How many of the 700,000 to 4 million global victims of human trafficking a year (according to a 2002 U.S. State Department survey) end up in Japan?
Given the secretive nature of the trade, nobody knows for sure, but the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration estimates that, at any one time, the estimated 2.37 trillion yen-a-year Japanese sex industry (according to Takashi Kadokura of the Tokyo-based Dai-ichi Life Research Institute) involves as many as 150,000 foreign women, many of whom are coerced or lured here under false pretenses