Online comments accused Rika Shiiki of lying and being a publicity hound when she tweeted that she lost business contracts after refusing to have sex with clients. Some said that by agreeing to dine with a man, she led him on.
"The comments I received were disproportionately negative,” the 20-year-old university student and entrepreneur told a TV talk show in December. “We need to create a society where we can speak up. Otherwise sexual harassment and other misconduct will persist forever.”
In a patriarchal society where women have long taken the blame, many victims try to forget attacks and harassment instead of seeking support and justice, said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
“Japan lacks such a sisterhood,” she said. “It’s an exhausting and intimidating process. … It’s quite natural that victims feel reluctant to speak up.”
One woman, journalist Shiori Ito, went public last year. She held a news conference after prosecutors decided not to press charges against a prominent TV newsman whom she had accused of raping her after he invited her to discuss job opportunities over dinner and drinks in 2015.
Many online comments criticized her for speaking out, looking too seductive and ruining the life of a prominent figure. Some women called her an embarrassment, she told The Associated Press.
The October release of Ito’s book “Blackbox” detailing her ordeal came as the #MeToo phenomenon was making headlines in America. It prompted some discussion in Japan, but only a handful of other women came forward.
“Many people think Shiori’s problem has nothing to do with them … and that’s why #MeToo isn’t growing in Japan,” said lawyer Yukiko Tsunoda, an expert on sex crimes.In Japan, sexually assaulted women are traditionally called “the flawed,” she said.
Nearly three quarters of rape victims said they had never told anyone, and just over 4 percent had gone to police, according to a 2015 government survey. The study found that one in 15 Japanese women had been raped or forced to have sex.
Justice Ministry statistics show only one-third of rape cases go to court, and punishment is not severe. Of the 1,678 people tried for sexual assault in 2017, only 285, or 17 percent, were sentenced to prison for three years or longer. In November, Yokohama prosecutors, without saying why, dropped the case against six students from a leading university who had been arrested for the alleged gang-rape of a teenage female student after getting her drunk. The university expelled three of them.
Popular writer Haruka Ito, who goes by the pen name Ha-Chu, was criticized after revealing in December that she had faced sexual and other harassment by a senior male employee when both worked at Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency.
The alleged harasser, whom she identified by name, apologized in a statement and quit as head of his own company, though he denied the harassment was sexual.
Ha-chu said in a statement that she initially tried to endure and forget the ordeal, fearing that exposing it would hurt her image and cause problems for her former colleagues. After news of the journalist Ito’s case and the #MeToo movement, “I decided to speak out,” she said.
Conformist pressure in Japan discourages women from speaking out or saying “no” to many things, including unwanted sex, said Saori Ikeuchi, a former lawmaker and gender diversity activist.
That mindset has silenced virtually all of Japan’s so-called “comfort
women,” who were sexually abused as prostitutes for the wartime
military, while Japan has shown little sympathy to victims from Korea
and elsewhere, she said.
Ito, the journalist, said that after she became dizzy and passed out in a restroom, her alleged attacker, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, took her to his hotel room and raped her while she was incapacitated.
The alleged assault was just the beginning of her ordeal, Ito said. The women’s clinic she visited the next day lacked expertise on rape, and a rape victim support center refused to give her advice on the phone. Police required her to recount the ordeal repeatedly and to demonstrate it with a life-sized doll, she said.
Ito said it took three weeks to get police to accept her criminal complaint and start investigating. She held a news conference in May, announcing that she had requested a court-appointed citizens’ panel to review the decision to drop the case. The inquest in September agreed with the decision not to indict.
Yamaguchi has denied any wrongdoing in published articles and on Facebook. Ito has filed a civil lawsuit against him, demanding 10 million yen ($93,000) in compensation for her suffering from the alleged rape, and seeking any clues as to why he was let go and never arrested.
“I thought about how I could change the situation, and I had no choice but to speak out about my experience,” she said.
「どうすれば状況を変えることができるかと考えたとき、自身の体験を語るしか選択肢がなかった」
伊藤氏はこう語った。
A group of opposition lawmakers has started its own investigation, seeking to find if the charges were dropped because of Yamaguchi’s connections to powerful political officials.
National Police Agency official Junichiro Kan told the lawmakers at a recent hearing that Ito’s case was properly handled. Police say they have tried to be more sensitive to the feelings of victims while guarding against wrongful accusations.
Mika Kobayashi, who heads a support group for sexual assault victims based on her own experience as a victim in 2000, speaks during an interview in Tokyo, Dec. 25, 2017.
She said she was pushed into a car and raped on her way home in 2000. She reported the attack to police, but the attacker hasn’t been found. She has since published books about her recovery from the ordeal, to raise public awareness.
“I used to think of myself as someone hiding a big secret, a sex assault victim and unclean,” she said. “I’m so grateful I could connect with fellow victims. They gave me strength.”
“I had to do everything I can before getting help from anyone. I was so dejected that I could not get myself out of bed.”
（「なにをするにしても、まず自分で行って、それから初めて助けを求めることができました。あまりにも落胆して、ベッドから抜け出せないこともありました」）
“The police refuse to say why they dismissed the arrest warrant. Everything happens behind closed doors without transparency.”
