Important Announcement from Lighthouse
Regarding the Dissolution of the Organization July 2022

 
Thank you very much for your continued warm support for Lighthouse.

Our organization’s history began in 2004 when Shihoko Fujiwara (former Board Chair) founded Polaris Project Japan as the Japanese branch of an anti-trafficking organization called Polaris (formerly known as Polaris Project) in the United States. In 2009, we became an NPO and in 2014, became independent from Polaris to focus more on the human trafficking issues in Japan and renamed ourselves “Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims”. We have worked to support victims of human trafficking for the past 17 years.

We met many survivors of human trafficking, especially sex trafficking which includes: women forced to work in the sex industry, people forced to appear in pornography, and children who fell victim to child prostitution and child pornography. We wholeheartedly devoted ourselves to the restoration of each individuals’ human rights and dignity. In addition to supporting survivors, we have also raised awareness of these issues utilizing materials such as manga and videos, talk events and trainings, and advocacy work. We believe our work resulted in real social change towards supporting current, and preventing further, victims. One major achievement includes the Japanese government’s involvement in combating forced appearance in pornography and “JK business”. It goes without saying that we received tremendous support from many donors, grant organizations, and comrades of other institutions in fighting against human trafficking. In addition, the presence of many survivors who offered their voices was also a driving force of our activities. We cannot thank you all enough.

In recent years, in addition to receiving consultations on human trafficking cases such as child pornography and digital sexual violence, we have also responded to various hardship cases such as family and relationship problems, and difficulty in living. Under such circumstances, we have sought and discussed what our strengths are as an organization and what direction we should move towards. However, with the resignation of the former Board Chair, who had been leading the organization since its founding as a major catalyst, we came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to expand new activities, and unfortunately, were compelled to come to our decision to dissolve the organization. A general meeting was held on October 28, 2021, and a resolution was made to amend the articles of incorporation to dissolve the organization effective July 11, 2022, conclude our activities by March 31, 2022. We hope that our passion and commitment will be passed on to the many people who have shown concern and have taken part in the fight, and will develop as a new movement towards resolving these issues once and for all.

Regarding consultation on human trafficking cases (i.e. child pornography, revenge pornography, digital sexual violence, child prostitution, forced appearances in pornography, forced labor in the sex industry, etc.), PAPS (Organization for Pornography And Sexual Exploitation Survivors, https://www.paps.jp/) will be undertaking the continued consultation. We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for their kind support. For other consultations, we will provide information on other related organizations with their respective hotlines.

The above is to provide the background of our decision to dissolve the organization and address the question of future responses. For further inquiries about the dissolution of our organization, please contact us by e-mail (info@lhj.jp).

Thank you very much for supporting Lighthouse for many years and for fighting alongside us. We are deeply grateful for all your generous support.