sexual harassment in japan

8/20/2019 Sexual Harassment in Japan

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Foreigners victims, perpetrators of sekuhara Japan sees progress on sexual harassment, but stories suggest it still has a longway to go

By Steve Silver

The Japan Times Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2!http"##search.$apantimes.co.$p#cgi%bin#&2!!26'g.html

While there has been much progress in combating sexual harassment since the issue frst entered the public consciousness in Japan in thelate 1980s, sekuhara remains a serious and widespread problem orboth Japanese women and oreign women living in Japan While the!"ual !mplo#ment $pportunit# %aw &!!$%' was passed in 198(, itwas not until 1999 that revisions to the law included defnitions osexual harassment and legal penalties or emplo#ers )here are,however, no punitive measures to enorce the law aside rom makingthe names o the o*ending companies public + something which the- .ommittee on the !limination o /iscrimination against Womenraised concerns about last #ear )here has been, however, anincrease in public awareness o sexual harassment in Japan ccording to the inistr# o 2ealth, %abor, and Welare, there were8,130 women who fled sexual harassment complaints with e"ualemplo#ment opportunit# o4ces in 3008, compared with 5,506 in3007 and 3,(7 in 1995 uch o this increase in awareness came

about through increased international attention as well as a higherlevel o domestic attention to the issue et despite this increase inawareness, relativel# little is known about how sexual harassmenta*ects oreign women living in Japan

(hen )Tracy*, an +merican woman then in her late 2s, rst started her careerin Japan as a J-T instructor or /huo 0igh School in 1agoshima nearly twentyyears ago, nothing in her prior training could have prepared her or what shewitnessed.

The Japanese teacher who she wored with at the school 3 one o the ewwomen who taught there 3 would constantly be ased by her male colleagueswhen she would be getting married. 4ale students would call her anonymouslyand proposition her or sex. /ondoms were let on her computer eyboard everymorning, and every morning she would brush them aside toward the trash bin in5uiet humiliation as the other teachers chucled.

Soon she too became a victim o harassment. +t a bonenkai end%o%year party7,one o the vice%principals sat next to her and grabbed her breasts. )(hy do youhide these8* he said, as all the men burst into laughter.


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She responded by gesturing towards his crotch and asing, )(hy do you hidethis8* This time there was no laughter, but a stunned silence. The administratorreused to spea to her or the remaining two years she wored at the school.

(hile there has been much progress in combating sexual harassment since the

issue rst entered the public consciousness in Japan in the late !9:s, sekuhara remains a serious and widespread problem or both Japanese women andoreign women living in Japan. The rst successul litigation against sexualharassment was in !992, and by 2 there had been over ! cases led,including ! cases that were heard by Japan;s highest court. One o the mostamous cases was that against ormer comedian%turned%mayor o Osaa,)1noc* rada Japan, has ledsuit against the ?talian company or sexual harassment and discrimination,alleging that the company demoted emale store managers or being )too short,too old, or not cute enough*, and that she hersel received the samediscriminatory treatment ater she raised ob$ections to the policy.

(hile the -5ual -mployment Opportunity @aw --O@7 was passed in !9:A, itwas not until !999 that revisions to the law included denitions o sexualharassment and legal penalties or employers. There are, however, no punitivemeasures to enorce the law aside rom maing the names o the oendingcompanies public 3 something which the CD /ommittee on the -limination oEiscrimination against (omen raised concerns about last year.

There has been, however, an increase in public awareness o sexual harassmentin Japan. +ccording to the 4inistry o 0ealth, @abor, and (elare, there were:,!2 women who led sexual harassment complaints with e5ual employmentopportunity oFces in 2:, compared with G,G6 in 2H and 2,AIH in !99G.4uch o this increase in awareness came about through increased internationalattention as well as a higher level o domestic attention to the issue. >ublicsupport or women;s employment rights in Japan has increased since thepassage o the --O@, says /hia Shinohara, a proessor o sociology at4omoyama auin Cniversity in Osaa. ?n addition, younger worers haveentered the wor orce at a time when the concept o sexual harassment has

already begun permeating the legal and cultural ramewor o Japanese society,and are thereore much more aware o what constitutes sexual harassment.


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victim by their social community. Thereore, there are oten incidents o sexualharassment that go unreported.

