Number of serious sex offenses in Japan rises sharply in 2022

The first step would be to improve the positions of women reporting rapes and sexual assaults so they are not further victimised. More involvement of female officers. Special sexual crime units in the big cities. More acceptable behavior in the courts when the victim testifies.

YubaruToday 01:03 pm JST

Which goes for many things here, and like it or not, women themselves are just as much a part of problem and solution as well!

Women are not responsible for male-on-female sexual assault in any way, and it is shocking and disgusting that you would even suggest that, especially without explaining your reasoning.

girl

Unfortunately women don't have the luxury of going away for a few hours to calm down and forget that rape and sexual assault are endemic. We live with those memories and that anger all the time.

And men do? Yeah! Sure! We just shrug it off and say "Meh, she wanted me!" I've had the chance to meet some guys here in Japan who told me about times they went out andwere forced to drink more than they should by either their female bosses, friend or date and were taken advantage of by a female. They contemplated ending things for themselves because they couldn't go anyewhere with this story. Police also said thy would talk to the boss lady but because they needed the job, they declined any action. Instead, they drown themselves in alcohol every night and subconsciously make themselves the butt of every bad joke because he has no confidence in himself while the other guy is a shell of an empty human. The damage these cases take on BOTH SEXES AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS is unrepairable!

 We cannot even begin to tackle the problem if it is not even recognized as the serous problem it actually is.

Which goes for many things here, and like it or not, women themselves are just as much a part of problem and solution as well!

Yes, Japan does indeed have a lot of work to do in regards to women's rights and preventing sexual assault.

Unfortunately women don't have the luxury of going away for a few hours to calm down and forget that rape and sexual assault are endemic. We live with those memories and that anger all the time.

And women who live in Japan cannot forget that Japan, as a modern nation, ranks extremely low for gender equality: 116 of 146. (https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2022/digest/)

Women who live in countries with low rates of gender equality experience more incidents of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and generalized sexism.

Such countries also have lower reporting rates, and the justice system does not even begin to keep up with world standards in regard to how sex crimes are investigated and prosecuted.

Women in Japan can typically expect their rapist to not be arrested at all, since the definition of rape forces women to prove they were physically forced or violently threatened, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of rapes do not involve actual violence since women tend to comply out of a sense of self-preservation. If a woman was raped by someone she knows, which is the most prevalent kind of rape, it can be nearly impossible to prove.

Women in Japan also can expect to go though a vigorous interrogation by police without regard to their physical or mental state at the time of the rape, including being forced to reenact the crime. They also can experience victim-blaming by the police, the public, and even their family, which means that most sexual assaults aren't reported at all, or they report but later give up and don't go forward with charges.

Even if they go forward with pressing charges, and their rapist is arrested, women can expect the charges to be dropped or reduced. And if the rapist is sentenced at all, the prison terms are often short - even prosecution of gang rapes have resulted in suspended sentences.

On top of that, women are subjected to comments that attempt to downplay the prevalence of sex crimes or those who outright accuse women across the board of being liars who are out to get men.

And then of course there's issues with sex education, which in Japan does not teach the concept of consent, which means many women don't even recognize unwanted sex as rape.

Sex crimes in Japan are under reported, under prosecuted, and there is a real need for public discussion of the issue instead of knee-jerk reactions to defend Japan as a safe haven in comparison to other countries. We cannot even begin to tackle the problem if it is not even recognized as the serous problem it actually is.

A police official attributed the rise to growing awareness about what constitutes a sex crime and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations.

A welcome development but hopefully awareness and education will eventually lead to lowering of number of cases, not rise

She thought that she had "led him on" by sleeping in his home, and didn't feel she could say no. Yes, of course that's rape. . .

This is the culture in which women have been raised, which means many women experience the trauma of unwanted sex - which is rape.

- girl_in_tokyo

This is a very dangerous definition of what rape actually. Not to diminish the experience of your friend but being pressured into doing things we don't to do and having regrets about those situations later is not tantamount to rape. The door swings both on this too. It's not an issue exclusive to women. I've had sexual encounters with women in which I've regretted but felt in the moment some form of coercion or even obligation but would never accuse them of being rapists.

