Sexual crimes against foreigners in Japan – Part 2

To reach the police, call 110. 

Telephone counselling services are provided by the prefectural police department at: Sex Crimes 110.

• Police station is kōban「交番」.
• Sex crime is seihanzai 「性犯罪」.
• Molester / molestation in general is chikan 「痴漢」.
• Sexual harassment is seku hara (in katakana) or seiteki iyagarase「性的嫌がらせ」.
• To ask for help, say tasukete kudasai 「 助けてください」.
• For an ambulance, call 119.
• For medical emergency, say kyū kyū desu 「救急です」.

Public pay phones can be used to make an emergency call for free. Just push the red button for emergency. 

The trauma of having been sexually harassed or assaulted can mentally block your ability to remember the chain of events that led up to the attack, not to mention the details of the attack itself. It is the body’s way of self-defence. 

It is therefore even more critical to write it all down before you forget altogether. It might feel like you are forcing yourself to write at first but writing is also known to be a cathartic exercise. As you write, you alone have full control over recounting what happened. This could facilitate composure as well as provide you with clarity – the kind that empowers you to take action. 

• Write in your first language, exactly what happened to you, in as much detail as you can recall.
• Write it down as soon as you can. 
• Get this written account translated into Japanese as soon as you can. Ask friends or colleagues for translation help. If they can’t do it themselves, they could possibly point you in the right direction.

• Save anything that you believe could be evidence of the attack. 

Reporting your case to the police can be scary and overwhelming. Knowing additionally that you may face incompetent law enforcement in Japan would probably deter you even more. This is a system designed to discourage you from speaking up… which is precisely why it’s important that you do.

So take your fear along and act anyway.

While you can wait to report your case to the police, the time window is much smaller if you have physical evidence on your person, such as in the event of a rape. Collection of such evidence is time-sensitive so do act as soon as you can. 

Many cases go unreported because years have passed since the attack occurred.

Act anyway. It’s still not too late. 

Know that you don’t have to act alone.

“Telling someone verbally who you trust is a big first step to practicing telling an authority figure.”   –    Saseboanon

It is understandable to withdraw and isolate yourself in the wake of such atrocity and trauma but if you choose to take action, you don’t have to go about it alone. Engage others across multiple platforms and surround yourself with a circle of people who can and will support you. They can help you in many ways, such as:

1. assisting with urgent actions like calling the police on your behalf 
2. providing emotional support by just listening 
3. providing physical and moral support by coming with you to make your report 
4. mediating with language support as a translator/interpreter
5. explaining to you key cultural differences that would aid in your understanding of how the Japanese system works
6. sharing their expertise in the field of individual rights, sexual crime laws and labour laws in Japan

In fact, someone who lives in your area may know a good contact that could help you. They might also be able to feel out how the local police may respond. So reach out to them.

Your Japanese co-workers could be a big help too. Some may want to help but hesitate out of fear of losing their job and so may not go out of their way. You need to advocate and push them – it might just be the nudge they need to overcome their fear. They may offer indirect forms of support such as informing management on your behalf or creating an outlet for you to inform in confidence rather than out in the open.

1. Locate the closest victim support centre to you and call to ask for help. The centre could be useful in providing translation help and lawyer resources, and medical contacts. They could also assist with speaking to the police on your behalf. 

   The Police Support for Crime Victims guidebook provides a contact list of support centres by prefecture on its final page. 

   The JET General Information Handbook 2019 also includes a list on page 211, under its section on sexual harassment. It provides the contact numbers of Prefectural Labour Bureau Offices. Request to speak to the Equal Employment Department if your offender is a co-worker.

2. Other than a local support centre, an additional measure you could take is to search for a support centre in your home country that deals with international cases. Your exchange may be more effective without the difficulty of communicating across a language barrier. They may also be able to advise you on resources specific to your citizenship/nationality that may be available in Japan. 

   For example, in the US there is RAINN or the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. It offers information about support, advice and referral. They also have a live chat option with a trained support specialist. It may however, be limited in scope to help with cases abroad. 

3. Otherwise, engage women’s support networks. They are your avenue for solidarity through sharing and can also work as an information resource about your rights, what else you can do or specific contacts you could reach.