（「警察はなぜ逮捕状が執行停止になったのか答えようとしません。すべては密室の中で、透明性のない中で進められました」）
“
If what the law says does not matter and the police have such a great
power that they can suppress an arrest warrant without holding anyone
accountable, I wonder what sort of society we live in?
“（「法律にどう書かれているかに関係なく、誰も責任を問われることなく警察が逮捕状を制止できるようならば、私たちの住む社会って一体どういう社会なんでしょうか」）
“The inspector said that I could forget my career after this. But … we cannot keep on being quiet, "says Shiori Ito. （「その警官は私にこう言いました。”この後は誰も雇ってくれなくなるから、ジャーナリストになる道は諦めたほうがいい”と。でも私は黙っていられませんでした」と語る伊藤詩織さん。）
Although
speaking out about abuse and rape is difficult in almost all
circumstances, women living in certain countries face insurmountable
obstacles when seeking justice. Japan is one of those places. Entrenched
cultural norms which don’t even allow the word rape to be mentioned,
have silenced women almost entirely. But one person refused to be quiet -
journalist Shiori Ito. The man in question has publicly denied all
allegations.
I
was raped two years ago in 2015. And the man who raped me, he offered
me a job in Washington DC, because he was bureau chief in one of the
Japanese mainstream TV news station. We made appointment to meet because
we need to talk about working visa.
It
was hard to realize that someone you trust or someone you respect would
do that. So I was scared, because he was quite close to all the
high-profile politicians. So it took time, to me, to think if this is
the right thing to do, if anyone would believe me.
I
decided, okay I’m going to the police, and I knew that this would make
me hard to work in … work as a journalist in Japan to accuse such a
high-profile journalist. And then when I got to the right person to talk
to, he told me, “These things happen a lot, and we can’t investigate.
It would never be prosecuted, it would never be charged, and it’s just a
waste of time.”
So
I thought he would accept, that he would file the case. And then he
told me, “Look, you’re accusing such a high-profile journalist. You have
no chance to be a journalist in Japan. ”
– That’s what the investigator or detective said to you?
―それは、捜査官が言ったのですか？それとも刑事が？
The investigator.
捜査官です。
– And how did that make you feel?
―そう言われて、どのように感じましたか？
It
was quite a tough decision to make, although I had to do it. Because if
I put a lid on the truth that I have, I shouldn’t be a journalist. And
also, I started having more questions, why can’t you investigate?
And
during the investigation, it was hard… Every time investigator has
changed, they asked me if I was a virgin. Why would you ask these
questions so many times? I stopped going for work. Every time I see the
same… similar figure man on a street, I became panicked. So I
decided,“Okay, maybe it’s better for me to go outside of Japan.”
–
So just to go back, so he was still in the United States but there was
an arrest warrant issued for him WHILE he was still in the United
States. Is that right?
Investigators
plan was to wait at the Narita Airport and arrest him as soon as he
gets on land. But then the investigator called me on the day they were
going to arrest, and he said, “There was order from above,” and they
stopped the arrest.
–
Am I right in saying that you are the first person who has publicly
said, openly under her own name, “I was raped. This is my story,” in
this country?
I
was quite disappointed. I felt like everyone knew about me. So I
couldn’t go out anymore. So I was always … I had to disguise myself if
I needed to go somewhere. And I started seeing these websites talking
about my personal life, my family. I saw my family’s photo. So I was
scared if I go out with my family, with my friend, what’s going to
happen to them? I couldn’t leave the house.
I
decided to quit to media I was working for, and be a freelancer and
start working with British media. I had a chance to move to UK this
summer and that made me feel, again, like a person; that I can go out.
Finally
I do feel small small changes. Politicians are now talking about it at
the Diet, at the parliament, and they finally changed the rape law which
hasn’t changed for a 110 years.
As
a journalist I tried many different ways to talk about it through
media, but none of these worked. So in the end, I had to be the ONE who
speak out about it. And certainly, sexual violence could happen anywhere
anytime in the world.
But
I was more shocked by what had happened afterwards, that made me really
hopeless. And I never realized what kind of society that I was living
in. Okay, legal system – it would take time. But social system can
change to support and help. And that would make a major change for
survivors to take the next step. Now, I do see some positive movements,
so I’m very optimistic.
Shiori filed her quasi-rape charges to Tokyo Police Agency in 2015 claiming she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room while she was unconscious. However, Tokyo Prosecutors Office dropped the case due to ‘lack of ground for charges’. In May 29 2017, Shiori held a press conference at the Justice Ministry Press Club and revealed that she had filed a request to the Prosecutors Inquest Committee. However on September 21, the Committee also ruled that the decision of ‘non-prosecution’ was duly appropriate. Since September 28, Shiori is fighting a civil law suit in Tokyo District Court seeking for investigation of the truth.
At the [May] Press Conference, Shiori chose to appear in her first name instead of the typical pseudonym of “Victim A”. In the new book, she has also revealed that her last name is “Ito”. With the aim to foment social discussion on this matter, we will share the Introduction part of her book where she has attempted to reveal everything in her knowledge.
