This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find
upsetting and contains some strong language.
I met him in a bar.
I remember googling him afterwards,
and I saw him talking with Prime Ministers, so that surprised me.
I remember Mr Yamaguchi saying, "We are always looking for interns."
If I accuse someone like that, maybe I won't be able to work again.
This is my first time, that I go to court for my case.
I'm a little bit nervous.
If the guy decided to come, he would be there,
and this would be my first time to face this person
after these two years.
In 2015, 25-year-old Shiori Ito filed rape charges
against 48-year-old Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent journalist
in Japan.
Today, more than two years later,
she is preparing for her first day in court.
In Japan, people rarely come forward with allegations of sexual assault.
Shiori is part of a tiny minority who take their cases to court.
In May 2017, Shiori shocked Japan when she went public
with rape allegations.
It polarised public opinion, and many just didn't believe her.
But for others, she has become a heroine.
Japan is a very sexual society.
You can go buy a sports newspaper at any kiosk,
and it will list where are the best places to get a blow job,
or who is doing the best sexual massage.
Any sexual service that you possibly want, you can buy in Japan.
But to talk about date rape, or sexual assault,
it is not something that is even on talk show fodder.
You don't see open discussions about that.
Rape is alleged in the UK 50 times more often than in Japan.
Some claim this shows how safe the country is for women.
But campaigners say it's because women are simply too scared
to come forward.
Despite being one of the most advanced nations in the world,
Japan's rape laws date back to 1907, and didn't change
for more than a century.
Until last year, the crime of rape in Japan
had a shorter minimum sentence than theft.
Shiori met Noriyuki Yamaguchi while she was studying journalism
in New York in 2013.
I think it was autumn.
The second year of my college.
I was supporting myself working at a bar.
He was with, I think, four or five different people, drinking.
It was quite shocking to meet someone very high profile,
and who has achieved what I want to do.
So I had so much respect.
Mr Yamaguchi was Washington bureau chief
for a Japanese broadcaster at the time.
He said, get in touch with me if you ever need something.
Motoko Rich investigated Shiori's allegations for over six months.
He's incredibly well-known in Japan.
Both because he was the Washington bureau chief
at a TV network that's one of a handful of TV networks
where people get their news.
On top of that, he was a biographer of Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister.
He was known to be relatively close to Mr Abe,
that he had spent a lot of time with him, had golfed with him.
The biography was very positive.
So, I think, a lot of the allegations
that there had been some political interference come from the closeness
of that relationship.
After they met, Shiori e-mailed Mr Yamaguchi about possible work
several times.
In March 2015, she contacted him from Tokyo to see if there were any
opportunities in Washington.
I e-mailed him saying, do you have any opening for interns?
And he said, "Of course.
"If it's interns, we're always looking for someone.
"But we also have a job opening for producer.
"Are you interested?"
I was like, I was so excited because, of course!
That's amazing.
Mr Yamaguchi told Shiori they would need to arrange a US work visa.
He suggested a meeting when he was in Tokyo the following month.
It was Friday night, so it was quite packed, I remember.
He was already eating and drinking at this small Kushiyaki place.
But he told me, this is not the place we were planning to eat.
Can you just, yeah, stay with me for a couple of drinks
and then we can go on.
And then we moved on to the next sushi restaurant.
He started pointing out all the places he knows.
"Oh, I've been there with, blah, blah, blah.
"Oh, I went... been there with blah, blah, blah."
OK, that's the ex-prime minister, or a very famous politician.
So I was like, "That's cool, that's great."
We arrived to a sushi place and we started ordering small sake.
I was sort of feeling a bit...
Uneasy. Started questioning, why am I here?
I thought we were going to discuss about a working visa.
That topic didn't come up.
We had this small bottle, and I remember he was ordering
the side one, so it's very small.
And then all of a sudden I started feeling very dizzy.
And I decided to go to the bathroom.
And then remember...
The last thing I remember was to rest my head on the water tank,
and that was all I remember that night.
