A rare example of political unity occurred in the Diet last week. Twelve lawmakers from seven political parties and groups put aside their usual differences and together submitted to the Upper House a long-anticipated bill to strengthen the legal protection of minors from sexual exploitation. In doing so at last they kept a promise to the nation's children that has been too long in coming. The bill has suffered setbacks and been subjected to compromises since it was first proposed two years ago, but passage now seems assured in the current Diet session.
That means Japan appears set to finally join most of the rest of the industrialized world in enacting legislation that targets child pornography and prostitution involving minors and imposes penalties on offenders. It may be only coincidental that the action comes in the year marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but its delay is an indication of the widespread public indifference in this country to the concept that children have any specific rights at all.
The publicity campaign against child sexual exploitation conducted by the government from late in 1996, mainly through posters prominently displayed in busy urban centers, appears to have played some role in increasing public awareness of the need to end this type of abuse. Pressure from abroad, however, may have played an even greater role. It is a sad commentary on the lack of legal protections for minors here that little has been done to meet the demand from foreign law-enforcement agencies for police action against the growing volume of child pornography on the Internet that originates in Japan.