Japan women confront taboo by saying ‘ MeToo’

When Rinko Nakajiri was first raped by a producer who seduced her with the promise of a record deal, the 17- year- old singer kept quiet, terrified about her career prospects.

Twenty years later, the Tokyo housewife has long since abandoned the music industry and is facing her demons, encouraged by the global # MeToo movement triggered by accusations of rape against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Despite widespread allegations of misogyny and sexual violence from Hollywood to Hong Kong, however, there has been relatively little support for the campaign in Japan, where victims are often told to keep quiet.

“It’s almost impossible to talk about it in Japan,” Nakajiri told AFP. “There’s a terrible stigma about rape. People would rather you kept it bottled up.

“It happened in a recording studio late at night,” added the mother of two, who says she quit music after three years of sexual abuse.

“And many times after that. I was afraid if I resisted or reported it, my career would be over.”

In patriarchal Japan, where a culture of silence persists when it comes to sexual assault and harassment, raising the alarm comes at a price.

Journalist Shiori Ito refused to suffer in silence and went public last year.

The 28- year- old accused a television newsman with close ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of raping her after inviting her to dinner to discuss a job opportunity in 2015.

Ito was savaged online for daring to break her silence and even received death threats. “The last thing I remembered was when I went to the bathroom at the sushi restaurant,” said Ito, who suspects her alleged attacker, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, drugged her and claims police failed to test for substances.

“When I regained consciousness, in intense pain, I was in a hotel room and he was on top of me. I knew what had happened but I couldn’t process it.”