In a rare admission of sexual harassment in the Japanese military, an army chief on Thursday apologized to a former soldier for suffering caused by a group of service members.
An internal probe found evidence that several service members were involved in the case brought by former soldier Rina Gonoi last month, Japanese Chief of the Ground Staff Yoshihide Yoshida said.
“Representing the Ground-Self Defense Force, I deeply apologize to Ms Gonoi for the pain she had to suffer for a long time,” Yoshida told a news conference. “We offer a sincere apology.”
Photo: AFP
The probe is continuing, but details on the assailants and their punishment have not been released.
Gonoi welcomed the apology and thanked those who supported her, but added: “My battle is not over.”
“I’m determined to get an apology directly from the perpetrators,” she wrote on Twitter.
Japanese Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada last month ordered a ministry-wide investigation into growing reports of sexual abuse after Gonoi brought allegations of assault against herself and others.
Gonoi came forward in late August to request a reinvestigation of an alleged assault last year by former male colleagues. She also said she had received information from 146 service members who said they had been harassed while on duty.
The ministry said the number of harassment complaints rose from 256 in 2016 to 2,311 last year.
In a country where gender inequality remains high, sexual harassment is often disregarded, and the #MeToo movement has been slow to catch on.
However, Japanese women have started to speak up.
Gonoi submitted a petition earlier this month to the Ministry of Defense signed by more than 100,000 people seeking a reinvestigation of her case by a third party.
She said three senior male colleagues in August last year, in a dormitory at a training ground, pressed the lower parts of their bodies against her, forcing her to spread her legs, as more than 10 other male colleagues watched and laughed, but none tried to stop them.
Gonoi said in a statement that she filed a case with the ministry, but the investigation was not properly conducted, and local prosecutors dropped the case in May.
A month later, she quit the army and disclosed her allegations on social media.
Gonoi said that she thought her case had been quashed, and she had to raise her voice because there could be more victims if she did not speak out.
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