The opened black box: Shiori Ito's civil lawsuit against Noriyuki Yamaguchi ends after 5 years

On the 7th of this month, Shiori Ito's five-year civil lawsuit against Noriyuki Yamaguchi finally came to an end.

The Supreme Court rejected the appeals of both parties and upheld the second-instance judgment. Today (20), Shiori Ito held a press conference together with the lawyers appointed for this case (Yoko Nishihiro, Katsuhiko Tsukuhiko, and Genichi Yamaguchi), to share the mental journey of the past five years and his opinions on the outcome of this case.

This press conference is likely to be the last time that Shiori Ito talks about the case in public. This is also the end of the most representative sexual assault lawsuit in Japan in recent years, which is of special significance.

case summary

In April 2015, after eating at a restaurant in Tokyo Ebisu, Shiori Ito and Noriyuki Yamaguchi were taken to a hotel in Minato Ward, Tokyo by Yamaguchi, and they succeeded in sexually assaulting them. Although Shiori Ito subsequently lodged a complaint with Yamaguchi for the crime of quasi-compulsory sexual intercourse (it was still called "quasi-rape crime" in Japan at the time), the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office refused to prosecute Yamaguchi because of insufficient evidence.

In May 2017, after the "Weekly Trendy" reported the case, Shiori Ito held a press conference under the real name "Shori" and became the first person in the #MeToo movement in Japan (Note: The #MeToo movement in the United States actually broke out at the end of the same year). Because the prosecution maintained its decision not to prosecute Yamaguchi Keiyuki, the criminal proceedings were blocked. In September of the same year (2017), Ito Shiori filed a civil lawsuit against Yamaguchi Keiyuki, and published the book "Black Box" in October. In the course of the civil lawsuit, Yamaguchi Keiyuki countersued Ito Shiori for defamation of personal reputation (civil), forming a situation in which both parties sued each other for a combined trial of civil lawsuits.

As a result of the first-instance judgment of civil litigation in 2019, Shiori Ito won the case against Shiori Yamaguchi, and Shiori Yamaguchi’s case against Shiori Ito was dismissed. Yamaguchi refused to accept the verdict, and the case was appealed to the second instance.

In January this year, the results of the second-instance judgment came out. Although the case of Ito Shiori v. Yamaguchi Keiichi remained successful, Yamaguchi Keiyuki had to compensate Ito Shiori 3.3 million yen, but the second-instance verdict in the Yamaguchi v. Ito Shiori case was different from the first instance: the judge agreed with some of Yamaguchi's claims and asked Ito Shiori to pay Compensate Yamaguchi Keizhi 550,000 yen.

Extended reading: Admitting the victim did not consent to sexual intercourse, but acquitting the perpetrator: Why is it difficult for Japan's sexual assault cases to obtain justice from criminal proceedings?

Date rape drug key

In the case of Yamaguchi's lawsuit against Shiori Ito, the reason for the difference in the results of the first- and second-instance judgments lies in the "date rape drug (date rape drug, デート・レイプ・ドラッグ)" mentioned in the book "Black Box".

Inheritance, Shiori Ito published the book "Black Box" in 2017 (the Chinese translation is titled: "Black Box: The True Confessions of Victims of Sexual Violence"), telling about his experience of being murdered, and going to the screen after the incident to meet with him. Bits and pieces on the road to litigation. Shiori Ito wrote in the book that she suspected that she had been drugged by Yamaguchi Kaori at the time, and she would be cut off. This drug, Shiori Ito believed to be the "date rape drug" that was heard in the United States at the time.

Yoko Nishihiro, a lawyer who has accompanied Shiori Ito through the lawsuit for the past five years, said at a press conference that when Shiori Ito first came forward to complain about the case, very few people in Japan had heard of "date rape drugs". For those who hear this word for the first time, although it is an unfamiliar term, they will know that this is a very vicious method and give a strong impression to the outside world. Perhaps it is because of this, because Shiori Ito is the one who made this word popular in Japan, so the judge at the second instance would think that Shiori Ito's writing in the book would indeed affect Yamaguchi's reputation in society, so he would sentence Ito Shiori will pay Yamaguchi 550,000 yen.

Although the Supreme Court rejected the two appeals, which means that the result of the second-instance judgment is the final result of the case, Shiori Ito's mention of "dating rape drugs" in the book is the key to Shiori Ito's compensation for Yamaguchi. But from a positive point of view, precisely because Shiori Ito has aroused the public's attention to "dating rape drugs", now in Japan, if the police find that the perpetrator is suspected of using drugs to rape the victim, they will require evidence preservation.

