Japanese Girl Raped in Club
It was not hard to understand this calendar week why Shiori Ito has get something of a feminist icon in Nippon. Four years later unleashing claims of rape against a prominent television announcer, Ito sat in the audience of a packed printing conference on Thursday listening impassively as her declared rapist branded her a "habitual liar". In the pantheon of insults hurled her manner – prostitute, slut, even political spy – it was tepid stuff. "I've heard information technology all earlier," she says.
Ito says she was raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief for one of Japan's big broadcasters, at a Tokyo hotel in 2015. Yamaguchi insists the encounter was consensual. On Thursday, Tokyo district court rejected his claim and ordered him to pay Ito 3.three meg yen (€27,000) in amercement. Yamaguchi fumed after the civil lawsuit decision, accusing the courtroom and the media of bias. Surrounded past her supporters, a tearful Ito rejoiced, calling information technology a "landmark instance" for rape victims in Nippon.
That stunning denouement in one case looked very unlikely. Ito, a freelance journalist, says she was crushed by the reaction to her first press conference in June 2017 when she aired her story to reporters. The response was media indifference and a flood of detest post. Trolls invaded her website, slut-shaming her. Amidst her sins was unbuttoning the elevation of her blouse during the press conference.
She had taken the rare determination to go public to highlight the shoddy handling of rape victims. In her bestselling volume, Black Box, Ito recalls being advised by a policeman to go on with her life because she would never be able to testify assault. When she persisted, she was instructed to prevarication on a mattress and re-enact the alleged assault with a life-size doll, while male officers looked on taking notes and photographs – standard procedure in the marshalling of evidence for a rape case. A government survey in 2017 suggested that fewer than 4 per cent of rape victims in Nippon report their assaults.
The worst was yet to come: two months later her encounter with Yamaguchi, an arrest warrant for quasi rape (where consent is impossible) was issued – and so revoked in murky circumstances.
Abe biographer
Yamaguchi is a biographer of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. He won praise from Abe supporters for reporting on allegations that the South Korean military had operated military brothels across S Vietnam during the Vietnam War, which they saw every bit a riposte in the long diplomatic spat over Japan's wartime system of brothels in Korea. Now, this star reporter of the nationalist right was himself accused of sexual assault.
Ito says investigators told her they had been ordered to let Yamaguchi go (that claim has never been substantiated). In July 2017, prosecutors dropped the case for lack of evidence. A subsequent appeal upheld that determination. Yamaguchi denies Ito'southward claims that he was saved by his elite connections. "I didn't ask any politician, police officer or bureaucrat to do anything about this case," he said during back-to-back press conferences on Thursday.
Ito was later offered a financial "settlement" from Yamaguchi via her lawyer and the police. Instead, she went to courtroom. She further incited the nationalist cyber mob by bad-mouthing Nippon to the foreign media, including participating in a documentary for the BBC. Some accused her of setting a love trap to destroy Yamaguchi or even unseat Abe. Yamaguchi himself published an commodity suggesting she was a tool of anti-Abe forces. Ito says she received threats on her life. "Some of the letters I was getting actually scared me," she says.
#MeToo movement
In the meantime, Japan'due south #MeToo motility briefly flared, but failed to take root in the thin topsoil of Japan'due south ceremonious gild. The nation's top finance bureaucrat, Fukuda Junichi, was forced to resign last yr later claims he had harassed a female reporter, but his boss, Taro Aso, stayed in his job despite saying that the way to stop harassment of women reporters is to supplant them with men. Tellingly, the reporter who outed Fukuda remains anonymous.
Ito said her victory might brand it easier for such women to come forward. "I've been asked why Japan doesn't accept a big MeToo movement," she said on Thursday, suggesting it was because the country isn't prepare to support victims of sexual assault. "I want to encourage other people to speak out. You lot don't have to be a victim."
The court decision against Yamaguchi was damning. Presiding judge Akihiro Suzuki said at that place were "serious doubts" virtually his credibility, while Ito had "no motive" for making a faux merits. Still, he and his lawyer are appealing the decision. Ito volition savour her moment of triumph and, in all likelihood, exist called on to defend it again, and over again.
Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/high-profile-rape-case-raises-questions-for-japanese-society-1.4121675
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