Shoko Arai, the only female councilor in Kusuzumi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, was removed from office by referendum a few days after being sexually assaulted by the mayor of the town, Nobuda Kuroiwa.
The reason is that Shoko Arai spread rumors and tarnished the reputation of Kusazō. This matter has once again triggered a great discussion about the culture of shame for Japanese women in Japan.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun said on the 8th that Shoko Arai publicly said in November last year that she had been sexually assaulted by Nobuya Kuroiwa, but did not dare to call the police immediately for fear.
Black Rock strongly denied this, saying that the accusation was “fabrid up without facts” and would file a civil lawsuit against Shini on charges of alleged damage to his personal reputation.
After the incident was reported by the news media, only a few Japanese women stood up in solidarity with Shoko Arai, believing that “the victim of sexual assault reported that the perpetrator was fired instead, fearing unfair treatment in the workplace”.
In fact, Shoko Arai’s encounter is only the tip of the iceberg, and very few women call the police for sexual assault in Japan.
Japan’s Toyo Economic Weekly website reports that only 4% of the women sexually assaulted in Japan choose to call the police, and half of them give up prosecution. And even if convicted, there are suspended sentences for first-time offenders.
According to a survey released by the Ministry of Justice of Japan, only one in 100,000 people in Japan has been sexually assaulted, which is at a low level compared with other countries.
The proportion of sexual assault in the United States is 31 times that of Japan, and that in France is 19 times that of Japan. Some people have questioned the relevant people of the Ministry of Justice, and the answer is that “the investigation is based on the alarm data”.
Some analysts believe that the reason why Japanese women rarely report to the police for sexual assault is the “culture of shame”, that is, they choose to swallow their anger for fear of saying what they have happened and will suffer from social disparities.