In May 29, 2017, I held a press conference at the Ministry of Justice Press Club. The purpose of the conference was to report on the fact that I have filed a request for inquest to the Prosecutors Inquest Committee due to the fact that the rape case which I was victimized has been dropped by the judgment of the Prosecution.
被害にあってから、実に2年以上の月日が経っていた。
More than two years have passed since I was victimized.
It appeared that most of the people come to know about my case in this press conference for the first time. But I will emphasize that I’ve done this many times over the two years in front of the police, lawyers, and the media.
The word “rape” must make people think that such case only occurs outside, during night time, when the victim is assaulted on the streets, by a complete stranger.
But according to a survey by the [Japan’s] Cabinet Office in 2014, the case of the victim being forced to engage in sex was 11.1 percent. The majority of the [rape or non-consensual sex] case was committed by an acquaintance. However, those who report to the police only accounted for 4.3 percent of the total of which half of them are cases committed by a complete stranger.
It is clear that victims find it harder to go to the police when they are victimized by an acquaintance. And if the victim happens to be unconscious during the assault, then there is a even higher hurdle to overcome to prosecute the case in today’s Japan’s judiciary system.
When you are alive, you can experience many things– things that are completely unexpected, things that you only thought would happen on TV, or things that can only happen to someone who is remote from you.
I pursued the path of a journalist. I studied journalism and photography in an American college and worked as an intern at Reuters after I returned to Japan in 2015. Then there was that incident that almost changed my entire life.
I have been to about sixty countries abroad, and I have interviewed guerrillas in Columbia and reported on the ‘Cocaine Jungles’ in Peru. When I tell anyone about this, they usually say, “I assume you’ve been through many dangerous situations.”
But the fact was that I never was in any danger throughout my career visiting, staying, and reporting in these remote places. A true danger arrived when I was living in one of the most safest country known to the world, and my home, Japan. And what happened after the incident devastated me even more. There was no place where I can depend on for help; not the hospital, not the Rape Hotline, or the police.
自分がこのような社会で何も知らずに生きてきたことに、私は心底驚いた。
I was truly astonished to find that I lived in a society where I knew nothing about what I have experienced back then.
性暴力は、誰にも経験して欲しくない恐怖と痛みを人にもたらす。そしてそれは長い間、その人を苦しめる。
Sexual violence really brings upon great pain and instills fear that no one should ever have to experience. And this fear and pain torments the victimized person for a very long time.
なぜ、私がレイプされたのか？ そこに明確な答えはない。私は何度も自分を責めた。
Why was I raped? There was no clear answer for me. But I blamed myself over and over again.
ただ、これは起こったことなのだ。残念ながら、起こったことは誰にも変えることができない。
But it happened. And the fact that it happened can’t be changed by anyone.
I want to think that this experience of mine wouldn’t end in vain. I learned it myself for the first time through this painful experience. This unimaginable experience, that I didn’t know what to do about it at all when it first happened.
But I know now what needs to be done. And to make this happen, I must tackle to change both the social and legal system surrounding sexual violence at the same time. To do this, first and foremost, I must become a part of a society where victims can openly discuss about their experience, for myself, for my precious sister and my closest friends, my future child, and for the many who are still unknown.
But if I maintained in myself the anger or the shame [against myself and others], I would not be able to change anything. In this book I want to be straightforward, and tell what I think is needed, and what I think needs to be changed.
On April 4, 2015, as I regained consciousness in a Tokyo hotel room, I was raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting System and a journalist with close ties to Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
I met Yamaguchi the night before to discuss work opportunities. My last memory of that evening is feeling dizzy in a sushi restaurant. As I went through the ensuing criminal case proceedings, I came to realize how Japan’s system works to undermine survivors of sexual assault.
When the arrest was canceled, I thought my only recourse was to speak to the media.（
逮捕が執行停止になったとき、私は頼れるのはメディアしかないと思った。）
The investigation was scuttled throughout. This was, I and others suspect, partly due to political pressure, but also because of a medical, investigative, legal and, ultimately, social system that marginalizes and fails victims of sex crimes. I’ve had to fight every step of the way.
I went public to say that the entire mechanism of handling sexual crimes must change, and to ask that the Diet, as our parliament is known, stop delaying the proposed amendments to Japan’s 110-year-old rape law. To say that sexual violence is a reality that we need to talk about.
After fleeing the hotel, as I became aware of the physical pain, I realized what had happened. The gynaecologist I visited provided little assistance. I called the hotline for Tokyo’s only 24-hour rape crisis center to ask which hospital to go to (rape kits are only available in certain hospitals in 14 of Japan’s 47 prefectures). I was told to come in for a preliminary interview before I could receive any information. I was too devastated to move.
Initially, the police officers tried to discourage me from filing a report, saying my career would be ruined and that “this kind of thing happens often, but it’s difficult to investigate these cases.” I persuaded them to obtain the hotel’s security camera footage. The taxi driver’s testimony disclosed that I was carried inside the hotel. Eventually, the police took on my case.