Making such accusations can ruin lives and diminishes the seriousness of cases of actual rape. If you go round typifying every regretful sexual encounter as rape then this will affect the seriousness with which genuine victims are given.

I agree as a society we need to improve empowering people to not be afraid to set personal boundaries and be more aware of others boundaries and empathy for those who feel uncomfortable rejecting others advances but life is messy and we all fall victim to such situations in one way or another. What matters is how you deal with it. Accepting some degree of responsibility for your decisions or indecisions and learning from them is how we navigate life.

Rape is very real and is a horrendous crime. I just don't feel the situation you've described here and your definition are accurate descriptions of rape and its seriousness.

Sorry for the long post. Please don't consider this a personal attack in any way. It's a hard and emotional topic to talk about but these types of discussions can help build awareness.

Force intercourse ? So what is it. I assume it a everyday part of a relationship. Many time I have not want to have sex but wanted to go to sleep but I succumbed to their request. Like I don’t want to but allow them because if I don’t living conditions are hard for next few days. Is this what they referring to force intercourse.

> > @ John-san - you should absolutely tell those men that no means NO. If they are having intercourse with you without consent - this is sexual assault. Simple as that. Don't accept it.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Stop talking about Japan as if it is a safe haven for women. It most certainly is not.

Japan is one of the safest countries on the planet, even for women. We understand that you feel nowhere on the planet is safe.

Number of serious sex offenses in Japan rises sharply in 2022

and yet, no national sexual predators list or harsher penalties for the perpetrators………

Way to keep it outdated and redundant, Japan.

As one example, a woman I know asked to stay the night at her male friend's house so she could get up early to go to the airport. He agreed, but then in the middle of the night came to her. She thought that she had "led him on" by sleeping in his home, and didn't feel she could say no. Yes, of course that's rape - she did not say yes.

If you watch your friend slip a drug into your drink and you let them, and you then proceed to drink the spiked drink knowingly, were you drugged? This type of case you mentioned is a bit difficult to say the victim was raped because she neither consented nor declined the offer but proceeded with the course anyways. Now I do not want to victim blame and I despise rape, but calling any form of intercourse "rape" is a little over exaggerated in my opinion.

@metoo finally reached this country.

japan has a long history of abuse…samurai with boys, Josen and China 300,000, etc.

but regarding reported cases, Japan with 125,000,000 people, this number is low.

As requested, resources for rape victims in Japan:

Open the Black Box: https://en.opentheblackbox.jp/

National Police Agency sex crimes unit: https://www.npa.go.jp/higaisya/seihanzai/seihanzai.html

Spring, counseling service and advice: http://spring-voice.org/english/

Tokyo English Life Line for mental health consultations: https://telljp.com/

Sexual assault relief center: https://sarc-tokyo.org/

Counseling center for women: http://www.ccwjp.org/

Medical interpretation service Himawari (Tokyo): https://www.himawari.metro.tokyo.jp/qq13/qqport/tomintop/

If anyone has resources for outside Tokyo, please post. These are just the ones I have handy.

A police official attributed the rise to growing awareness about what constitutes a sex crime and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations.

This actually makes sense (rather than a rise in the actual number of incidents).

Most probably both

Again I put this down to people actually reporting it (when they didn't in the past) and the police actually taking it seriously.

Stranger: are you a marriage councillor? You state No” and is “not “without any explanation. Just take your word on the subject because you are a councilor? I assume this because you all over this subject. My comment is known and I hear the exact topic come up in relationship conversation very offen. So more information.

Of course every case is one too much. But still it’s in comparison a very safe country for women, when also considering that some things are statistically counted that are anywhere else not even worth a news. When someone is touched, hugged, kissed or smartphone filmed, then it’s already considered a big sexual offense, but anywhere else on the globe, no police would start serious activities as they have much more severe cases to solve.

