Toyama (Japan) (AFP) — A Japanese court handed down an eight-year jail sentence Tuesday to the father of a woman who publicly accused him of rape, a rare case in the country where many victims stay anonymous.
Koji Daimon was convicted of raping his daughter Riho Fukuyama in 2016, when she was in high school.
He admitted to the act but maintained his innocence, arguing that “my daughter was in a state where she could have resisted”.
In the ruling, judge Toshiaki Umezawa said that “given that the victim continues to suffer physical and mental distress to this day… the consequences must be deemed grave.”
Fukuyama says the rapes began when she was in junior high school when her mother was not at home.
Fukuyama went public in March last year following the arrest of her father.
Just a handful of other victims of similar crimes have revealed their identities in Japan.
“I was relieved” after hearing the ruling, Fukuyama told reporters gathered outside the court in Toyama, a coastal city in central Japan.
“I want to tell the world sexual violence within families does exist. Please don’t look away from victims.”
Fukuyama said at a press conference earlier this year that she had worried that people wouldn’t believe her claims of sexual abuse.
“I want a society where, even when you tell others you’ve been victimized, the immediate response is ‘It’s not your fault’,” she said at the time.
– Journalist, soldier go public –
Among victims who have chosen to go public with their accusations are journalist Shiori Ito, who won a landmark civil case against a prominent TV reporter who raped her.
And in 2021, Rina Gonoi accused fellow soldiers of sexual assault and three of them were later given suspended sentences. She left the military after the assault.
Both women were praised for their bravery in coming forward but also received a barrage of online hate, which forced Ito to move to London.
In a recent high-profile case, an Osaka prosecutor accused her former boss of raping her, but she remains anonymous as she hopes to return to work.
Even though there has been no major #MeToo movement like those elsewhere around the world, modest-sized rallies against sexual violence sprang up across Japan after several alleged rapists were acquitted in 2019.
Law changes have also helped. The definition of rape was broadened in 2017, while the need for victims to prove violence or intimidation was removed in 2023.
As Fukuyama’s assaults predated the law changes, the local prosecutors office indicted her father under the then-applicable offence, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun daily.