I had to repeat my statement to numerous police officers. One investigator told me that if I didn’t cry, or act like a “victim,” they couldn’t tell if I was telling the truth. At one point, I had to reenact what happened with a life-size dummy at the Takanawa police station while officers took photographs. It was traumatizing and humiliating. A former colleague once referred to this procedure as “second rape” because it forces the victim to relive their ordeal.
In early June 2015, officers at Takanawa police station obtained a warrant for Yamaguchi’s arrest for incapacitated — or what is called “quasi” — rape.
Police planned to arrest him at Narita airport on June 8, but in a highly unusual move, the then chief of criminal investigation at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police canceled the arrest. My case was transferred to that department, where I was asked to settle out of court. Prosecutors filed papers against Yamaguchi, but in July 2016, they dropped all charges, citing insufficient evidence.
When the arrest was canceled, I thought my only recourse was to speak to the media. I spoke to journalists I trusted. No outlet, except weekly news magazine Shukan Shincho earlier this year, ended up reporting this story. The circumstances were politically sensitive, but Japanese media are usually silent about sex crimes — they don’t really “exist.”
It is taboo to even use the word “rape,” which is often replaced by “violated” or “tricked” if the victim was underage. This contributes to public ignorance.
The backlash hit me hard. I was vilified on social media and received hate messages and emails and calls from unknown numbers. I was called a “slut” and “prostitute” and told I should “be dead.” There were arguments over my nationality, because a true Japanese woman wouldn’t speak about such “shameful” things. Fake stories popped up online about my private life with photos of my family. I received messages from women criticizing me for failing to protect myself.
The mainstream media discussed what I wore. On social media, people said leaving the top buttons of my shirt undone undermined my credibility or explained why I was raped. One journalist had advised me to wear a suit to the press conference, but I refused. I was tired of being told how a victim should behave.
After the press conference, I avoided going out. When I did, I wore glasses and a cap to disguise myself, but people still recognized me and took pictures.
Those close to me supported me. I was heartened to hear from women who thanked me and said they’d experienced sexual assault, but felt unable to say anything.
I grew up in a culture and society where women are exposed to sexism and harassment from a young age. When I was 10 years old, I was groped by a man at a Tokyo swimming complex. My friend’s mother said it was my fault for wearing a “cute bikini.” Sexual molestation on public transport is a common problem that society trivializes. In high school, my friends and I faced this on a daily basis.
There is a strong social stigma associated with speaking out against sexual assault and a common perception that victims are less valuable to society. This is why many stay silent. Just 4 percent of survivors report rape to the police and when arrests are made, more than half the time prosecutors drop the charges.
It’s not that victims haven’t come forward; Japanese society wants them to stay silent.（被害者が名乗りを上げないのではない。社会が沈黙を守ることを望んでいるのだ）
When women speak out, their allegations are decried by dominant counter-narratives of “false accusations” or “false reports” in mainstream and social media. Men can even take out insurance against these accusations.
There is little concept of sexual consent in the law or in society. We need education about this in schools because we live in a society where “no” means “yes.” Rape is a genre in pornography. In relationships, some women think mimicking rape is desirable. People I’ve spoken to say they know when “no” means “no.” That’s a very Japanese way of communicating — not saying much but trying to read what the other person is saying.
According to a 2017 poll by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, 27 percent of respondents believed that sharing a private drink signaled sexual consent, while 25 percent took getting into the same car as a sign.
Many of the women who have shared their stories with me were assaulted in their workplace by their bosses. Sexual abuse happens whenever there is a power imbalance — which is everywhere in our male-dominated society.
In mid-October, around the time the Harvey Weinstein story broke, my book “Black Box” was published. Editor Izumi Ando had encouraged me to write about my experiences, saying that by going public, I’d cracked the door open.
The book’s title comes from the term prosecutors and police officers used to describe how rape happens behind closed doors. They kept saying: “We still don’t really know what happened; only you two know that sort of thing.”
He has publicly denied my rape allegations and written against me.
山口氏は私のレイプ被害の訴えを公然と否定し、反論を展開した。
Change, slowly
ゆるやかな変化
In the past year in Japan, we’ve made some progress. In July, our lower house of parliament (where just 10.1 percent of seats are held by women) amended the law pertaining to sexual assault to increase minimum sentences from three to five years, recognize male victims and widen the definition of what constitutes rape. But we need to keep pushing for more change. The age of consent is still 13. To establish a case, victims need to prove “violence and intimidation,” something that is virtually impossible.
Japan hasn’t had a big #MeToo movement, but what’s happened in the United States and elsewhere has provided an opening in our media to discuss sexual harassment and assault here, and to raise awareness. Some well-known authors — Mayumi Mori and Kyoko Nakajima, who contributes to Asahi newspaper, for example — have criticized society’s silence and are writing about their own stories of harassment. Journalist Akiko Kobayashi wrote in Buzzfeed about being sexually abused as a child. In private, women’s solidarity groups and others are quietly saying “me too.” But for now, most can only whisper it.
