Is Japan (still) too casual about sexual abuse?

Japanese social justice advocates have long accused their country of being lenient on sexual assault and abuse. Two recent one-sided rulings are causing outrage: a woman who took men’s money will be punished more harshly than a man who raped his own daughter.

(Content warning: This article is about sexual assault.)

Six years because he treated his family as his “property.”

Like other male-dominated countries, Japan has a chronic problem with siding with victims of sexual assault. Many victims of train robbery, for example, don’t even bother to report the crime. Most believe (not without evidence) that the police will instinctively side with the defendant.

Even when a serious crime was clearly committed, Japanese courts were often reluctant to enforce the law. In an infamous case a few years ago, a father escaped charges of raping his 12-year-old daughter because a judge ruled she wasn’t vocal enough to defend herself.

The latest case making headlines involves a former Japan Self-Defense Forces officer who raped his 14-year-old daughter. The man admitted in court that he had sexually abused her 20 times in the last three years.

“I considered my family my property,” the rapist told the court. “I couldn’t control my urges.”

The proceedings were held behind closed doors to protect the victim’s identity. The 14-year-old bravely told her own story in a written statement.

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Prosecutors asked for eight years in prison. However, the judge ruled that the man appeared to be “remorseful” and reduced his sentence to just six.

The lenient sentence sparked outrage across the political spectrum. According to local news reports, Egyptian-born entertainer Fifi posted about it on her own social media, saying, “These punishments are always, always too light.”

She wasn’t the only one who felt the sentence didn’t go far enough. “There’s no way he’s ‘remorseful’ after attacking her 20 times,” one commenter said.

Commenters on a Yahoo! News JP’s post on X was equally outraged. “There should be six years per attack, so a total of 120 years,” wrote one. “The only option is a life sentence!” proclaimed another.

Why was a woman convicted of fraud punished more harshly?

A number of other commentators noted that this case stands in stark contrast to the case of a woman recently convicted of fraud.

Watanabe Mai – also known as “Sugar Baby Riri” (頂き女子りり) – was accused and found guilty of scamming men out of money by setting up fake romantic relationships. Watanabe wrote a manual on how to implement her plan and sold it to other women. In the guide, she recommended strategies like faking emergencies to convince men to give you money – even going so far as to cut off contact a few days beforehand to make it more believable.

What Watanabe did certainly crossed a line. However, she also had extenuating circumstances: Watanabe suffered from severe addiction to the host club.

Host clubs are nightspots where attractive men entertain a predominantly female customer base. In return, their customers pay for overpriced champagne and other goods to make their money oshi (Favorite) the top earners of their club.

The host club business has been under fire in Japan lately. Until recently, many clubs supported a credit system that enabled women to accumulate tens of millions of dollars in debt. In order to pay off the money, many hosts – who have to pay personally if their customers don’t pay – have persuaded women into prostitution or even forced them to pay off the money.

Watanabe’s nine-year sentence was reduced by six months

For her crimes, Watanabe received nine years in prison – a whopping three years more than a man who admitted raping his own daughter 20 times. She was also ordered to pay a fine of 80 million yen ($538,000).

Her lawyer appealed that ruling, arguing that Watanabe apologized to the victims and that her hosting was a mitigating factor.

A judge in Nagoya agreed. However, the judge only suspended a six-month sentence and reduced the sentence to eight years and six months. That’s still 2.5 years more than the former SDF officer was sexually abused.

One X user summed up the contrast in a tweet with 50,000 likes (warning: graphic description of a rape):

“Sugar Baby Riri was nine years old. A man who went into his daughter’s room and attacked her in her sleep, tying her up with cable ties and violently raping her has been jailed for six years. (And his lawyers asked for a suspended sentence.) Talk about male chauvinism. Throw this animal in prison for life.”

The outrage is unlikely to change either verdict. But hopefully this leads to a deeper conversation about how Japan persecutes and punishes men who commit crimes against women.

Sources

Learn more決に怒り殺到. FLASH

Tweet from user @6wQC4HBl1f19712. X

フィフィ 自衛官が14歳娘に性的虐待, 不同意性交罪で懲役6年に「毎度毎度、刑が軽すぎるんだよ」. Sponichi appendix

“頂き女子りりちゃん”よ」母に当てた直筆の手紙入手. FNN Prime Online