Overcoming 'cultural mismatch' Human trafficking, Japan, and civil society

Amidst the growing attention to human trafficking in the international community, Japan's reluctance to admit that it was a major destination of human trafficking appeared as going against the diffusion of the international anti--trafficking norm. Japan's resistance to the anti-trafficking norm seemed to represent a case that constructivist scholars call "cultural mismatch," where the local culture is not congruent with the international norm. However, Japan's behavior shifted in the early 2000s; political discourse developed to recognize immigrant women working in the sex industry as trafficking victims, and by 2005 a series of legal amendments to combat human trafficking were adopted by the Japanese parliament. This dissertation argues that the case of Japan's shift to accept the anti-trafficking norm needs to be understood as a dynamic process of local adaptation of the norm, rather than "matching." In this process Japanese civil society actors working to address exploitation of immigrant women in the country's sex industry played a crucial role to interpret and adapt the norm in a way that was politically feasible in the national context. The study further suggests that the relationship between the international norm and the domestic civil society actors in Japan was a mutually reinforcing one. Japanese civil society actors that had limited resources and political power were able to utilize momentum and legitimacy that was created by the introduction of the international norm to advance their cause and have an impact in the policymaking process.