Mr Yamaguchi maintains that Shiori was conscious
and gave full consent to everything that followed. But in fact,
there is no mention of consent in Japan's century old rape laws.
In this country, there's a different definition of what actually is rape.
There still is this sense that it is not criminal, unless it's a stranger
attacking you and you fight back and you are hurt.
And if it happens between two people who know each other,
it can't possibly be rape.
And if there's drink involved, that's really not rape either.
According to Japanese statutes, to prove rape it is necessary to show
the use of force or intimidation.
Research has shown that many victims simply freeze
when they are attacked.
Mr Yamaguchi has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.
He has only given one public interview about the incident,
on a political chat show hosted by Kazuyoshi Hanada.
Shiori was helped out of the toilet by restaurant staff.
She and Mr Yamaguchi left in a taxi together.
What we now know from the testimony of the taxi driver,
she repeatedly asked him to take her to a train station,
because she wanted to get on a train to go home.
Mr Yamaguchi said, "Well, I don't think you can go by yourself.
"I have a hotel room. We still have something to talk about work."
And he directed the taxi driver to drive to his hotel.
The taxi driver said that he heard Shiori go silent
in the back-seat of car.
CCTV from the hotel shows Mr Yamaguchi getting Shiori
out of the taxi and propping her up, as they walked to the lifts.
Shiori has not been back to the hotel for over two years.
She is returning to see if she can piece together more
about what happened that night.
I think I just wanted to face it. I don't know, face what? But...
And I can already feel that my body is reacting.
It's the light I remember, you know?
This light.
Yeah, it's the same.
I woke up with this intense pain.
The first thing maybe I say was, itai, it hurts.
He didn't stop.
The only way I could get out was when I said,
"I have to go to the bathroom, I need to pee. Now!"
I remember seeing this small body wash towel,
all the men's cosmetics were placed very neatly.
And then I realised, I'm in a hotel room, where he is staying.
I was confused.
I didn't know what had happened, how I got there.
I tried to find my clothes and get my stuff and out,
but then he was standing in front of the bathroom door.
And he pushed me on the bed again.
I tried to fight, but he was quite strong.
I wasn't able to get any air, and he was on top of me,
on my head, and I couldn't breathe.
And I thought, this is it.
I'm going to die here.
It felt like I am pleasing him more saying, stop, please, in Japanese.
So I cursed at him in English.
I said, "Fuck off.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
In Japanese he said, "Ii gouka dayo"
So he said, "You've passed."
And I got panicked, like, what do you mean?
And then all the shame came on me.
Like...
I didn't...
I didn't... I didn't do this.
But I did. He did.
And I passed.
SHE BREATHES HEAVILY
Shiori suspects she may have been drugged.
But acknowledges she has no evidence as no drug test was administered.
Mr Yamaguchi says Shiori lost her memory
because she drank too much alcohol.
Mr Yamaguchi says that in his room Shiori was repeatedly sick,
and partially undressed and fell asleep.
He says that when she woke up she was sober, and apologised to him for
getting drunk. And that when they later had sex,
she was an active participant and showed no signs of resistance.
He says they parted the next morning on good terms
and that she e-mailed him initially without mentioning any assault.
Shiori denies that her e-mails implied she consented.
Shiori's case has become part of a growing debate
about traditional gender roles in Japan.
There is a sense in the culture that it's OK for a man to view women as
objects. You know, it's only very recently
that certain porn magazines are not visibly displayed
at these convenience stores where families go and buy milk
and eggs, and newspapers, and what have you.
There they are, displayed on the racks.
And some of these involve rape fantasies.
And there are men who are getting their sex education from them.
It's a common motif in Japanese erotica,
of the woman resisting and then the man imposing himself on her
and then she decides that, oh, she likes it.
I really wish I could go back and tell myself
what I should have done.
I didn't know. No-one told me.
