Waiting for God

So I am pretty sure I know what I want to do with the rest of my life...

Below is a short paper that a friend of mine, Lucas McCandliss, wrote about whats going on with a lot of girls here in Japan... Please take the time to read it and pray!!!



Waiting for God

It's been three days since Mizuho left home. This fourteen year old couldn't stand the yelling between her parents or the beatings from her father and brothers any longer, so she packed her bags and walked out the door. Mizuho, who spent the past three days sleeping at an Internet cafe, is now out of money. She doesn't have any future goals at present. The only thing on her mind is to find a way to keep from having to return home. She signs onto an Internet forum and leaves a message under the category “Waiting for God.” In that message she leaves her screen name, a falsified age of 18, a cute snapshot of herself, and a simple note stating where she is and how long she needs a place to stay. Within minutes “god” replies with an assurance of a safe place to stay for the next three days. Mizuho will now go and meet this god; and he'll give her food to eat, a place to shower, and a place to lay her head at night, all without any financial cost. However, there still remains a price to be paid. That price is her body; it will become his for as long as she stays there. She tells herself to be strong, and that this is better than going back home.

The story above is fiction; however, the situation it depicts is real. It is a combination of many of the girls stories who now keep a profile on what is called “Iede saito”(家出サイト), or in English, runaway's website. On these runaway websites you can do searches on the local town level, which allows girls who are waiting on their god to be “saved” promptly. Government regulation prohibits minors from accessing such sites. However, no real effort is made to verify the ages of the users. The origin of the runaway site comes from what is known as deai kei saito (出会い系サイト), or in English, casual encounters site. In 2005 the government started to regulate these sites more strictly in hopes that involvement in child prostitution would wane. However, the regulations backfired and caused simple to use, free internet forums where no specific laws were being broken to flood the internet.

The runaway websites are legal. The legal age of consent for sexual interaction without the exchange of money is 13 in Japan. If money is exchanged, both parties must be at least 18 years old in age. While no money is exchanged, the basic Principal of prostitution is still present. Because no laws are being broken directly, the police refuse to step in. This is a failure of the system as whole because everyday thousands of girls like Mizuho are put at risk as they search for a haven. The only help they receive are the words, “Stay strong.”