2023-06-09 00:20:00
Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find disturbing.
Days after her rape, Megumi Okano already knew the attacker would get away with it.
Megumi, who uses a non-binary pronoun, knew the rapist and knew exactly where she could find him.
But I also knew that it wouldn’t do much good, because it was very little probable that the Japanese authorities considered what happened as a violation.
That’s why he decided not to file a complaint with the police.
“I couldn’t seek justice like that and that man was able to continue his life free and easy. It was painful for me,” Megumi explains.
But now it seems that things are changing in Japan.
The Japanese Parliament is debating a historic bill to reform the country’s sexual assault laws.
This is only the second revision of the law in a century.
Little understanding of consent
The bill covers a number of changes, but the biggest and most significant will be the redefinition of the concept of rape, which, according to Japanese law, is “forced sexual intercourse”, but which with the reform will be defined as “sexual intercourse not consensual”.
This leaves legal space for consent in a society where the concept is still poorly understood.
Currently, Japanese law defines rape as sexual intercourse or indecent acts committed “by force” and “through assault or intimidation”, or by taking advantage of a person’s “state of unconsciousness or inability to resist”.
The concept does not coincide with that of many other countries that define the crime more broadly, as any sexual relation or non-consensual sexual act, where no means no.
Activists argue that Japan’s narrow definition has led prosecutors and judges to interpret the law even more narrowly.
This has set the bar extremely high for justice to be achieved and has fostered a culture of skepticism that deters survivors from reporting attacks.
Japan: no assault is no rape
For example, in a case in Tokyo in 2014, a man pushed a 15-year-old girl against a wall and had sex with her while she resisted.
He was acquitted of rape as the court ruled that his actions did not “extremely difficult” for her to resist.
The teenager was treated like an adult because the age of consent in Japan is just 13, the lowest of the G7 countries.
“Trial processes and decisions vary: some defendants were not convicted, even when their acts were shown to be non-consensual, as there was no ‘aggression or intimidation‘” explains Yuu Tadokoro, a spokesman for Springa group of survivors of sexual assault.
That is why Megumi assures that she did not go to the police after the rape perpetrated by a university classmate.
Megumi says she was watching TV with her partner when he started making sexual advances on her. And she said “no”.
It was then that the attack began. The two “fought” for a while, according to Megumi, before she froze up and stopped resisting.
This is a well documented answer to an attack that is often not currently covered by law, according to activists.
In the days that followed, Megumi, who is studying law, pored over the penal code and case precedents and realized that what had happened would not meet court standards for “assault and intimidation.”
Blaming and “second violation”
They had also heard of survivors experiencing guilt and “second rape”: when survivors are re-traumatized after encountering the callousness of police or hospital staff.
“I didn’t want to go through that (investigative) process because of the little hope I had of getting justice. That’s why I didn’t go to the police. I didn’t even know if they would accept my complaint,” he says.
The BBC contacted the center, but it declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality.
When the investigation concluded, the attacker had already graduated, so there was few consequences for himapart from the warning he received, Megumi says.
Instead, she went to a bullying counseling center at her university, where an investigation was launched that ruled the attacker had committed rape.
“I was very disappointed in my inability to make this person adequately repent for their actions through criminal proceedings.”
A cry for change
Megumi is no exception. In Japan, only a third of cases recognized as rape result in legal prosecution, slightly less than the overall criminal prosecution rate.
But there has been a growing public outcry for a change.
In 2019, Japanese society was outraged when four cases of sexual assault were revealed in one month: each resulting in the acquittal of the alleged attacker.
In one case in Fukuoka, a city on an island in the south of the country, a man had sexual relations with a drunk womanwho had faintedwhich could be considered a sexual assault in other places.
The court heard that it was the first time the woman had participated in a regular drinking session at a restaurant.
The man reportedly said he thought “men could easily engage in sexual behavior” at the event, known for his sexual permissiveness, and that those who witnessed the incident did not arrest him.
He also assumed the woman consented because at one point during intercourse she opened her eyes and “made noises.”
In another case in Nagoya, in which a father had multiple sexual relations with his teenage daughter over many years, the court doubted that the father “completely” dominated his daughter, because she chose the school she wanted to go toignoring the wishes of his parents.
The verdict was in favor of the father, despite a psychiatrist testifying that the girl was, in general, psychologically incapable of resisting her father.
Following public outcry, most of these cases were retried and lThe attackers were found guilty.
The activists then launched a national campaign, known as Flower Demoto show solidarity with survivors of sexual assault.
They claim that this, along with movement #MeToo and the historic victory for journalist Shiori Ito (who won a case against a well-known TV reporter), helped galvanize the national conversation about sexual assault and legal reform.
New age of consent: 16 years
As part of the redefinition of rape, the new law explicitly sets out eight scenarios in which it is difficult for the victim to “form, express, or carry out an intent not to consent.”
They include situations in which the victim is intoxicated with alcohol or drugs; or subject to violence or threats; or is “scared or amazed.”
Another scenario seems to describe a abuse of powerwhere the victim is “worried” that they will face consequences if they do not comply.
The age of consent will also be raised to 16 yearsand the statute of limitations will be extended.
Some rights groups have called for more clarity on the scenarios, saying they are worded too ambiguously.
Others have said that the statute of limitations should be further extended and that there should be more protection for survivors who are minors.
However, if approved, the reforms would mark a victory for those who have long pushed for change.
“By the very fact that they are changing even the title of this law, we hope that people will start this conversation in Japan about:What is consent? What does lack of consent mean?” says Kazuko Ito, vice president of Tokyo-based Human Rights Now.
A taboo subject in Japan
But time is running out. The upper house of the Diet, Japan’s Parliament, must approve the new law by June 21, but is currently embroiled in a debate about the immigration.
Missing that deadline would throw sexual assault reforms into uncertainty. Activists last week denounced the delay as “unacceptable” and called on lawmakers to take immediate action.
But the reforms address only part of the problem, say the activists, whose call for change extends well beyond the courtroom.
Sexual assault remains a taboo subject in Japan, gaining national attention only in recent years in the wake of high-profile cases like lhe court battle involving journalist Shiori Ito, the public statements of Rina Gonoi, a former member of the Self Defense Force and survivor of sexual assault, and the allegations against Johnny Kitagawa, a well-known -and now deceased- pop music producer.
Part of the problem, says Kazuko Ito, is that generations of Japanese have grown up with “a distorted idea of sex and sexual consent“.
On the one hand, sex education is often modestly delivered, and the issue of consent is hardly touched upon.
However, according to Ito, Japanese children have easy access to pornography, and an all too common category in the country is that of a woman who enjoys having sex against her will.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
#historic #project #discussed #Japan #redefine #concept #rape