Japan is a popular destination and transit point for women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. A majority of the victims are foreign women who migrate to Japan seeking work, and who are then deceived or coerced into debt bondage or sexual servitude.
The police source said Takashi Mori, 58, Koji Akagawa, 48, and two accomplices from Osaka sent false documents to the Japanese consulate in Khabarovsk, in Russia's Far East, with a request that visas be issued to a group of specialists for a period of training at one of the city's professional schools. A group of young Russian women entered Japan shortly after April 7.
The investigation established that this and other groups, totaling 40 women, rather than taking courses were employed as hostesses at local restaurants and nightclubs.
According to the police, Takashi Mori previously spent four years in prison for staging an accidental death during a tourist trip to the Philippines and receiving a large insurance payout.