Your country’s embassy may have restrictions on how they can help you but they still may be able to assist with lawyer resources and translation help so seek out this information from them and familiarize yourself with your rights as a citizen/national of your country. 

Informing your embassy also allows them to document your case and alert/warn others. 

Even if you are proficient in Japanese, navigating your way through the legal system is a different ballgame altogether. It would be ideal to engage the services of a bilingual lawyer who fluently speaks both English and Japanese, in order to discuss your legal options and know your rights in Japan. Otherwise, make sure you enlist the help of a translator to communicate effectively with your lawyer.

Pathways to Safety is an international crisis centre that is great for legal advice. They are very professional and informative. Should you have to leave Japan and relocate in the middle of your case, your records will remain and your case can be resumed from your new location.

Because you matter and reporting a sexual crime matters. 

Wa or 和 is a generic descriptor for ‘harmony’ in Japan. In fact, it literally means Japan or Japanese which alludes to an all-encompassing, cultural identity marker. Interestingly, 和 is refined from the ancient wa or 倭which symbolizes the Confucian ideals of submissiveness, conformity to the greater good and conflict-avoidance. 

So there is a high chance that if your employer tells you not to go to the police, it is to save face and not break the precious wa. What’s important to remember here is that this ill-gotten advice is a cultural way of being and not legally binding. You have every right to make a police report should you wish to do so.

For this reason, police before employer might be the smarter way to go.

Also, the same obstruction that is wa can be turned on its head to suit your favour. If embarrassment is intolerable for the Japanese, getting an entity with established authority and clout to publicize the mismanagement might serve as an effective way to make your employer take action. Get your embassy to call your workplace if you feel like you aren’t being taken seriously. If you work at a school, parents, through active unions like the PTA, may act more swiftly to hold the school accountable if their children’s safety is at risk.

You also have the right to a safe work environment. If breaking the harmony by becoming the undesirable ‘troublemaker’ for reporting a sexual crime is how you can secure this safety, then perhaps alienation at your workplace might be well worth the risk. 

A pre-emptive measure that you can take is to enquire about female safety and mental health resources during orientation. This information may later come in handy for your defence. Working in alignment with the system in this manner is strategically to your advantage. 

For example, you could invoke the official code of conduct delineated in your work contract in order to stress on how it has been violated by the sex crime in concern. Don’t forget to quote the exact statement in your written report too.

Further, what you share with your employer is confidential, i.e. they have no business disclosing your report to your offender should he/she be a co-worker at the same organization. This could potentially tamper with an on-going police investigation.

In their discussion of ‘Dismissals in Japan’, authors Sugeno and Yamakoshi assess the stringency of Japanese labour laws on employers. They found that while reforms have curtailed abusive dismissals, “Japanese dismissal law is [still] premised upon the employer’s freedom of dismissal”, the grounds of which include the category of ‘misconduct’. In other words, your employer can easily enough terminate your offender’s employment.

The reason why it is important to spread awareness by reporting, informing, sharing, engaging multiple resources and lines of support, is that the domino effect can be tremendous. The power of unions for example, can get a case to the local media’s attention and stir up enough ‘warbulence’ such that the danger to Japan’s greater good (read: face) now lies in staying silent and not taking action. 

Sensibilities then abruptly and strategically shift gear from keeping within the clean confines of delicate ‘wa-dom’, to showcasing due process in order to protect the very same wa now under threat. And this could happen by re-opening a case for proper investigation – a case that had once met its official end.

Finally, consider campaigning to support yourself, be it by setting up a GoFundMe page to support your legal fees. Tie up with a local media source or use your own social media platform to have your case heard. Journalist Shiori Ito leveraged on her position to hold a press conference after no charges were pressed against her celebrity offender. She got a lot of flak for it but her guts got her a global audience as witness too, one whose discomfort if continuously sustained, can potentially instigate home-grown change.

Saseboanon – 

“Speak up and report, I know it’s difficult but people must speak up and advocate in order to see the change we want in society. Japan is slowly adopting #MeToo and fighting for their rights as women. Foreigner women need to add their voice in order to inclusively show Japan how women deserve to be respected and treated.”