles introduces “various ways of dealing with sex trafficking in countries around the world. It examines in detail the cases of other countries and discusses “the most appropriate way to distance oneself from sex trafficking” from a global perspective. In addition, we will look at the current situation in Japan, what it should be in the future, and possible ways forward.

The “Nordic Model” was a revolutionary approach

The “Nordic Model,” a legal system that criminalizes prostitution, is currently spreading mainly in Europe. The aim of this system is to reduce the size of the sex industry.

The content of the law is to decriminalize the “sellers” (mainly women) and support them in getting out of “the situation where they have no choice but to sell”. The system protects “victims” regardless of whether or not they have consented to sex trafficking, and does not punish them.

On the other hand, “buyers (mainly men) and traffickers” are punished as perpetrators of sexual exploitation. By making buying sex a criminal offense, the law attempts to reduce the demand for sex trafficking.

This was a revolutionary approach that sought to change the very structure of sex trafficking by making the “responsibility of the buyer” the law, which had been overlooked in many countries until then. For this reason, it is also called the “new abolitionism” or “new punitivism.

This approach was first implemented in Sweden in 1999. It was followed by Norway in ’09, Iceland in ’10, Canada in ’14, France in ’16, and the Republic of Ireland in ’17, In addition, the program has been implemented in Northern Ireland of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom and Maine in the United States have also adopted the model.

The Nordic model presents a clear message to society that sex trafficking is violence, discrimination, and exploitation against women, and that it is the men who buy women who must change, and it places more emphasis on “gender equality” than on conventional notions of morality and chastity. It is therefore also referred to as the “gender equality model.

The foundation of the model is the recognition that “ the use of sex as a subject of trade is a violation of women’s human rights and should be abolished,” and that “women trapped in sex trafficking face abuse.

The argument that “cracking down on pimps and traffickers and changing men’s attitudes and awareness by making buying sex a crime is necessary to achieve a society in which men and women are equal,” is said to have “revolutionized the way countries around the world think about sex trafficking.

Background of the birth of the “Nordic Model

Sweden, the first country to pass this legal system, used to have a public prostitution system. From a public health perspective, local governments registered and managed women who sold sex, but this system was abolished in 1919 due to a women’s movement calling for the abolition of prostitution.

However, while the Penal Code prohibited the act of pimping for sex trafficking, it did not prohibit the operation of such establishments, and was not thorough enough. In addition, there was no law that punished the act of prostitution itself, but sex sellers were subject to control laws as vagrants. As a result, sex trafficking has always been a social problem.

Under these circumstances, there was a move toward legalization of sex trafficking in 1981 and a leaning toward prohibitionism in 1995, which punished both selling and buying sex. But the majority of women’s groups opposed both. And in 1998, the law was enacted that “does not punish the act of selling sex, but punishes the act of buying and the business of the vendor.

The Nordic model was not developed merely by desk theory. Swedish feminists conducted extensive research on sex trafficking, and they interviewed a wide range of people, both those who sell sex and those who buy sex. The women selling sex told of their paths to prostitution, the impact the sex trade has had on them, and the way they live their lives.

What those surveyed discovered was that “there is no point in punishing women. Once a woman has been incorporated into the sex trade, it is difficult for her to escape.

What became clear was the simple fact that prostitution exists because men buy sex. They realized that in order to reduce sex trafficking, they needed to change the idea that men have the right to buy sex from others. The Nordic model is primarily about changing people’s mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors.

After the law came into effect in 1999, buying sex for money in Sweden was punishable by a fine or imprisonment. The crime of prostitution has had a major impact on Swedish society. In each city, the number of people selling sex on the street has clearly decreased.

Support for the “Nordic Model

The Nordic Model is highly regarded internationally as a way to keep women safe and reduce sex trafficking in the sex trade. In a ’14 resolution, the European Parliament urged member states to enact the model, stating that “the Nordic model will curb the increase in trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It recognized that “sex trafficking is a “violation of human dignity” and a decisive barrier to achieving gender equality.

Maud Olivier, a former member of the National Assembly who led the French legislation, emphasized that the key to achieving gender equality is to “break away from a society that accepts sex trafficking. In Sweden and France, she said, the overwhelming majority of the public supports the Nordic model.

In Israel, a Nordic model-type law was partially enacted in July ’20, but it was the efforts of feminists that led to its passage.’ In ’13, feminists formed an anti-sex trafficking coalition of activists, supporters, sex traffickers, journalists, and politicians. This was very effective and they succeeded in persuading legislators of both sexes across party lines.

A survey conducted three years after the law’s passage showed that the percentage of male prostitutes had dropped significantly and that the majority of the public now viewed sex trafficking as harmful. One man said, “The law has made me stop prostitution altogether.” The law has prompted a change in social attitudes toward sex trafficking.

However, some complain that the Nordic model is the worst. They say that the tightening of regulations does not protect the health and safety of those who work in the sex trade.

In Part 2, we discuss in detail the “negative aspects” of the “Nordic Model,” which was said to be revolutionary.

The ironic reality is that the “Nordic Model,” which was supposed to save women, has instead led them into a difficult situation.

References

Sex Work Studies, SWASH (ed.), Nippon Hyoronsha, 2018.

The Original Theory of Sexual Self-Determination,” Shinji Miyadai, Yukiko Hayami, Naoei Yamamoto, Yoshiko Miya, Seiji Fujii, Hiroaki Hirano, Noriko Kanazumi, Yuji Hirano, Kinokuniya Shoten, 1998.

Why We Shouldn’t Kill People,” Itsuro Obama, PHP Research Institute, 2014.

In addition, numerous other books and online media were referenced.