Some MPs are now hoping to introduce a new bill to support survivors that would mandate, for instance, that rape crisis centers are installed in every Japanese prefecture. But for any real change to happen, society needs to get behind it.
We haven’t really had a #MeToo movement not because victims haven’t come forward, but because Japanese society wants them to stay silent. Society needs to listen, and the onus of breaking this silence shouldn’t just come from survivors. We have to change the system and the law in a big way and we can’t wait another 110 years to do this.
Shiori Ito is a freelance journalist, documentary filmmaker and the author of “Black Box” (2017). She is currently working on a documentary about sexual violence in Japan.
As the #MeToo movement spans the globe, spinning a presidential bubble for Oprah Winfrey and putting spotlights on hidden corners of sexism, Japan is conspicuous for a relative silence, particularly where it matters most.
There have indeed been some vital demands for justice at ground level, particularly Shiori Ito. The freelance journalist went public with rape allegations last May, well before the Harvey Weinstein reckoning. Japanese women also have bombarded the Twittersphere with support for the movement, putting their nation in the #MeToo traffic Top 10.
But why the thunderous silence from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet, given a platform that pinned gender equality as a key metric? “Womenomics” is, after all, synonymous with the prime minister’s reform program as Abenomics enters its sixth year. Abe is largely mum on the urgent need to protect, empower and inspire women in the workplace, politics and entertainment. So is Seiko Noda, whom Abe tapped in August to drive better utilization of the female workforce to spur national growth and advance social progress.
“Abe is always grandstanding on womenomics, so here is a chance for him to chalk up a win for women in the workplace,” says Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. “Until the Diet passes laws with teeth, victims of debasing behavior have no real recourse to regain their dignity and make companies pay for their complicity.”
The trouble is that by one narrow measure ? the number of women entering the labor force ? Abenomics can claim success. The ratio of women between 15 to 64 in the workforce has increased by 1 percentage point or more in each year of Abe’s prime ministership, winning plaudits from the Brookings Institution in Washington. Yet corporate Japan is routing a disproportionate number of women into informal jobs that pay less and enjoy fewer protections. The more important metric: At the same moment last year that female participation hit 66 percent, women accounted for two-thirds of workers on irregular job statuses such as part-timers.
That mirror image is a big stain on Abe’s womenomics spin, one about which the World Economic Forum has no misgivings. In November, just as Abe shared a stage with Ivanka Trump (whose dad stands accused of sexual assault) at Tokyo’s World Assembly for Women, WEF slashed Japan’s gender-empowerment ranking to an all-time low. On Abe’s watch, Japan has gone from 98th place to 114th. Five-plus years into Abenomics, Japan still trails Saudi Arabia in the number of women in politics. Not one Nikkei 225 company is run by Japanese women.
When you ask leading empowerment voices about Japan’s most pressing needs, be they Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook or Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs, it’s role models. In top-down Japan, sadly, trailblazers often have to come from inspired governance. Abe, for example, has not entrusted a key Cabinet portfolio to a woman ? foreign affairs, finance or chief Cabinet secretary.
Yuriko Koike surely deserves a shout-out here. Tokyo’s first female governor shocked the patriarchy in 2016 by beating the favored candidate of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, a nondescript 60-something man (of course!). Yet even Koike is treading carefully about getting on the #MeToo bandwagon.
If any developed nation needs a “lean in” moment, in the Sandberg sense, it’s Japan. America, and the West in general, surely has its problems. Facing his own torrent of allegations, President Donald Trump has aggressively avoided #MeToo. How often, though, does the OECD call out a Group of Seven economy for institutionalized sexism, as it has with Japan?
It’s a complex problem, one hard to separate from issues of culture, tradition and social mores. And admittedly, U.S. comparisons are dubious. When Ruth Benedict wrote of Japan’s “shame culture” versus America’s “guilt culture” in “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword,” she did so in 1946, 58 years before the advent of social media. The ubiquity of online defaming tools explains, in part, why Japan’s #MeToo moment has been a quieter affair.
“You don’t want to bring shame on your family or society by talking about having been the victim of sexual misconduct, so you say nothing,” explains Nancy Snow of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. “But that silence implies consent and we must create an atmosphere that allows the victim to express that is linked to Japan’s overall betterment as a high-status member of global society.”
Japanese lawmakers need to embrace #MeToo as a human rights problem, one whose solutions would reap broader benefits ? from the quality of leadership to economic innovation. The question, of course, is what might catalyze change? Snow argues it may take a high-profile and well-respected woman ? or a group of women ? to step forward and drive a Japanese movement from the grass-roots on up, creating a cathartic wave of activism.
Abe can help. Along with promoting women to top Cabinet roles, he can urge lawmakers to level playing fields and tighten gender protections. First, though, Mr. Womenomics should use the bully pulpit only a national leader can and cry “Japan too!”
[Video] 00.30 Shiori Ito accused a high-profile media director of raping her - for that she had to pay a high price.
Shiori Ito put everything at stake when she accused a high-profile TV newsman of raping her. She was hated and stood alone in a country where nobody wants to talk about sex crimes.
