Police received 32 calls for help from foreign women forced into prostitution in 1997, more than triple the figure for the previous year, the National Police Agency said April 6.
The 32 women include 15 from Taiwan, six from Colombia, and two each from Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Thailand. Only four such cases were reported in 1994, while nine women turned to police for help in 1996.
The 32 women either sought shelter at local police stations, or their families asked authorities in their home countries to investigate. "The ways in which brokers make use of such foreign women are malicious. They are taking advantage of the women's status as illegal workers in Japan," an NPA spokesman said.