12. The girl-child

(1) Strengthening measures against child prostitution

1)

The World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Follow-up actions
Japan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in l994 and has been actively implementing the provisions of the convention.

In the wake of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm, Sweden August l996, the Japanese Government held a liaison meeting of ministries and agencies concerned and stated advocacy activities for preventing the purchase of child prostitution and child pornography.
As part of these efforts, posters appealing to eliminate the purchase of juvenile prostitution were made and distributed widely to airports, ports and windows for passport services, with the cooperation of UNICEF.
The travel business association has also been making efforts to inform travel agents and tourists.
In May l997, an international symposium as a follow up of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Tokyo under the joint auspices of the Japan Committee for UNICEF and the Swedish Embassy in Japan with the support of related ministries and agencies of Japan.

In March 1999, the bill for punishing act related to juvenile prostitution and child pornography and the protection of children was submitted to the 145th Diet Session.

(2) Child abuse

To cope with the rising incidents of parents abusing their children and neglecting their parental duties, in addition to protecting the child under the Child Welfare Law, further efforts will be given to strengthen measures to prevent child abuse.
To this end, from FY l999, measures will be implemented to raise the awareness of the local communities about the need to prevent child abuse, to support the early detection of child abuse, to establish a local network to facilitate quick response to such incidences, and to strengthen psychiatric care to those who have suffered from child abuse.