Category "ZOE International"

“A nice hot cup of tea would be nice,” I thought the other day while at work. Rather than going through all the trouble, I put a coin in the vending machine and out came my instant gratification.

It is beyond description how highly “convenience” is valued in our culture. You can get almost anything from vending machines, stores, and the Internet.

And this is what sex has become.

In Japan, you can scroll through your phone and select a girl to be delivered to your place in less than an hour. Pornographic sites are just a click away, easy even for a child to access.

Sex became such an accessible, disposable product in our culture. Like fast food, it’s ready for you as soon as you crave it. Such disposable consumption makes us grow numb to true satisfaction.

In the process of numbing our senses to the sacredness of sex, human trafficking begins to creep into our society. There are sex traffickers who dare to think that they are “helping” their victims by providing a job. There are even pedophiles who believe that they are “educating” children when they are horrifically abusing them.

A person does not become a sex trafficker overnight. It is through the process of devaluing sex and numbing their senses to true satisfaction that lead to exploitation of others for their selfish gains.

As long as society makes sex a convenient disposable product, vulnerable people and children will be objectified for exploitation and human trafficking will continue.

We must emphasize the importance of teaching the youth about the true value of sex. Because once it violates boundaries, it doesn’t stop. Sex is never a vending machine product that we purchase and dispose of on our way through life.

It is God’s beautiful design, meant to be cherished, protected, and sacredly valued as we see in the Bible.

This is an extremely important and urgent subject to teach especially young generations because they have the potential to become both victim and perpetrator.

At ZOE Japan, we have the opportunity to share a love and ultimate true satisfaction through Jesus Christ with a nation that is 1% Christian, shedding light that instant gratification will never fully satisfy our soul.

Japan, like many countries worldwide, has a human trafficking problem. “Japan is a destination, source, and transit country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, and for children subjected to sex trafficking” (Trafficking In Person Report 2017).

One part of the problem is Enjo Kosai – also known as “compensated dating” which often leads towards the sex trafficking of Japanese children. Enjo Kosai is child sexual exploitation in exchange for money and/or luxury gifts by older men.

There are also sophisticated and organized prostitution networks that target vulnerable Japanese women and girls in public areas such as subways, popular youth hangouts, schools, and online. Japanese citizens, particularly runaway teenage girls, children of foreign and Japanese citizens who have acquired citizenship, and their foreign mothers, are also subjected to sex trafficking.

In the last decade the government has recognized the problem of human trafficking. In Japan, ZOE is a member of JNATIP (Japan Network Against Trafficking in Persons). This network includes NGOs, lawyers, and academics who are looking to formulate effective laws concerning the prevention of trafficking in persons, victim relief, and the punishment of perpetrators.

ZOE is also currently working in the area of prevention. ZOE’s goal in Japan is to prevent trafficking by providing education in churches, schools, and communities. ZOE plans to build a shelter in Japan for children who are at risk of or survivors of trafficking. Stay connected with the work in Japan here.