Shiori called a rape crisis centre on the outskirts of Tokyo,
but they refused to give her any advice
unless she attended an interview in person.
At that time I felt like I couldn't even move out from bed.
And it was just scary to take public transportation by myself,
travel two hours to get there.
Though she didn't visit at the time,
Shiori now wants to see the centre for herself.
They can see us, they said.
The rape crisis centre has asked for the location
to be kept confidential.
Most of the staff members also asked for their identities to be hidden.
The centre is run by Kazuko Hirakawa.
It is the capital's only 24 hour rape crisis centre,
serving a population of 13 million people.
The centre receives around 6,000 phone calls a year.
But of those, only around 100 of the callers visit in person.
Police investigations benefit from forensic evidence
being taken from an alleged victim as soon as possible.
This is done with what's known as a rape kit.
But in Japan, these kits are currently only stocked in hospitals,
in 14 of the country's 47 regions.
Five days after the alleged assault,
Shiori went to her local police station to report her allegations.
There were several people waiting in this waiting room.
At the reception, I had to tell him that I wanted to speak
with a female officer.
And he asked me why.
I have to tell him that I was raped.
This female officer took me to one of the investigation rooms
and she asked me what had happened.
It took me two hours, and I cried so much.
I was having a panic attack.
She told me, I'm sorry, but I am actually
from the traffic department, and I can't file your case.
So can you talk to a male investigator?
You've got a police force that is overwhelmingly male.
So, if you have all males investigating this,
with some very backward ideas on what is sexual assault,
what is sexual consent, then you're going to have problems.
Shiori was assigned an investigator in the Takanawa district,
30 minutes away. She was called in to re-enact her account
of what happened.
On the top floor of the Takanawa police,
they have this, sort of, like, gym.
I think there were three investigators overall.
And they were all male.
I had to lay down on this soft, blue mattress on the floor.
And they brought this big, life-size doll.
And they placed it on top of me and, sort of, started to move it
and taking photos of it, asking me, was it like this,
or was it like that.
All the flash made me so dizzy and sick,
and I have to turn off my mind...
..to try to not think about what is going on.
Recreating alleged assaults using dolls is a method commonly used
by the police in Japan.
Campaigners have criticised the traumatising effect this can have on
women. Some even calling it the second rape.
Over the next two months,
the police obtained CCTV evidence from the hotel,
further witness statements, and DNA from Shiori's clothing.
A warrant was issued for Mr Yamaguchi's arrest.
The investigator had what he thought was a case.
They were set to arrest Yamaguchi.
He was coming back through Narita airport in Tokyo, from Washington,
the Washington bureau.
Shiori says the investigator was then called by a senior officer and
instructed not to arrest Mr Yamaguchi.
The police will not comment on the case,
but a top Tokyo police official,
Itaru Nakamura, has since confirmed in the press
that he stopped the arrest.
Let me tell you, as someone who has been covering the police here
since 1993, this doesn't happen.
When you get an arrest warrant for a crime as serious as rape,
you don't shelve it.
You arrest the person and you interrogate them.
That's how it works.
If he wasn't a friend of the Prime Minister,
would he have been allowed to walk away?
The case was then transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police,
but in August 2016, after a 12-month investigation,
prosecutors decided that there was insufficient evidence
to pursue a case against Mr Yamaguchi.
Part of me, I have to be honest with you, I thought,
maybe I should forget about it.
This is maybe the way you have to be as a woman.
And that really disgusts me.
I felt, this is wrong, because I haven't done anything wrong.
To successfully appeal the decision,
Shiori felt she would have to undertake her own investigation,
a task that was to take her nine months.
Today is 2017, May the 7th.
I'm recording this because I know the truth I have,
and I claim what happened to me two years ago, will be public now.
And I do want to do this, to talk about truth, and...
..ask for justice for the future.
Shiori is appealing the decision to drop her case,
and going against centuries of tradition,
she has also decided to go public with her allegations.
I felt that I tried every path that I can take.
