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A professor at Japan’s prestigious Waseda University has been fired over reportedly repeated sexual harassment of a female student, the university announced in a statement on Friday.
The university initially suspended Naomi Watanabe, a 66-year-old professor in humanities, after they received a complaint by a female student that the professor was continuously sexually harassing her in and after class.
According to the student, Watanabe often invited her to eat out together and told her that he’ll “make (her) his lover” and that he’ll “treat (her) as a woman" after her graduation. On a separate occasion, he also reportedly told her to change into other clothes in class after she entered the classroom wet on a rainy day. The complaint also said that on another occasion, Watanabe offered her food using the same chopsticks he had been using.
"(Watanabe’s) actions of telling a student that he will make her his lover post-graduation is lacking in competency for his position as an instructor,” representatives from Waseda University said.
Watanabe’s dismissal was effective as of July 27, approximately a month and a half after the student had filed a complaint with the university, Sankei Shimbun reported.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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Maria
Decisive action in favour of the victim. Good.
quercetum
Fired and suspended are not the same, which is it JT?
MikeH
@quercetum...exactly!
Raw Beer
Naomi Watanabe!!!
theFritzX
A sleazebag.
thepersoniamnow
I thought it was a female prof from the name.
Do the hustle
Yeah, I too am confused about fired or suspended. Suspended host means removed from duties ‘for the tone being’. Whereas, fired is what he should have been and should be facing criminal charges.
girl_in_tokyo
Good to see justice done. I hope she can continue her studies and graduate without any more trauma.
serendipitous1
Naomi can be a male or female name in Japan (just like Hiromi, Kiyomi or Ayumi).
miss_oikawa
Strangerland, it says "fired" in the article too though. I agree it is likely he was just suspended. A month and a half would be way too fast for someone to have been through an investigation and sacked.
Luddite
Sack him, dirty old man.
Takeshi Hasegawa
Naomi Watanabe(渡部直巳) has been one of Japanese leading literary critics and has published many books. This generation's men are ruining every fields of Japan.
puregaijin
Shame. Saying the things that he said in front of the full class would’ve been embarrassing. He won’t die wondering why she complained. Crisp action by the administration as well.
Dukeleto
One has to wonder how many other young girls have had to suffered his “charms”... offering food from his used chopsticks...indeed!
Jalapeno
He's 66 and was probably set to retire anyway, so he figured, "What have I got to lose?"
farhaan
A female student goes to eat out together with male professor and later complains 'sexual harassment'. Why she goes out to dine with him in the first place ?
What's wrong in that ? I don't see anything wrong in that.
She must not be happy with her last exam results.