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Ground Self-Defense Force issues rare apology over sexual harassment case

27 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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She said three senior male colleagues in August 2021 in a dorm at a training ground pressed the lower part 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.

Senpai can do whatever they want in Japanese society, until someone brought this to public attention and embarassed whole Force.

3 ( +19 / -16 )

Ground Self-Defense Force issues rare apology over sexual harassment case

Rarely get caught, is why.

3 ( +20 / -17 )

This apology is a good first step, wish her all the best.

15 ( +18 / -3 )

Really bad form from a soldiers to another soldier who part of your own crew, you need to depend on each other. This allowed conditioning of bullying and humiliating of the presumed weakest makes for poor teamwork.

It might work in the corporate world or politics but not in war. By the size of only the reported case of recent and the 5 fold effect of previous year. This is systemic. No doubt this behaviour would also be in the other forces.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

As for women fighting in wars, read history and see how often women were able to fight alongside men. Go read Daughters of Kobani and see how girls and women took the fight to the IS. Don't remain ignorant your whole life. As for the JSDF, conduct a real investigation and find the perpetrators. In a real war situation, if these guys don't have the moral compass in peace time, they could commit war crimes and being the cowards that they are, could even abandon their comrade in arms. This is wholly disgusting.

15 ( +17 / -2 )

Thise found to be guilty of any form of harassment should be sent to Ukraine as "Observers" to get a grasp of what reality is all about.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

What are the name of the abusers?

The perpetrators must apologize and take responsibility.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

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."

typical worthless gesture.

Hand down some real punishments, jail time and dishonorable discharge to those found guilty.

She said three senior male colleagues in August 2021 in a dorm at a training ground pressed the lower part 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.

easy to picture, as garbage like this happens all the time at workplaces and in schools.

not necessarily sexual assault, but just gang mentality bullying in general.

“haha so funny sempai! Do it again!”

morons……

6 ( +14 / -8 )

dbsaiyaToday  07:30 am JST

As for women fighting in wars, read history and see how often women were able to fight alongside men. Go read Daughters of Kobani and see how girls and women took the fight to the IS. Don't remain ignorant your whole life. As for the JSDF, conduct a real investigation and find the perpetrators. In a real war situation, if these guys don't have the moral compass in peace time, they could commit war crimes and being the cowards that they are, could even abandon their comrade in arms. This is wholly disgusting.

Amen. This rings a bell in a war in Eastern Europe right now. If there ever was a time for Japan to bring out its heavy-handed draconian approach to punishing the misconducts of its people, it's on these soldiers. If I was the commander, I'd put these offenders through hell week every week for months to develop their moral compass.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Db,I second your motion,I glad you laid the law down,so powerful

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It happens everyday in the US,even high ranking officers,who knows it wrong ,they cannot handle their compulsion

1 ( +6 / -5 )

A brief search shows that about 6% of SDF are female compared to 12% in UK and 16% in the USA. With the government focused on growing the military budget (and force size I would think), recruiting more female SDF seems like an important goal.

If women perceive SDF as hostile to women Japan will not achieve this goal.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The dropkicks should resign immediately, regardless of the result of the investigation. Not fit to work in a team environment - and would be a pushover for any enemy forces.

Surely Japan can recruit better than these no-hopers.

Hopefully the woman can ultimately receive a positive outcome.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

...and thats all?

one minute public comedy-problem "solved"...business as usual

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Yrral: No, wrong. USA armed forces are the highest and best trained units ( Soldier, Seaman or Airman ) in warfare history were bullying, humiliation and sexism as not been tolerated and eliminated since before 2000,s if any, they are rare.

dbsaiya: Sex does not determine a soldier or unit, There are men not suit as there there is women. Yes there are soldier that are better then the next soldier. Often overseen is the ability of some soldier ( women mainly ) to multi task e.g Forward spotter/ Medic. etc. As for moral compass. this is determined and control by the leader of units/ company etc.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Comparisons with what happens on another continent are irrelevant.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

What is the cause of this ? And what can be done about it ?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The AvengerToday  07:04 am JST

Ground Self-Defense Force issues rare apology over sexual harassment case

Rarely get caught, is why.