And talking to public, openly was the only choice that I have left.
I had a big no-no from my family.
They really didn't want me to do it.
I remember exactly what my sister say, "Why is it has to be you?"
It was clear right from the moment that she gave her public press
conference that it was highly unusual.
Someone came forward,
was willing to give her own name and talk about it on the record
and also name this person who was a very prominent journalist in Japan.
She was putting her neck out. It was a huge risk.
In Japan, we tend to put a lid on things that are unpleasant.
She came out very publicly and, you know, I think some people reacted,
you know, how shameful to come out. You know, these are private things.
You know, don't talk about your private things in public.
"Bitch.
"She's always sleeping around to get these things.
"She must be a prostitute.
"Go back to Korea."
I... Yeah, there is just my family's photo.
"Shiori's father, who has scary eyes."
They're targeting me, our family.
My sister, her face is going to be on internet
and she didn't sign up for this.
Yeah, so...
..I don't want her to go through this.
No-one. I don't want anyone to go through this.
As Shiori's story gains traction in the press,
Government MPs and political commentators begin publicly
questioning her account.
CAMERA OPERATOR: Have you ever experienced any discrimination
or harassment?
Mr Yamaguchi's closeness to the Prime Minister
means the story quickly becomes highly politicised.
Opposition MPs set up a cross-party panel to question the authorities
about the dropped arrest warrant.
Representatives from the National Police Agency
and Ministry of Justice attend to answer questions
but demand that their faces are not shown by the press.
Japan's National Police Agency maintains
that there was no misconduct in the resignation of Shiori's case.
But as her story grows ever more political,
Shiori becomes increasingly anxious.
After going public I felt unsafe.
It wasn't just me who was threatened.
It was my family, my friends, so the paranoia and the fear I had,
I was scared.
People with power can do what they want to do.
And I'm just... I'm no-one.
I actually called the discount store nearby my house,
asking, "Do you have wire detector?"
BEEPING
I had to live a completely different life.
I couldn't use public transportation.
I couldn't go out.
I miss going out with my friends to the bar, to cafe,
without thinking about anything.
Without people seeing me, in a way.
Yeah. I miss that.
Shiori's appeal to have her case reopened has been considered
by a review panel of 11 members of the public.
If her appeal fails,
there will be no further possibility of criminal charges.
With Shiori's appeal rejected,
Mr Yamaguchi is no longer under criminal investigation.
He announces that he will be resuming his work as a journalist.
He was never arrested or indicted for a crime.
And, I think, in fairness, we need to point that out.
He was never arrested or indicted for a crime.
So as far as the criminal justice system is concerned,
there is no case against him.
Three months on from losing her appeal,
Shiori has become a campaigner on issues around sexual assault.
She's been invited to address students at Sophia University,
in Tokyo.
You know, Japanese education could do a lot better.
The numbers that I saw among my students,
I think is a sign that the education system really failed in that aspect
of really educating about consent.
And so we were extremely fortunate to have Shiori come to our class,
talking about the issues around sexual assault.
If you grow up in Japanese society everyone has experienced sexual
violence or sexual assault, but not everyone considers it was.
Especially when you start using public transportation
as a high school girl. That's when it happens everyday.
So, whenever we get to the classroom that was always the topic.
Today this man jerk off on me.
Today this man caught my skirt.
But this was something that we have to deal with.
We never report it.
One of the questions that I asked students was whether
they know anyone that has been raped.
22 students in the class said yes.
This is not just train molestation, this is rape.
And so my question is,
how many of those did the women actually come forth
or tell the authorities?
Women just are not coming forth with it,
so it kinda stays underneath the surface.
After her unsuccessful appeal,
Shiori is now filing a civil case against Mr Yamaguchi.
She's meeting with her lawyer, Yuko Nashihiro, before submitting
the case papers to court.
If Mr Yamaguchi loses, he will have to pay damages.
He's defending the case, and denies any wrongdoing.
The case could take more than a year and a half.