Can't bring it up again in the future?

This time, the Supreme Court directly rejected the appeal of both parties, so there is no chance to hear the Supreme Court's opinion. If the verdict is upheld in the second-instance lawsuit, the next issue will be the passage in the book "Black Box" that mentions "date rape drugs".

Shiori Ito said at the press conference in response to a question from the "Daily News" reporter Utagawa はるかthat she believes that the paragraph about "date rape drugs" in the book "Black Box" should be deleted in the future, but she also mentioned, Although she has no evidence that Yamaguchi really used the drug, this passage in the book is that after she compared the description of "date rape drugs" on the American website, she felt that the symptoms after taking it were very similar to her own, and she also made it clear in the text. There is no evidence to write about her, so it will damage the reputation of others? Just to write down your own experience of being victimized, and to write down your experience of being suspected of being drugged but the police are unwilling to assist in the search for evidence, is to damage the reputation of others. Does this mean that this matter cannot be said from now on? How can I tell about my experience of being victimized in the future? This is one of the challenges Ito Shiori is currently facing.

Further reading: Yamaguchi's lawsuit against Ito Shiori for false accusation + reputation damage is not prosecuted, what is the Japanese news term "books for inspection"?

Legal questions raised by this string of lawsuits

However, for Shiori Ito, the most profound experience in the litigation process in the past five years should be how difficult it is to find out how difficult this type of litigation is, how much mental and financial burden it is on the parties, and As a journalist, how to remember what this experience has taught me.

The longer the litigation process drags on, the greater the mental and financial burden on the victim. Like Shiori Ito’s case, it ended up being a civil lawsuit, and the victim had to confront the perpetrator head-on in court. The words the perpetrator made in order to protect himself were secondary injuries to the victim.

At the press conference, Shiori Ito said that he would continue to think about how to improve the current litigation process, and not to allow the perpetrators to attack the victims in public in court. Shiori Ito also mentioned that in this civil lawsuit, testimony that was not found in the criminal lawsuit was found, which is a great progress in finding out the truth. But even if the civil lawsuit is won, if the other party has not lost money or can't come up with so much money, what can be done under the current law, this is also a problem.

In addition, at the press conference, facing the question of Yuko Mochizuki from the Tokyo Shimbun , Shiori Ito also mentioned that, looking back on this series of lawsuits, Yamaguchi kept insisting that "I did not break the law" and "I did not commit a crime." She feels that to some extent Yamaguchi is actually asking Japan's judiciary, and in Japan, it is now a country that can loudly assert that "non-consensual sex (consent no ない sex / consent な き sex / non-consent for sexual intercourse) is not a crime. ' society. Faced with this situation, how we all face and react will be a major issue in the future.

Further reading: Retweets of far-right false remarks should also be held legally responsible, and Japan’s #MeToo representative officially sued Shiori Ito

Back to Journalism

In the second half of the press conference, Shiori Ito talked about the current situation and predicament of the news media that he felt as a reporter through this series of lawsuits.

Inheritance, before Shiori Ito decided to hold a press conference to sue Yamaguchi, it was actually the reporter Tanaka from "Weekly Trendy" who broke the news, which made this case attract attention from the very beginning of the accusation press conference. Digging out the inside story like this and bringing out the whistleblower's message is very important, and this is what the media can do.

However, this is not enough. Shiori Ito shared that she and Yamaguchi Keiyuki are fighting a civil lawsuit in Tokyo. If the reporter does not go to the Tokyo District Court to listen, there is no way to see the evidence that can only be disclosed in court. If it wasn't for the reporters whose original base was in the Kanto region, there was no way they would go to the Tokyo District Court every once in a while. Not only journalists, but also people in other counties and cities have no choice. Shiori Ito said that when she went to Fukuoka to give a speech, she met a person who did not believe in Shiori Ito at all. Shiori Ito had no way to invite the man from Fukuoka to the Tokyo District Court to see that she and Noriyuki Yamaguchi were in court. debate on. From this perspective, she feels that Japan's judicial process is not open and transparent enough, at least for people from other counties and cities, it is too difficult to obtain such information.

As a reporter, even if Shiori Ito's main force in the future will still be on the video, in her heart, as a reporter, in addition to always looking for answers that have not been solved in her heart, she will always remember how to put everyone Everyone's story is conveyed through the lens.

This article is simultaneously published in the Japanese current affairs まとめ translation of Kaori Ishikawa .