Rape in Japan

The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 16 | Issue 15 | Number 1 | Aug 01, 2018
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis

Justice Postponed: Ito Shiori and Rape in Japan
David McNeill

In June 2018, the BBC broadcast a documentary called Japan’s Secret Shame, a distressing tale of sexual violence toward women pegged to the experience of Ito Shiori. The documentary, by one of the world’s most respected broadcasters, was the climax so far of Ito’s struggle to win recognition and justice for rape victims in Japan, but it inadvertently served to highlight how little impact she has made in her home country.


Since braving a room full of journalists to say she was raped by one of their own last year, Ito says she has been largely shunned in the mainstream media in Japan and endured relentless online abuse. Cyber-activists have accused her of being a slut, a North Korean agent, and of setting a honey trap to destroy journalist Yamaguchi Noriyuki or even to unseat Abe Shinzo, the prime minister. She now lives in London after fleeing from what she calls threats on her life. “Some of the messages I was getting really scared me.”

The documentary might serve as her riposte, but the response has been predictable, if disturbing. A politician in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) appeared to blame Ito for her assault. “There were clear errors on her part as a woman; drinking that much in front of a man and losing her memory,” Sugita Mio told the BBC crew, dismissing Ito’s claim that she had been drugged. “With things like this I think men are the ones who suffer significant damage.” .....

Download pdf