Customs officials in Japan seized 1.04 million counterfeit goods items in 2009, according to Finance Ministry. The total amount seized was up 10.6 percent from the previous year.

86 percent of the counterfeit items originated from China, followed by 6 percent from South Korea.

The most counterfeited good was counterfeit purses, which accounted for 55 percent of all goods seized.

Source:  “Pirated goods halted by customs in 2009 top 1 million,” Japan Today, March 13, 2010.

An estimated 3,000 tons of wildlife meat is consumed and exported into China from Vietnam each year.

Source:  “Over 2 tons of wildlife and animal bones seized,” VietNam Net, March 11, 2010.

According to the Business Software Alliance, 80 percent of all software used in China in 2008 was pirated. The software piracy rate was down from the 90 percent reported in 2004.

Source:  Bruce Einhorn, “Software Industry Loses Patience with China,” BusinessWeek, March 10, 2010.

According to the United States Government Accountability Office, between 12 to 41 percent of police recruits in Afghanistan have tested positive for illegal substances.

Source:  Sue Pleming, “Drug abuse is problem among Afghan police recruits,” Reuters, March 10, 2010.

In 2009, Japanese officials investigated 507 cases of child pornography in the country, double the total from the previous year.

Source:  AFP, “Child porn, ID theft drive record cyber crime in Japan,” Yahoo News, March 4, 2010.

Taiwan loses up to $156 Million (5 Billion Taiwan Dollars) in lost taxes due to cigarette smuggling activities.

The Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation states that almost 10 percent of the cigarette market in Taiwan consists of smuggled cigarettes.

Source:  “New way of cigarette smuggling discovered,” The China Post, March 9, 2010.

The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan reported in December 2009 that up to $10 Million in opium money is being funneled to the United Arab Emirates every day.

Source:  Zawya Dow Jones, “FOCUS: Dubai’s Dark Side Exposed By Al Mabhouh Killing,” Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010.

The National Police Agency in Japan announced that there were 3,903 cases of marijuana in Japan in 2009.  The number of cases were up 74 from 2008, and was the fourth straight year of increasing.

Source: “Cannabis cases hit a high in ‘09,” Asahi, February 26, 2010.

In 2010, there were only 50 tigers believed to be roaming in the wild versus 5,000 tigers raised in tiger farms in China.

Source:  Patrick Winn, “Can Vladimir Putin save the world’s tigers?,” GlobalPost, February 24, 2010.

Between 60,000 to 100,000 children are estimated to be working in the sex industry in the Philippines, according to the International Labor Organization.

Source: David Challenger, “Filipino group helps women find life outside of trafficking,” CNN, February 22, 2010.