One such incident 3 or rather, a series o incidents 3 happened to )1ristine*, ayoung +merican woman in her early 2s. Euring the year she lived in Japan as

an exchange student, she received the usual staring. )Being a natural blonde, ?stand out a lot, and lots o Japanese men at least give me a second glance,* shesays. 0owever, the worst that happened to her was having been ased on oneoccasion i she wanted to wor as a hostess.

(hen she returned to Japan recently to wor as an assistant language teacherin Saitama >reecture, her experience would be altogether dierent. +t the $unior high school she wored at, the verbal harassment began almostimmediately ater she started. The boys ased her what her bra si'e was andwhen she rst had sex. They even ased her i they could touch her breasts.

(hen she wore additional layers o clothing in an attempt to hide her gure,boys would yell rom across the classroom or the hallway that they thought shewas getting at. (hen she wore collared shirts, they complained that they couldnot see her chest well enough and ased i she could unbutton her shirt so thatthey could touch her breasts.

She didn;t complain to her supervisor about the harassment at rst, hoping thatit would stop over time. )The rst orms o sexual harassment were mostlyverbal, and ? assumed that i ? ignored their inappropriate 5uestions and told thestudents to noc it o, they would stop,* she explains.

The harassment only became worse, however, when the new semester began.+s she ate alone in the lunchroom one day, two boys began touching theirgroins and ased her i she wanted to watch. +nother day, two girls grabbed oneo her breasts and exclaimed, )So sotL*

She nally complained to the supervisor at the local board o education, whichhad assigned her to the school. 0e brushed it o as boys being boys, andsuggested that her dress may be causing the problems 3 even though herprincipal had told her on more than one occasion that she always dressedproessionally.

The breaing point nally came when several boys pulled on her shirt andlooed underneath, announcing to the class what color bra she was wearing.She let the school building, rode her bicycle home, and contracted into a etalposition, crying the rest o the aternoon. Eespite her ormal re5uest or animmediate transer, the board o education orced her to nish out her term atthe school beore the transer re5uest was nally granted.

M M M M M


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(hen )-li'abeth* came to Osaa in her early Is to wor or DON+, the now%deunct -nglish%language teaching chain, she had heard the ot%repeatedmantra o Japan being one o the saest places in the world.

Kor -li'abeth, however, lie in Japan was anything but sae.

The company had housed her in a men;s hostel in Osaa. On her rst day in Japan, a man grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. She spoe no Japanese at the time, and only could understand one word he said" )0otel.* Sheeventually was able to brea his grip and escape.

The harassment and assault rom men came on an almost daily basis 3 in theelevator, on the street, and on the train. Strange men would as or her panties3 or simply climb up to her second &oor balcony and remove them rom herdrying rac. 4en constantly approached her and ased her to accompany themto a hotel with her long, blond hair, they would assume she was a =ussianprostitute, even ater she would attempt to convince them otherwise. Beingmolested on the train was a common occurrence 3 as it is or most women in Japan 3 and on one evening a man masturbated on the seat in ront o her.

0er wor at DON+ oered no respite. She was assigned to wor an !!>4 3 G+4shit at a video conerencing center, providing -nglish lessons in real time overthe ?nternet. 4en would engage in behaviors ranging rom taing herphotograph to masturbating on live camera. 0er complaints to her managers 3both white (estern men 3 went unheeded. They were clients, and they could dowhat they lie, they would say.

On her way to wor, a man on the train stuc his hand up her sirt and molestedher. She had reached her breaing point. She arrived at her oFce in tears, andshe told her managers o the assault.

)That;s going to happen a lot to you here,* one o them said, laughing. )


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in a oreign country with no $ob, little ability in the language, and ew viableoptions.

She ound $obs bartending at establishments re5uented by oreign clientele,and at times would go to drin with riends in the area. On one occasion, her

drin was drugged, and she started vomiting 3 she smelled a bleach%liesubstance, she says. She remembers little rom the night, and was unable toleave her apartment or two days.

One morning she ound that the air valve on one o the tires on her bicycle hadbeen removed, and she was unable to use it due to the &at tire. + ew dayslater, she ound that a new air valve had been installed and the tire in&ated. ?nher mailbox she ound the parts o the old air valve. She had a staler, and henew where she lived.

