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Is Japan (Still) Treating Sexual Abuse Too Lightly?
A woman gets almost nine years in Japan for committing fraud. Meanwhile, a man gets six years for assaulting his daughter.
By Jay Andrew Allen
Japanese social justice advocates have long accused their country of being soft on sexual assault and abuse. Two recent lopsided verdicts have people up in arms as a woman who took money for men gets a harsher sentence than a man who raped his own daughter.
(Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.)
Six years for treating his family as his “property”
Like other male-dominated countries, Japan has had a chronic problem siding with the victims of sexual assault. Many victims of train groping, for example, don’t even bother to report the crime. Most believe (not without evidence) that police will instinctually side with the accused.
Even when a severe crime has obviously taken place, Japanese courts have often been reluctant to enforce the law. In an infamous case a few years back, a father evaded charges of raping his 12-year-old daughter because a judge ruled she hadn’t…