This activity is a major problem in all militaries around the world and it usually gets kept out of sight, in the dark. It only recently got major attention during the Obama era, and he knows that a rape atmosphere is destructive to military order and discipline (and he never served either, but he's no idiot). The Award-winning docu-film 'The Invisible War' gives a pretty good idea of the sex crimes that go on in it, as well as the public's indifference and choosing to ignore or dismiss it as nothing. And BTW, men in the service get raped too. Many of them.

Rina Gonoi is really lucky to have been able to QUIT the SDF. You can't just quit the US military over an incident like this.

Fighto!Today  09:41 am JST

The dropkicks should resign immediately, regardless of the result of the investigation. Not fit to work in a team environment - and would be a pushover for any enemy forces.

Surely Japan can recruit better than these no-hopers.

Hopefully the woman can ultimately receive a positive outcome.

Resign, nothing. They should be tried and kicked out with unmeritorious records. It is disgraceful, immature, harmful and destructive. Nobody should have to go through this cruddy treatment.

not necessarily sexual assault, but just gang mentality bullying in general.

“haha so funny sempai! Do it again!”

morons……

Yes, MORONS. If they get away with stuff like this, they'll get 'bolder' (kokkier) and will try to see how much more shenanigans they can get away with. Sexual harassment often leads to outright rape.

dbsaiyaToday  07:30 am JST

As for women fighting in wars, read history and see how often women were able to fight alongside men. Go read Daughters of Kobani and see how girls and women took the fight to the IS. Don't remain ignorant your whole life. As for the JSDF, conduct a real investigation and find the perpetrators. In a real war situation, if these guys don't have the moral compass in peace time, they could commit war crimes and being the cowards that they are, could even abandon their comrade in arms. This is wholly disgusting.

There's no honor among dirtbags. And as for women in warfare, the 1994 US invasion of Haiti was the first for the US Armed Forces. And they've fought in every war since, with the men.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Anyone who Googles sexual assault in the US military will find that it has been a huge problem there as well (hopefully significant improvements have been made).

Regarding this case, the news article only reports a fraction of what Gonoi Rina had to endure-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiucNJ2GX8c&t=613s

6 ( +7 / -1 )

She said three senior male colleagues in August 2021 in a dorm at a training ground pressed the lower part 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.

3 animals and 10 plus cowards watching on and laughing. What would it take for this culture to create people with enough sense and courage to stand up and say one simple word, ‘STOP!’, when it is plain as day that what is transpiring is morally abhorrent , cruel and wrong. How can an entire group not have one real person amongst them? Collectivism turns off our basic human instinct to empathy and the results are this sort of behavior. All it woulda taken was one dude.

Why have the perpetrators not apologized?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Why have the perpetrators not apologized?

The video which is at the link I posted at 12:42pm explains.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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.

These prosecutors were inefficient or having a blind eye - should be named and charged for professional negligence?????

I believe an investigation will conducted on this and dropped.

Gonoi submitted a petition earlier this month to the Defense Ministry signed by more than 100,000 people seeking a reinvestigation of her case by a third party.

Only then it is worth for Defense Ministry to approve for (proper) investigation?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As for women fighting in wars, read history and see how often women were able to fight alongside men. Go read Daughters of Kobani and see how girls and women took the fight to the IS. 

Thanks for the tip on the Daughters of Kobani. I have now ordered it and Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield and am looking forward to reading each.

 USA armed forces are the highest and best trained units ( Soldier, Seaman or Airman ) in warfare history were bullying, humiliation and sexism as not been tolerated and eliminated since before 2000's if any, they are rare.

They weren't rare when I was working with special ops in Afghanistan in 2011. When I was teaching at Fort Leavenworth 2008-2010 we were forced to take mandatory sexual harassment training because of continued bullying, humiliation and sexism in the US armed forces. It was pretty explicit and embarassing to the majority of us, and the only reasons for such training was that there were still continued incidents; as a result of a lack of control, reviews of sexual harassment and assualt were taken out of the chain of command and committed to independent review, and this explicit training and explanation of what is harassment and assault was mandated in the services. I don't know if there is still such training, but I would be surprised if the training (if not the problem) continues because of the influx of new recruits and commissioned officers. The problem was throughout the ranks, and was both military, civilian employee, and contractor oriented. I learned stuff and language I had never heard before. If this type of training is going on with US forces, I expect it is needed with Japanese forces, too.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

As a military force that likes to pretend they are steeped in the samurai traditions, they should be told to atone for their embarrassing the general/the Ministry/Japan in the traditional manner shown on all the old Edo-era dramas.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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