When Shiori Ito was ten years-old, her mother took her to Summer Land, an outdoor swimming pool complex. She was playing happily in the new bikini she had been nagging about since the day before, when a man suddenly came up behind her in the water.
“His hands touched every part of my body,” she said.
She hurried back to the adults to tell what had happened. Their reaction left a scar in her heart that remains till today, when her mother’s friend explained that this happened because she had such a sweet bikini.
“I should have known better.”
The same sense of powerlessness and fear came back to her when Shiori, now 28 years old, held a press conference for Japanese media this year in May 2017.
With a background of having studied in the United States, Shiori is a freelance journalist who has written for Reuters, Al-Jazeera and The Economist, among others. She stands out like an odd bird in Japanese society where most neither speak English nor identify with the outspoken culture of the West.
[Photo] Shiori Ito has become the symbol of the # metoo movement in Japan. Photo: Lars Lindqvist
“I’ve reported from the FARC’s guerrilla in Colombia’s jungle and cocaine trafficking scene from Mexico, but it is here in Japan - the supposedly world’s safest country - which I’ve felt most afraid,” she said at the beginning of her press conference.
In front of flashing cameras, she accused the bureau chief of one of Japan’s biggest television channels for raping her in a hotel room. He is a well-known name in the media industry and had published two books on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The last thing she remembered was that they had dinner at a sushi restaurant, and then everything blacked out.
“At 5:00 am, after I regained my consciousness, I found myself being naked in a hotel bed and a man was inside me against my will, she told the astonished journalists” - no Japanese woman had previously talked so openly about a rape case.
Shiori had summoned the country’s media hoping to break the taboo and to question why her rape case was dropped, according to her sources, after “orders from above”.
After the press conference there were only a few in the media that supported her story or wrote about Shiori’s case. Instead, the media focused about the public discussing her attire - that she had not clipped the top two buttons on her shirt - than what she actually said at the press conference.
“A journalist colleague had advised me to wear my suit to the press conference, but I refused. I was tired of being told how to behave like a victim, says Shiori.
[Photo] Shiori Ito eats lunch in central Tokyo. Photo: Lars Lindqvist
I met Shiori Ito for the first time in August this year [2017], two months after the press conference. She was sitting at the kitchen table in her studio apartment in central Tokyo and from time to time she looks through the slit between the long curtains, down towards the rushing traffic.
She was too scared to go outside.
After the press conference, her Inbox were filled with death threats, unknown numbers had called her phone and lies about her privacy had been posted online along with pictures of her family and friends.
A woman criticized her for failing to protect herself. Speculations were abound suspecting she had a political agenda to remove the right-leaning Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from power, because a Japanese woman would never talk openly about something so shameful. Sometime, isolating herself from the rest of the world was so difficult that she thought about taking her life.
“I was called a whore and prostitute and they said I should die. It was a horrible time,” she says.
“I had to do everything I can before getting help from anyone. I was so dejected that I could not get myself out of bed.”
Friends and family advised her not to speak publicly.
“I think they wanted to protect me, but they also want to protect themselves. They fear of losing their jobs or getting cast out of society because of me … which from Western eyes is completely absurd,” Shiori told me while her eyes were filled with tears.
“It hurt to see that people close to me were being hurt badly because of me.”
Police investigation was inadequate due to political pressure. But even health care, justice, and the social safety net were unhelpful.
I had to do everything I can before getting help from anyone, says Shiori, recollecting on the days after she woke up in the hotel room.
She first visited a gynecologist who could not help. Then she called SARC, Tokyo’s only help center for the rape, to find out which hospital she could go to because only 14 of Japan’s 47 prefectures - in urban areas - have hospitals equipped with rape kits to take samples and secure evidence.
The staff woman who responded to her call said that Shiori had to make reservations for evaluation before they could give her any information.
“I was so dejected that I could not get myself out of bed,” said Shiori.
Five days later, she decided to go to the local Takanawa police station, and there she met with police officers who did not want to accept her filing damages because it is difficult to investigate.
Shiori, who had hoped that the job dinner with a senior manager in the TV industry could help her put a foot into the industry, suddenly saw her dreams crumble.
“The police officer said that I could forget about my career being a journalist after this, because nobody would like to hire me. They said my life will be over. But … I couldn’t keep being silent,” she said.
A SOCIETY OF TABOO
It is unusual to report rape in Japan, the stigma makes women silence and only 4 percent exposed to sexual violence choose to report, according to a government survey from 2014.
“ Many believe that rape only happens on films. This is worsened by the fact that media does not even use the terminology of ‘rape’, but calls it ‘only’ as a molesting. I love my country but this has to stop,“ says Shiori.
When the victim decides to go public, it is common that they are subjected to harsh blame from the society. The phenomenon goes under the term “second rape” [in Japan]. Shiori talks about the grueling interrogation by the police, about questions that were repeated over and over again: Was she a virgin? What kind of man does she like? What was her love life like?
And then, in front of a crowd of police officers, she needed to perform a walkthrough with the aid of a body-sized doll in body size to show how the rape had happened. Getting a female police officer to be present is virtually impossible in Japan, where only 8 percent of the police force is women.
