Women won’t say ‘me too’ in Japan
TOKYO— One in 15 Japanese women had been raped or forced to have sex, but most of them never told anyone out of fear, privacy concerns or losing jobs. According to activist Saori Ikeuchi, conformist Japan discourages women from speaking out or saying “no” to unwanted sex. Even after journalist Shiori Ito disclosed the rape she endured, she was even criticized by women.
TOKYO— One in 15 Japanese women had been raped or forced to have sex, but most of them never told anyone out of fear, privacy concerns or losing jobs, a rights activist said.
In patriarchal and conformist Japan, women are discouraged from speaking out or saying “no” to unwanted sex, said Saori Ikeuchi, a former lawmaker and gender diversity activist.
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.
But unlike Americans, Japanese women who say “me too” frequently invite criticism rather than sympathy, even from other women.
Negative comments
“The comments I received were disproportionately negative,” said 20-year-old en- trepreneur Rika Shiiki who tweeted she lost business contracts after refusing to have sex with clients.
“We need to create a society where we can speak up. Otherwise, sexual harassment and other misconduct will persist forever,” she said.
“Japan lacks such a sisterhood,” said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
“It’s an exhausting and intimidating process…It’s quite natural that victims feel reluctant to speak up,” she said.
Going public
One woman, journalist Shiori Ito, went public last year after prosecutors decided not to press charges against a prominent TV newsman whom she had accused of raping her.
Many online comments criticized her for speaking out and some women called her an embarrassment, she told The Associated Press (AP).
The October release of Ito’s book “Blackbox” detailing her ordeal came amid the #MeToo phenomenon in the United States and prompted some discussion in Japan, but only a handful of other women came forward.
#MeToo
“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.
Justice Ministry statistics show only one-third of rape cases go to court.
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.
Popular writer Haruka Ito, who goes by the pen name HaChu, was criticized after revealing she had faced sexual and other harassment by a coworker at Japan’s Dentsu ad- vertising agency.
Ha-Chu initially tried to forget the ordeal, but news of the journalist Ito’s case and the #MeToo movement led her to speak out.
Ordeal
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 women’s clinic Ito 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 repeatedly recount the ordeal and demonstrate it with a life-sized doll, she said.
“I thought about how I could change the situation, and I had no choice but to speak out about my experience,” Ito said, who filed a civil suit against Yamaguchi.
A group of opposition lawmakers want to know if the charges were dropped because of Yamaguchi’s connections to powerful political officials.
Big secret
Mika Kobayashi was pushed into a car and raped on her way home in 2000.
While the attacker hasn’t been found, she has since published books about her ordeal, to raise public awareness.
Kobayashi now runs a selfhelp group that has exchanged thousands of #MeToo experiences, but only anonymously among themselves.
“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.”—