Brave Japanese woman

Shiori is a 28 year old independent journalist from Japan, and recently held a press conference to accuse a former TV reporter of rape. Noriyuki Yamaguchi is a former Washington bureau chief of Tokyo Broadcasting System Television. This report caught some media attention..I would say some because this news deserves much more media attention, I think.

Shiori claims that Yamaguchi raped her at a Tokyo hotel on April 4, 2015. She contacted him regarding an internship opportunity and he asked her to go to dinner with him, which she agreed to do. She lost consciousness after having dinner and drinks during their meeting.

Even though he did not use “force” to rape her, it is still rape as she was under the influence. I command her for going before TV cameras because it is so rare for rape victims to speak out in public. Although she did not release her last name to protect her family, she showed up and spoke in front of camera.

This news got some media attention because Yamaguchi is known to have a strong friendship with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. After the news conference, he responded to the allegations by posting a comment on his Facebook page. “I have never done anything illegal.” He claims that the charges against him were dropped after a year long investigation by police.

Shiori requested the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution to review the case again because she believes that she was raped. Shiori claims that in 2015, an arrest warrant was issued against Yamaguchi. They examined footage from the security camera at the hotel and the taxi driver testified that she was unconscious.

Police was going to arrest Yamaguchi at Narita airport on June 8, 2015, but they say they were ordered to retract the arrest warrant by the higher ups.

What makes this case so bad is that Shiori has been attacked for conspiring with some political party in Japan, or for trying to sell something and make monies. It makes no sense and after watching her press conference on youtube, I am fairly confident that she didn’t have any underlying motive other than wanting justice.

On June 7, 2017, Shiori spoke out once more to question how rape victims are often blamed in Japan. Investigators have allegedly asked Shiori if she was a virgin. So if she wasn’t a virgin, is it ok for her to be raped? She says that she was too stressed to eat for a week after being accused of various things for holding a press conference.

She also said that she had to demonstrate how she was raped by using a “doll” in front of male police officers. And they took pictures of that unbearable scene. She believes that many rape victims are reluctant to come forward because of what they will go through during investigations and how they are perceived by public in Japan.

Although it is changing, Japanese society still tends to have prejudice toward rape victims. Many people, especially older generation believe that women could have prevented if they were dressed properly or acted differently. Rape is rape and it doesn’t matter how victims are dressed, acted and as soon as the victim says no or is under the influence, they cannot do anything against that.

Shiori continues that the Japanese police asked if she really wanted to prosecute Yamaguchi because she and her family could be damaged and all her studying and accomplished will be “wasted” because of public stigma against rape victims. She still wants to continue to speak out for justice because she wants to change this injustice and doesn’t want her future children and loved ones to suffer in the future in case something like this happen to them.

As a woman, I find what Shiori has been going through since the rape outrageous. I hope that justice will be served.