Lone #MeToo voice at film festival

– When Japanese journalist Shiori Ito accused a prominent TV reporter of rape, pictured, becoming a rare high-profile #MeToo voice in her homeland, she was initially ignored by police, prosecutors and even much of the media.

Defying taboos, she investigated her own case, secretly recording phone calls and meetings, compiling enough evidence to eventually win $30 000 or about R550 000 in damages in a civil case that made headlines worldwide.

That remarkable victory, which was followed last year by a toughening in Japan’s antiquated rape laws, is the subject of Black Box Diaries, a new film premiering at the Sundance festival, directed by Ito herself.

“It’s never the point of view of the victims and survivors when we see a TV programme or a documentary or cinema,” she said ahead of Saturday’s premiere.

“So I just purely wanted to tell from the point of view of the survivor. What it really was. I didn’t want anyone else to tell my story.”

Ito alleged that Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former TV journalist with close links to then-prime minister Shinzo Abe, raped her after inviting her to dinner to discuss a job opportunity in 2015.

Having initially told Ito there was insufficient evidence, police then told her they were going to arrest Yamaguchi – before suddenly backing off.

In the film, Ito records one cooperative police investigator telling her the order came from “higher-ups” and that he had been taken off the case. “The reason why I started to document the conversations with police was to protect myself,” said Ito.

“If the system were working perfectly, I wouldn’t have to do this. I was happy if they just investigated, but it didn’t go like that. So I kept questioning.”

The film also tackles the backlash Ito faced after speaking out.

Ito received death threats and had to temporarily leave the country, while she said even her family “hated what I did” by speaking out.

“I decided to make a film right after I went public with my story, and I saw the reaction, how negative it was in Japan,” she said.

No criminal charges were ever brought, while Yamaguchi denied any wrongdoing and filed a countersuit against Ito. But in 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling that Yamaguchi had sexually assaulted Ito.