“They said I did not look sad enough to have been raped. I should cry more, act like a victim,” she said.
[Photo] Shiori Ito says that there are special places, rooms built as subway cars, where men go and pay to grope the girls. Shiori Ito has tried to interview the men who go there, but it was difficult. Photo: Lars Lindqvist
When she eventually convinced a police investigator to watch the surveillance camera from the hotel, her case accelerated and more evidence was collected.
The video record showed how she was brought into the hotel by the TV manager that night. Even the taxi driver who drove them from the restaurant to the TV manager’s hotel room testified that she behaved in a drunk and confused way and repeatedly asked to be released at a subway station. But the TV manager had insisted she would remain in the taxi. Even DNA proofs were secured from her underwear.
A few weeks after notification, Shiori was informed that a warrant had been issued by prosecutors and that they would interrogate him. But only hours before the arrest would take place, the case was dropped without warning. A senior police chief, who previously worked for the prime minister’s chief of staff, told the Japanese media that it was he who ordered to drop the case because there was insufficient evidence. Even though he has not previously been involved in her case, or usually works with that type of police procedure.
The police inspector who had collected evidence of her case was transferred to another department. Shiori and her lawyer then appealed to the police’s decision to drop the case to an independent justice committee. But even there it was decided that the investigation will not be raised again. Something that did not surprise her lawyer, as only one percent of all cases is reopened.
The police refuse to say why they dismissed the arrest warrant. Everything happens behind closed doors without transparency.
Shiori will never forget the disappointment she felt afterwards: now once and for all she thought that it was proved the society was not on the victim’s side.
“If what the law says does not matter and the police have such a great power that they can suppress an arrest warrant without holding anyone accountable, I wonder what sort of society we live in?”
Shiori felt like the society has ignored her, as if someone had placed a gag on her. She was once again the ten-year-old girl in the swimming pool looking for protection.
But perhaps it was her background, the years she spent in the United States, which gave her courage to continue the fight for justice. She wondered how far people with power were willing to go to silence her.
BAILING OUT
The unique thing about Japan’s judiciary system is that 99 percent of all court cases lead to convictions. It also means that crimes with more severe burden of proof, such as rape, rarely go to trial.
Yumi Itakura, lawyer of the Tokyo Public Law Office, has been working for rape cases in Japan for many years, and says that sexual offenses are handled lightly in their country. It is so bad that society barely acknowledges that there has been a crime at all and the perpetrator can bail out of the situation with a small amount of money and leave as a free person the same day.
“Both the police and prosecutors send out signals to the victim neither to report nor to speak out. They get blamed. It’s your fault, you followed along, you did not try to flee, you drank alcohol, your skirt was too short,” says Itakura.
In the end, the victim feels isolated and misunderstood and unable to resist the pressure of a financial settlement in the form of conciliation. Another problem is that victims do not get the support they need. Only in 2011, the country was introduced with its first 24/7 operating crisis center for the raped victims, and today, in the multi-million city of Tokyo, there is only one crisis center with a staff of two people.
“Capacity or training to help is not available to the extent necessary, “says Itakura.
[Photo] Shiori Ito has written a book based on her observations at the police. Photo: Lars Lindqvist
Shiori carefully observed all her interactions with the police. After the case was dropped, she started her own investigation and received new testimony from the taxi driver and interviewed cleaning staff at the hotel, hoping to make the responsible institutions and persons to take responsibility to provide testimonies.
"The police refuse to say why they dismissed the arrest warrant. Prosecutors did not want to explain why they would not prosecute again, or why the police inspector was moved to another department. Everything happened behind closed doors without transparency,” says Shiori, who decided to publish a book based on her observations. A book that happened to emerge roughly while the assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein reached the public.
The Japanese police use the phrase “it all happens in a black box” where there is no transparency and it’s your words against theirs. That was also the reason that Shiori decided to name her book the way it is.
Japan, which is the world’s third largest economy, and where Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics in 2020, is far behind when it comes to women’s rights and gender equality in society. The country is far below the list drawn up annually by The Global Gender Gap Report. The UN has recommended, according to the Women’s Convention, that Japan reviews its laws on abortion, as abortion is only legal with the husband’s permission - even if pregnancy has been caused as a result of rape.
In June this year (2017), Japan revised its 110-year-old law on rape, after being pressured by several human rights organizations. A law that has been untouched since 1907. Penalty for rape has now been increased from three years to five years and now has the penalty equivalent to theft.
Before the amendment, the definition of rape was only vaginal penetration by the penis. Now, it also includes forced anal and oral sex, which means rape against men is also covered. However, for example, the prosecution requirement remains that the victim must prove that violence or threat have occurred during the rape.
SEXISM
From an early age, young boys see how women are objectified in manga anime - Japanese comic books and cartoons - and in tabloid newspapers. Being molested on trains is so common that warning signs are set up in subway stations. Since 2001 there are passenger cars designated specifically for women. According to an article from ABC News, 64 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 30 have at least once been molested on Tokyo trains. Encountering men who grope them was something that Shiori and her classmates constantly faced on their way to and back from school dressed in their school uniforms. It was all up to them to make sure not to become victims of them.
