It’s 9:00am and I have been up since 4:30am. Can’t seem to figure out why I can’t sleep but am desperately hoping that I get tired soon and am able to go back to sleep, at least for a few more hours.
These past few hours have been somewhat productive though. I’ve done some research on ideas I have for future articles and have found a lot of interesting yet disturbing stuff.
I’ve been getting interested in women’s rights and the feminist movement in Japan, mostly wondering if there is such a thing and I came across this article about rape laws in this country. Although it’s a few years old I’m sure that not much has changed in terms of rape report procedure or the laws surrounding rape cases. Finding this article led me to the Tokyo Rape Crisis Center. TRCC is a hotline for rape victims to call to receive advice and counseling regarding rape (03-3207-3692). But this hotline only operates on Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm and on Saturdays from 3pm to 6pm and English operators are only available sometimes. Japan also offers crisis counseling through Tokyo English Life Line which as better hours, 9am to 11pm everyday (03-5774-0992) but there is no 24-hour support. My point is that rape/sexual assault resources for women are very limited in this country and it seems (at least according to the article I found) that rape victims are not taken seriously and it’s perfectly fine for police officers to interrogate and question a rape victim about her sexual history. What’s worse is that the police make the victims re-enact the rape for the purpose of photo documentation. Unfortunately, in Japanese law there exists no rape shield law such as the ones that exist in North America to protect victims from such things.
Upon further inspection of Japanese laws regarding sexual crimes I just found that the age of consent here is 13. 13! I’m not even sure what to say about that. I guess it makes sense since this is the country that produces games like RapeLay.
Here’s another interesting story about Waseda Universities “Rape Club”. I would hope that this club no longer exists but you never know.
Well, now that I’m thoroughly sickened by my research, I think it’s time to go back to bed.
If you’re interested in volunteering/donating to opening a 24 hour rape crisis center in Japan visit Warriors Japan
A Pocket of Words 
Shana, very interesting and very scary but not surprising stuff here. I'd like to think and hope that rape is not that common here but I do know that stalkers are very common and equally badly dealt with by the police. An ex girlfriend of mine was being stalked by her nextdoor neighbour. The guy went through her rubbish. He climbed onto her balcony. Once while we were still going out we guessed he was on it we guessed later. She woke me and I saw a figure and ran out there and the guy had jumped down and was running away. Must have been him then. She went to the police when it got worse and they basically did nothing except note it down. She called me and I went round and banged on his door for half an hour until he eventually opened it and I scared the shit out of him. It stopped long enough for her to sort her stuff out and move. I have heard many more stories too from friends.
Definitely scary shit. Japan needs to get its shit together when it comes to gender equality and rights.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog
and wished to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts.
In any case I will be subscribing on your rss feed and I’m hoping
you write again very soon!