Roughly five years ago, a brave woman sparked the #MeToo in Japan. Having many advocates and supports, Shiori Ito bravely brought a sexual harassment incident to the surface and gave hope to women, despite undergoing painful damage. Let’s take a look at the story of Shiori Ito, who finally regained her constitutional rights in July after five years of struggle against a power that almost seems impregnable.  

Ito was born in 1989 in an ordinary family in Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama. She majored in journalism and photography at Marymount Manhattan College in 2013. Her tragedy occurred when she became an intern at Thomson Reuters. On 4 April 2015, she was raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, former Washington bureau chief for the TBS network who had close ties with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the time. At first she wanted to hide the fact of being a sexual crime victim, but she made up her mind to confront the issue herself, believing that she would not be qualified to be a journalist if she cannot endure even her own truth. Unfortunately, what she got in return after she went to tell the police about the incident was a bigger strain. The perpetrator threatened her, saying that she would not be able to work in the same industry again because of his huge fame in politics and the broadcasting industry where Ito worked. To add insult to injury, Ito had to comply with an insulting demand from the police. Furthermore, the prosecution dropped the charge on the ground of insufficient evidence. Ito stated that these consecutive phenomena had depicted how Japan’s legal system turns away from victims of sexual violence. These impediments did not stop her however; instead, she became the first victim of sexual assault to go public and file a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator in September 2017. Over the years of first and second trials, the Supreme Court of Japan, on 7 July this year, put an end to the dispute by ruling in favor of Ito. The impact of her moves has been tremendous to the society–some critics said her actions have drawn the media’s attention to how poorly Japan investigates sexual violence and rape. Moreover, voices and movements to support those who have been deprived of sexual self-determination have come up to the surface. For instance, a woman who was sexually harassed by her boss in a public office came forward about the crime. A group of victims of sex crimes established the Flower Demo movement to resist against sex crimes and violence which continues to these days. Meanwhile, Ito recently announced that she wants to continue her career as a journalist and documentary filmmaker focusing on gender-based human rights issues. She also directed “Black Box”, a documentary that portrays the Japan’s crippled system which represses the victims of gender-based violence. Calling for a huge wave of revolution in Japanese society, she is recognized as a symbol of Japan's #MeToo movement. 

Our society develops from day to day at a pace almost difficult to catch up, making it seems like the level of people's lives has increased, accordingly. Nonetheless, there are still people who live with the shortcoming of rights and opportunities, albeit being part of the same society as everyone else. Ito had fought a long battle to ensure a better life for those people, only to spread positive influence on the public. She shed light on those who are in the blind side of the legal protection and opened the floor for people to speak for their rights. Chung-Ang Herald will continue to support her move to live up to for her convictions and values.