“It was always the youngest, the shortest, or the one who seemed to be the weakest who were considered to be in risk,” she says, and it was important to walk fast and with a straight back to show strength.
She has grown up in a society built by men, where one has to address older persons in a certain way and not speak against them.
“There are major communication difficulties in the Japanese language. No can mean yes in a sexual context. Even the lack of sexual education in schools makes us grow up with a skewed picture of what sex means and what is allowed, “Says Shiori.
"The inspector said that I could forget my career after this. But … we cannot keep on being quiet, "says Shiori Ito.
In October this year (2017), the accused television chief wrote an eleven-page article in the right-wing populist newspaper Hanada. The text had the title "Dear Shiori” and was his version of what happened that night.
He denied committing any crime and wrote about Shiori’s ‘insatiable’ appetite for alcohol and that she drank more than she could handle. He dismissed allegations of having drugged her or having had special intentions behind the dinner. He explained that he took her to the hotel for her own sake, that she would be safer if she could sleep until she felt better (was sober again) under surveillance. He claimed that it was Shiori who crept up to him in the morning - and that he would rather not mention any details about what happened since he did not want to ridicule her. Now, because he is completely free from suspicion of crime, she does not have the right to call herself a rape victim, he wrote.
“Every time I read the word rape in the newspaper, it’s a mini victory. At last we exist.”
Shiori filed a civil lawsuit in the fall (2017) and the trial began on December 5. Usually, it takes up to one-and-a-half years before decision is reached. She claimed damages of 11,000,000 yen, equivalent to 800,000 Swedish crowns. She says this is the last chance for her to find out why her case was dropped.
But in parallel to this, questions are now beginning asked about her case in the parliament. A group of opposition members formed a commission of inquiry in November with a mandate to examine Shiori’s case. During one of the commission meetings, Junichiro Kan, spokesman from the National Police Agency, was heard and refused to give details about the case. On the question of how common it is to cancel an arrest warrant, he answered ambiguously: “It’s hard to review documents from the past to draw conclusions.”
JAPAN’S #METOO
It is not easy for the Metoo movement to enter a country like Japan. Japanese people do not relate to what is happening in other countries, and society does not interact with the rest of the world in the same way as, for example, in Europe.
“This is something that is drawn from their history when Japan was isolated and self-sufficient for several centuries during the imperialist era. Therefore, an outdated view of women can survive in today’s modern society,” says Ryan Takeshita, chief editor of Huffington Post Japan.
Takeshita was one of the few who - early on - wrote about the Shiori’s case. He says that Japanese media refused to write about her experiences because the state has a major influence over the country’s media (Japan is ranked 72 in this year’s report of Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, Sweden is in second place after Norway.) Furthermore, sexual violence is treated as women’s problems - nothing that fits in a news magazine about politics and economics.
“Sex, with or without violence, is seen as a very intimate matter and something that should not be discussed in public.”
Shiori had upset many when she made ‘a big deal out of it’.
Shiori had to pay a high price as a woman behind Japan’s #metoo . But today, the country’s media has been forced to open up to discuss sexual harassment and rape. Her book has given her acceptance among journalists and politicians, and a handful of women have openly said #metoo. She has talked about her experiences in front of Parliament members and lectured at universities. Slowly, the taboo is loosening its grip on Japan.
“Every time I read the word rape in the newspaper, it’s a mini victory. At last we exist,” says Shiori.
FACTS
Shiori Ito
Age: 28 years.
Living: Tokyo and London.
Occupation: Journalist.
Family: Mom, dad, little brother and little sister. Background: Grown up just outside of Tokyo. At the age of 15, she studied one year in Kansas, USA. When she was 22, she moved to New York and studied photography for three years.
Current: With the book "Black box” telling about the stigma of rape victims in Japan. The book is based on secret audio recordings with the police when she reported a famous television chief for rape. The book is on Amazon’s list of best-selling e-books in Japan.
Sexual crime in Japan
31.6 percent of sexual crime victims talk about their experiences with others, and only 4.3 percent go to the police. Shame was stated as the most common reason why victims did not tell. (Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office, 2014)
In 2014, only 448 cases of sexual offenses led to prosecution - in a country with 127 million inhabitants. (Justice Ministry 2014)
Until 2014, it was legal to hold child pornography.
The law of rape was changed in June 2017 for the first time since 1907.
What is sexual consent in Japan?
According to a survey conducted by NHK, Japan’s public service television channel, the following were considered as sexual consent:
When two people have dinner together alone. (11 percent) Wearing tight (exposing) clothes. (23 percent) Becoming unsober together. (35 percent)
Black box
The police use the expression that it all happens in a ‘black box’, where no one else has transparency and words are against words. It’s also what Shiori Ito decided to name his newly published book after.
On November 28, Turkey’s Haber 7,Yeni Yasam, and Harwar News (ANHA) - which is close to the Democratic Unity Party (PYD), a Syrian Kurdish nationalist organization - all reported that Japan’s Public Security Intelligence Agency had removed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from “List of Global Terrorist and Armed Organizations” section on its official website.