One o her riends at the bar she wored at new a police detective, and calledhim or assistance. The middle%aged detective came to meet her, and sheexplained the situation.

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She is woring as an -nglish teacher again, this time at a high school. She haslearned Japanese, and has also learned to be more orceul in dealing with themen who continue to harass her. She is more careul where she wals, whereshe goes, and who she goes with. Occasionally, she still gets panic attacs, suchas when there was a large group o intoxicated men riding the train in the

evening. But she won;t give up.

)This country won;t turn me into someone ? don;t want to be,* she explains. )?won;t be a victim. ? either have to live here and be me, or go bac home. +nd ?decided that ? didn;t want to lose.*

(hile she doesn;t have as many problems now as she did when she rst arrived,the problems do continue. =ecently, a !6%year%old boy entered her aculty room,too o his shirt and ased her, )


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reali'ed that she hersel was the victim o harassment. She nally conrontedhim directly. 0e became enraged, yelling and cursing at her in ront o the sta.

Soon ater, she ound hersel transerred to another branch, one that was mucharther away rom her home 3 $ust or two wees, the president said, while they

investigated the situation. 0er harasser denied everything, and she heard roma co%worer that the president openly 5uestioned 4idori;s truthulness,suggesting that she was interested only in nancial gain.

The two wees became a month, then two months, and her re5uests to return toher prior oFce were denied. She was on an annual contract, and the time torenew was approaching. She was oered a new contract 3 this time reclassiyingher as a part%time worer, with a signicant cut in pay and benets. She wastold that the company was transitioning all the ull%time translators to part%timestatus as part o their cost cutting measures 3 even though 4idori new thatanother ull%time translator at a dierent branch was ept on as a ull%time sta.?t was clear retaliation or her reporting her being the victim o harassment, andshe reused to sign the new contract. +t the end o her contract period, she wasterminated.

She could have gone away 5uietly, lie many women in Japan beore her.?nstead, she chose to ght. She contacted a lawyer, protested through herunion, and met with representatives rom several women;s rights organi'ations,including the (oring (omen;s Detwor in Osaa. She started taling to themedia about her case, both to pressure the company, but also to giveencouragement to other women who were also suering rom sexual

harassment. Eespite the union protests and the media attention, the companyreused to bac down 3 and 4idori led suit.

The court case began in +pril 2H and lasted a year and nine months. ?n theend, 4idori received a monetary settlement and a commitment rom thecompany to conduct annual seminars on sexual harassment, as well as to set upa condential telephone hotline to tae reports rom victims.

The ordeal o the case was diFcult or her 3 many o her co%worers lied incourt, she says, or ear o losing their $ob 3 but 4idori has never regretted herdecision. Kor her, it was not only a 5uestion o principle, but a way to mae a

stand or other women who suered rom harassment as well.

?n act, one woman read about 4idori;s case in the press and contacted herabout a similar situation that she was enduring in her company. Through4idori;s encouragement, she decided to tae action 3 she got her union involvedand led a lawsuit.

(hen she protested with her union in ront o her place o employment, 4idoricame and stood with her to show solidarity.

)There are so many women out there who are 5uiet, but are crying out or help,*4idori explained. )? want them to now that they are not alone.*


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S?E-B+=

(hat should you do i you are a victim o sexual harassment8

• 1yoo Ogura, an attorney based in Toyo who speciali'es in sexualharassment law, says that documenting the harassment is important. +nyind o harassment should be written down in detail on the date that itoccurs.

• /hia Shinohara, a proessor o sociology at 4omoyama auin Cniversityand an expert in sexual harassment issues, suggests taling to co%worersand maing allies.

• 4idori 0irayama and =ina Bovrisse both recommend contacting an DO toget advice, support, and reerences to attorneys. The +ction /enter or

(oring (omen acw2.org, I%AIH%GI:I7, is a nationwide networ basedin Toyo. +nother organi'ation is the (omen;s (oring Detwor wwn%net.org, 6%69H!%:G7, based in Osaa. Kor women living in Osaapreecture, the Eawn /enter www.dawncenter.or.$p#english, 6%69HH%:2H27has ree counseling available in person or on the telephone.

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