Overview
- The Bangkok Criminal Court on Monday handed the mother a first-instance prison term of seven years and six months for human trafficking and related offences.
- Prosecutors say the woman brought her 12-year-old daughter to Tokyo in June 2025 and placed her in a single-room private massage parlor where the girl was forced to provide sexual services to about 60–70 men over roughly one month.
- The case came to light in September 2025 when the abandoned girl went alone to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau to ask for help, after which she was protected in Japan and later returned to Thailand.
- Thai authorities say the mother was detained in Taiwan, transferred to Thailand and arrested in December 2025, and she later admitted the charges at trial; the Bangkok ruling is subject to appeal.
- Related criminal proceedings persist in Tokyo, where the former Japanese shop owner denies wrongdoing and says he believed the worker was an adult, and the case highlights cross-border policing and the role of frontline officials in identifying trafficking.