This case could affect the case which would come in the future.
So I do feel pressure, that we have to do our best.
Taking civil case is the only way I can ask this question again,
so we have this evidence, we have this video, we have this witness.
What do you think?
In October 2017, allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein
make global headlines.
The #MeToo movement sees women around the world making allegations
of sexual misconduct.
But in Japan, the response is muted.
One of the reasons the #MeToo movement hasn't taken off in Japan
is because a lot of women here are like, what? You know, like, groped?
Like, not sexually assaulted, not raped?
You're upset about being groped?
Or having someone try to pressure you into having sex?
Like, that's your level of outrage?
Like, that's nothing.
Like, that's our daily lives.
The #MeToo movement leads to renewed publicity around Shiori's case and
Japanese women begin to reach out to Shiori in private.
I start getting e-mails from survivors.
That was surprising.
I didn't expect that people would start talking to me.
Shiori has come to meet a woman who says she was sexually assaulted
at knife-point by a stranger a year ago.
She only ever told one friend and didn't report it to the police.
We have this word which is "gaman-tsuyoi", "nintai-tsuyoi".
It's often talked in a positive way that how enduring,
how being patient, is a good thing.
But being enduring, being patient about this pain,
being silent, keeping this into yourself,
I don't think it had helped much.
And I think that is why it has been hard for people to talk about it.
There are signs that the government is beginning to take the issue more
seriously. In 2017, the first-ever nationwide fund
to support sexual crime victims is established.
The government has committed £1 million to this fund.
By comparison the UK, with half the population of Japan,
spends 40 times this amount.
Shiori's case has caught the attention of policymakers
and she manages to arrange a meeting at the Cabinet Office.
Kazuaki Sagita is from the Gender Equality Bureau.
The #MeToo movement means Shiori's claims
are being more widely reported abroad.
Opposition MPs use the opportunity to question the Prime Minister.
There are other signs of change in Japan.
In a historic move, the Japanese parliament reforms the law on rape
for the first time in 110 years.
The minimum sentence is increased from three years to five,
and men are allowed to allege rape for the first time.
The day of Shiori's first court hearing is approaching.
I think it's a letter.
Ah, so, they've been...
It's like...
Supporting letter.
The parcel of cards has been sent by a citizens group in Aichi,
a region in central Japan.
"We are on your back."
"Don't give up."
"You're not alone."
Wow. That's...
Just amazing.
"I'm an 80 years old grandma,
"but I'm sending you my best energy to you.
"Go, Shiori."
"I'm always watching you. We are all on your side."
I never realised how powerful this could be.
"The memory of sexual experience should be a happy memory,
"not the pain."
That is just so sweet. It's just so sweet.
Wow.
# Just turn around now
# You're not welcome any more
# Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye?
# Did you think I'd crumble?
# Did you think I'd lay down and die?
# Oh, no, not I!
# I will survive. #
I need to feel cheerful.
I don't want to put sad face.
I do want to show that I'm OK.
And I'm not doing this all alone.
I'm doing this with everyone else.
It's the day of Shiori's first civil hearing.
She hasn't been to the courts since she did her press conference
there six months ago.
SHE MIMES TO THE RADIO: # I will survive! Hey, hey! #
I remember the first press conference,
I saw some familiar faces among the journalists, so I start smiling.
But then I got backlash on that.
They were all, like, why is she smiling?
Why is she...? You know. And especially media,
they just take the...
When I have more serious face on me,
so every time I see these newspaper and photo, I go like this.
This is such a different feeling than the last time
I went to the court.
I remember it was really green.
And I was so scared.
But this time it feels very different, and...
..just makes me think it's been six months.
Since I became this girl who was raped, to the public.
I've no regrets of what I did.
I know at the same time I had no choice.
I do feel a change. And it all has to start from people.
If you make a move, there would be some certain wave, that's for sure.
I experienced in a good way and bad way at the same time, but...
It's better than being silent.