A good way to minimize prostitution is to reduce the factors that lead the women to it. I wish the article would actually delve into how, why, when, and which girls come into the "dark truth" as they call it, because knowing that illegal prostitution and exploitation exists is one thing, that's something many of us have experience with and have probably already seen in person not just in other cities/countries but also our own. I mean, Streetwise is an '84 documentary about child prostitutes in Seattle, the main subject being a 14 year old girl. This is a subject that's covered, that exists in the popular consciousness. It's not strange at all that Japan has a problem with prostitution, but what may be of interest to an exterior audience is its specifics, which are half explored but seemingly focused a lot more on the cultural context in which they exist and statistics. Which, well, goes to show their priorities and how they choose to cover these subjects i guess.
What i want to know is why are the girls there? Don't they have other professional venues to make money? Why do they need money? Are they being coerced? How are they being coerced? For all i know, and perhaps for all they know it's just work like any other. I want to be able to have an opinion on child prostitution in Japan that is more than "it's bad" and "they should make these things illegal". These situations of exploitation often exist in the context of other coalescing negatives like poverty, isolation, lack of alternatives... in the end these articles about japan, as pretty much most articles about prostitution i suppose, seem to display little care for the prostitutes themselves which more than heartbreaking is a bit infuriating because they do nothing but explore the problem so superficially nothing novel is transmitted, something that might perhaps, who knows, move people to have an active and direct position in solving these problems not just outside in other countries but also in their own communities.