Remember how cases of child abuse skyrocketed in the mid-2000's with "growing awareness and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations"? Did those cases just suddenly appear, or were they there all along, but just not counted?

Hi skepics! Japan is not so very different from most other countries in that sex crimes are quite common.

The report rate (4%, according to sex crime prosecutors) is very low for many reasons. There is a lot of shame, since sex is still taboo and victims are blamed, and the overall system is set up in a way that makes prosecution of sex crimes very difficult, so that many rapists go free. But another reason is the low level of sex education that would help women understand what rape is.

Women tend to talk to other women in ways that they do not talk to men. I can't count the number of times I've listened to stories of rape from women who were either too afraid, or didn't know, they could call what happened to them "rape." As one example, a woman I know asked to stay the night at her male friend's house so she could get up early to go to the airport. He agreed, but then in the middle of the night came to her. She thought that she had "led him on" by sleeping in his home, and didn't feel she could say no. Yes, of course that's rape - she did not say yes. She did not want to have sex. She simply did not know how to refuse, but if she had, she would have refused. This is the culture in which women have been raised, which means many women experience the trauma of unwanted sex - which is rape.

A huge issue is that most cases will not be prosecuted as rape in Japan, since women have to prove physical force, and it's only recently that coercion in the form of fear was even taken into consideration. Remember the case of the women whose father sexually molested her for many years, but was not prosecuted because she didn't say "no" and he didn't force her? There you are.

Many women don't report because they don't even realize what happened to them was actually rape.

Most rapes are committed by people the woman knows. Rapists aren't waiting in the bushes to jump out and drag women away kicking and screaming - this is a commonly held misbelief.

Stop talking about Japan as if it is a safe haven for women. It most certainly is not.

And in 5 or 10 years when the rates of rape rise just as the cases of child abuse did, don't you forget all the times you argued with me and called me a misandrist for pointing this out.

Misleading Title, Crimes did NOT increase, reporting got better.

Are they sure it’s the amount of offenses that has risen or just the amount of arrests?

The number being reported as having risen is the number of arrests.

Are they sure it’s the amount of offenses that has risen or just the amount of arrests?

Normally a news website would accompany a story like this with some telephone numbers for a victims or consultation helpline and relevant assistance.

You should post some. I post the TELL line in stories about suicide when they don't.

Normally a news website would accompany a story like this with some telephone numbers for a victims or consultation helpline and relevant assistance.

in Tokyo alone there’s thirty seven million people…; most of the crimes happen in Tokyo and Osaka (two out ofthousands); (…)

Sure, but that's true of every country - there will always be more crime where there is more population density.

in Tokyo alone there’s thirty seven million people…; most of the crimes happen in Tokyo and Osaka (two out ofthousands); (…)

(people should be reminded of the relative concentration of crime in Japan…)

Force intercourse ? So what is it. I assume it a everyday part of a relationship.

It's not.

Is this what they referring to force intercourse.

No.

Force intercourse ? So what is it. I assume it a everyday part of a relationship. Many time I have not want to have sex but wanted to go to sleep but I succumbed to their request. Like I don’t want to but allow them because if I don’t living conditions are hard for next few days. Is this what they referring to force intercourse.

Fundamentally, I agree that Japan is (still) one of the safest countries in the world and that the pandemic affected people s mental health and brought us all more social problems, pressure and stress and that’s one of the reasons why everything got worse everywhere

That's not actually correct. Crime rates dropped world-wide in 2020, and in the countries I've read, they have not increased any particular amount over pre-pandemic levels. And pre-pandemic, crime rates were lower than they'd ever been.

People read about more crimes because of the internet - so it seems like crime rates are increasing. But in reality, the worldwide trend is that the world has consistently become safer.

I'm guessing that more and more Japanese have started to actually report what happened to them and that they have been taken more seriously than before. At least that's what I hope. Out of the scary amount of things I have heard happened to people I barely know anyone that actually ended up reporting it.

StrangerlandToday  07:26 am JST

The number of reported cases are rising. Cases here have always been high.

