Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tokyo (Fides Service) - Catholic students in Japan are working to eliminate trafficking and sexual abuse of minors in Japan and elsewhere: many of Tokyo’s young people work as volunteers at the offices of the Japanese branch of ECPAT End Child Prostitution and Trafficking an international organisation..
Catholic school pupils and university students are promoting campaigns, mainly among their peers in social centres and cultural clubs, to increase awareness of widespread abuse of minors and to encourage commitment to end it.
One of the youngest ECPAT volunteers in Japan, Miss Yano Yoruko, aged 17, was awarded the “Violet Richardson”, prize assigned by the Soroptimist International, which encourages women engaged in public life and social work.
Yano first came to know about the problem of minor abuse by reading information on children’s rights which she now uses when she speaks to people of her own age about the problem. When only 15 years old, Yano took part in the 2nd World Congress on Minors Abuse as a member of the Japanese delegation. This experience helped her to mature and filled her with a desire to work to fight sexual abuse, trafficking, trade of children in Japan and all over the world. Now she wants to train as a psychiatrist so she can care for these young victims of adult abuse.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 17/3/2004 lines 25 word 275)
