Decisions Not to Report Sexual Assault: A Comparative Study among Women Living in Japan Who Are Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English-Speaking

• Published date: 01 June 2001
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X01453002
• Date: 01 June 2001
• Author: John P. J. Dussich
• Subject Matter: Journal Article

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology

Decisions Not to Report Sexual Assault

Decisions Not to Report Sexual Assault:

A Comparative Study Among Women

Living in Japan Who Are Japanese,

Korean, Chinese, and

English-Speaking

John P. J. Dussich

Abstract: A nationwide survey was conducted comparing Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and

English-speaking women in Japan. Variablesfocused on demographics, attitudes, social con-

ditions, and culture. Japanesewomen had a different pattern of behavior from the other three

groups.The greatest differences were between Japanese and English-speaking.The main rea-

sons given for not reporting werethe following: victim did not take the event seriously, victim

thought she was too young,victim thought reporting would cause trouble, victim expected rude

police, victim expected embarrassment, victim expected police to violate her confidentiality,

victim expected offender’srevenge, and victim expected that the offender/acquaintance would

get into trouble. These data suggest a much larger dark figure of sexual assault than is

reported, especially among those who are not Japanese and those whose offenders were

known. Policestatistics do not accurately reflect the number of women sexually assaulted, nor

is there any systematic information collected explaining their reporting behavior.

BACKGROUND

Japan is a country dominated by male attitudes and decisions. Many of the

male traditions existing in Japan today are feudal in origin. One of the time-hon-

ored practices that can be traced back to the early eras of Japanese history is that of

female deference to males. This includes a significant amount of making allow-

ances for male misbehaviors, including sexual assaults. As a consequence, sexual

misbehaviors are not always taken seriously by the victims or by the establish-

ment (Dussich & Shinohara, 1997). If one were to look through the official Japa-

nese publications on crime, it would become obvious that sexual assault receives

scant mention. Also, the major English-language tome on sexual behavior in

Japan, Nicholas Bornoff’s Pink Samurai, does not mention rape in its index and

almost entirely avoids reference to any form of sexualassault. However, there is a

passing comment made about gang rape as a frequent comic-book (Monga)

theme and a brief mention made that rape victims prefer to keep silent (1991,

pp. 108-109). A similar omission was noted in a book by well-known Japanese

author Sumiko Iwao in her book The Japanese Woman (1993). The word rape is

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45(3), 2001 278-301

2001 Sage Publications

278

not mentioned at all in the book’s index; however, other sexual deviations like

incest, prostitution, and pornography are listed. These two works poignantly

exemplify the avoidanceof the topic of rape, even in studies of both sexuality and

women in Japan. One would expect that the most grievous of assaults on women

would be included in such major books, but the rule is they are usually not.

In the Japanese media, rape is usually portrayed as the unfortunate plight of

women who stray from their traditional roles. Rape becomes the fateful punish-

ment of women who are too assertive, too different,and too modern. In 1985, one

of the Directors General of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Educa-

tion, Miura Shumon, wrote in more than one magazine that rape, though not gen-

tlemanly conduct, was not so bad if practiced on modern young women whose

moral standards had slipped anyhow (Wolferen, 1993, p. 228).

A continual and frequently seen theme in the popular Japanese media is that

rape is an extension of normal sexual gratification. Young Japanese men will

sometimes refer to their chasing women as looking for an opportunity to reipu (a

Japanese mispronunciation of the English word rape) (Asai, personal interview,

August 3, 1994). A well-known psychiatrist, Dr.S. Oda (1990), writing about sex-

ual crimes only 11 years ago, said that many Japanese men rape women for plea-

sure or sexual gratification (p. 237). Two years ago, five medical students of Keio

Universityraped a 20-year-old female student from another college. To perpetrate

the rape the boys used alcohol (and possibly sleeping pills). Also photographs

were taken during the assault. A significant part of the uniqueness of this crime is

that Keio University is the best private university in Japan, and these boys were

considered the Japanese elite, coming from well-to-do families. Because of their

ages, four boys were prosecuted in the family court. The main offender,who was

also the oldest offender, was 23 years old and thus was prosecuted in adult court.

The outcome of the case was that each offender paid 2 million yen (about

$17,000) as a kind of pretrial private restitution (songaibaisho), and the medical

department expelled them from the university(Shukan Gendai, 1999). Some pro-

fessors stated that the expulsion was too strict.

Not only is there a prevalent misunderstanding about rape in a majority of

young men in Japanese society, but also related to the widespread female defer-

ence to men is the reluctance of women to report their sexual assault victimiza-

tions. A highly regarded value in most East Asian cultures is accepting one’s

plight in life; this is especially true in Japan. A well-known psychiatrist and vic-

timologist, Akira Yamagami(1994), notes that the tendency not to complain and

to endure with resignation in silence (gaman) comes from meditative Buddhist

teachings, which pervade Japan. He says that these qualities are often identified

with the Buddhist path to liberation (p. 9). In The Teaching of Buddha, a book

found in many Japanese hotel rooms alongside the Christian Bible, in the section

called “The Wayof Practice” (1966), it states that people would learn to be patient

when abused and scorned (p. 230). It expresses that accepting victimization in

silence is a virtue. Two American victimologists, Ann Burgess and Lynda

Holmstrom, as early as 1974, identified this reaction among American women as

Decisions Not to Report Sexual Assault 279