“ It's reported that only 3.7% of rapes are reported in Japan. “

The number of serious sex offenses in Japan in 2022 grew sharply from the previous year, with cases of forced intercourse climbing 19.3 percent to 1,656, government data showed.

“ Link: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2023/02/a079504e3d24-no-of-serious-sex-offenses-in-japan-rises-sharply-in-2022.html

So if 1656 is the total reported number, and that is only 3.7% of total rapes, that means there were roughly 46000 rapes in 2022. In a country of 125,000 people, that works out to about 3.68 rapes/10,000 people (remember, this takes into account unreported rapes), which is a very low number on the world stage.

This of course is still 46,000 rapes too many. But if I were a woman, choosing a place to live on earth based on where I'd be least likely to get raped, Japan would definitely be somewhere I would be considering. “

..

Fundamentally, I agree that Japan is (still) one of the safest countries in the world and that the pandemic affected people s mental health and brought us all more social problems, pressure and stress and that’s one of the reasons why everything got worse everywhere, not just in Japan, but I’d just like to point out that it can’t be all that black and white; in Tokyo alone there’s thirty seven million people…; most of the crimes happen in Tokyo and Osaka (two out of thousands); (…)

Capuchin

I recommend seeking out the BBC documentary Japan's Shame the documentary about Shiori Ito a Japanese journalist who was drugged and raped

This particular story is not as clear as many sensationalist Western media want to present it. And I would take any BBC "documentary" with a grain of salt, seeing the political bias of that institution.

I recommend seeking out the BBC documentary Japan's Shame the documentary about Shiori Ito a Japanese journalist who was drugged and raped by a close friend of Abe's to gain an insight into how victims of sexual crimes are treated in Japan.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b8cfcj

A police official attributed the rise to growing awareness about what constitutes a sex crime and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations.

This actually makes sense (rather than a rise in the actual number of incidents).

Ironically, then, this is "good news"

This article is nonsense! The statistics are all over the board here. Yet the one glaring number that sticks out, is in reality much here I would guess, is this one here.

The centers said the number of consultations in fiscal 2021 ended last March climbed 14.9 percent from the previous year to 58,771.

Nearly 60,000 consultations and "forced intercourse" at 1,656 and "sexual assault" at 4,708....also what idiot doesnt realize that forced intercourse IS sexual assault! Oh and what results came from the consultations?

Oh and I hardly believe this either:

A police official attributed the rise to growing awareness about what constitutes a sex crime and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations.

One official? His "growing awareness" was probably a 1 hour course given by a guy, on what to tell women when they file a complaint, "How to deflect guilt on the victim"

The number of reported cases are rising. Cases here have always been high.

It's reported that only 3.7% of rapes are reported in Japan.

The number of serious sex offenses in Japan in 2022 grew sharply from the previous year, with cases of forced intercourse climbing 19.3 percent to 1,656, government data showed.

Link: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2023/02/a079504e3d24-no-of-serious-sex-offenses-in-japan-rises-sharply-in-2022.html

So if 1656 is the total reported number, and that is only 3.7% of total rapes, that means there were roughly 46000 rapes in 2022. In a country of 125,000 people, that works out to about 3.68 rapes/10,000 people (remember, this takes into account unreported rapes), which is a very low number on the world stage.

This of course is still 46,000 rapes too many. But if I were a woman, choosing a place to live on earth based on where I'd be least likely to get raped, Japan would definitely be somewhere I would be considering.

The number of reported cases are rising. Cases here have always been high. We know it and the authorities know it. Not sure they like it now the "cat is out of the bag", as it were, and there is less stigma in victims coming forward. Same with domestic violence and child abuse.

Reality is much higher

A police official attributed the rise to growing awareness about what constitutes a sex crime and the development of a dedicated system to accept reports and consultations.

so it's not so much a "rise", as that the police and other officialdom are somewhat extracting their heads from the sand? in any case, a bit more awareness is a step in the right direction!

It wasn't long ago that the police in Japan would blame the victim of rape, for the rape. The question the police in Japan was: What did you do to deserve this?

I hope this line of thinking has changed.