On Monday, a member of the Japanese Air Force filed a lawsuit against the government, saying he failed to protect himself from verbal sexual harassment by a male colleague and then systematically covered up the issue for more than a decade. It has been reported Fox News.
Lawyers said the plaintiff suffered violence at Naha Air Force Base on the southern island of Okinawa in 2010, when she began her service. The harassment included frequent comments about her body and public questions about her sex life.
Now the woman is demanding about $85.8 thousand compensation from the government for the failure of the state to protect her from aggression and create normal working conditions. The soldier also claims that his complaint about a colleague went unanswered, causing him to suffer for over 10 years.
Lawyers state that the plaintiff’s violent colleague behaved in the same way as other female soldiers, but they did not complain about such treatment in order to avoid problems.
The lawsuit comes weeks after former army veteran Rina Gonoy, another victim of military sexual harassment, filed a civil lawsuit against the government and five alleged perpetrators for the sexual assault she suffered.
Last year, he spoke publicly about his experience and demanded that the Department of Defense re-investigate his case, which several military members said repeatedly attacked him, forcing him to give up his military career.
The Army closed its case after filing its first complaint in 2021, saying there was insufficient evidence.
Japan’s defense ministry said in December that it had received 1,414 complaints about inappropriate treatment of women in the military in connection with the Gonoy case. At the same time, according to the Japanese military, about 84% of such cases were related to abuse of power, and sexual harassment was responsible for 116 cases, 7.7%.
Previously reportedJapanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the causes of sexual harassment in the military, the level of which has risen almost 10 times since 2016, from 256 cases in 2016 to 2311 in 2021.
The rationale for the investigation was the request of former soldier Rina Gona, who wanted an independent investigation into the attack on her by her former male colleagues who attacked her in the dormitory at the training base in August 2021.
According to him, the military investigation was not conducted properly and the prosecution closed the case. The petition was signed by 100,000 people.
Gonoy said in her letter to the minister that she received information from 146 female soldiers who said they were sexually harassed while on duty.