According to Academic Box, heinous cases of sexual assault happened at both the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995 and the Great East Japan earthquake of 2011. And this, unfortunately, also happened at the recent great earthquake in Kumamoto.
Having lost their houses, many people crowd in nearby sports hall shelters and commute to school and work from there. During office hours where most people are not around, reports of men exposing their genitals to children and having children touch them are heard. There was also a case where some children playing in a corner near the shelter were made to perform oral sex on a man who sneaked in.
In a bid to prevent sleeping women and children from being molested at night, the lights are being kept on, but that is not stopping horrific sex crimes from happening.
A woman told the reporter that she was raped at the shelter while sleeping with her child. The man later punched a staff on patrol who came to stop him. Some women also said they were raped by unknown men hiding in their torn houses when they went back to tidy it up. Female student volunteers were also gang-raped when a man pretended to offer to take them to the shower place in his car.
Many of these perpetrators at the shelter are middle aged men who get drunk. A lady by the name Ms. Kichijo said she raised the issue to the staff before but was told that while they did know of things like that happening, they are unable to do anything if no one screams and no report is filed. As long as these remain unreported, the staff can only treat it as regular couple making love.
A middle-aged woman once screamed out when she was about to be raped and the police was called, but as she felt embarrassed to be experiencing something like that at her age, and also to avoid causing her family trouble, she decided to not file a report against the man. When Ms. Kichijo confronted the man, he actually took off his pants in front of her not showing any sign of remorse. The man continued to live at the shelter after the incident.
It might be hard to believe something like that is happening when mainstream media is not reporting them but there have been instances when arrests were made such as once when a married man with children went into a junior high school, beat up a sleeping woman and threatened her with a blade before raping her. And even after his arrest, he adamantly said he doesn’t know anything.
As with all criminal activity, such reported cases are but the tip of the iceberg. It is necessary to assume that both men and women of all ages can possibly be victims in some way or another and come up with some laws to prevent it. Closing an eye to the matter is as good as playing the role of an accomplice to these unlawful sex criminals. It is thus important to not cover things like these up. Only by creating awareness can things begin to change.
Hi, just wondering if you have any links/reports on it such rape cases?
http://spotlight-media.jp/article/145388005182104180
Interestingly, it was also reported on last night’s news on TV.
Very sad to hear such news especially during difficult times.
I have been following your blog for quite sometime.
continue writing !! :DDD
And i went to Yamasa Institute too, just that i did it for 1 year. ちょっと高すぎるけれど楽しかった。
I never regretted leaving my job for Yamasa even though people in singapore says i am crazy. with a stable career and all.
Recently i came into a dilemma, got a good job offer in Singapore and a job offer in japan too. I really like the environment in Japan but i like the job in singapore. I think i read it in your previous post about this too. Even though abe san says its changing (the gender bias), we all know it is still not changing as fast as it should be. but that is japan, they protect their culture.
For the future too, no idea which to chose. how did you do it ?
Hi Cadance,
Thank you for following. I’ve made extra effort to post more frequently starting this year and hopefully I can keep it up long enough.
You must’ve been pretty good at managing your finances since studying at Yamasa costs a significant amount.
There will always be people who say you are crazy when you drift off from what is deemed normal. I would think giving up what you want to do for a perceived “stable job” is crazier. I say “perceived” because let’s face it, there’s no such thing as “stable job.”
It might be different for me since I’m not female, although I do know a couple of other Singaporean women working here or have worked here. Yes, the culture is indeed changing although perhaps not fast enough. At many of the companies I worked at, there were more women holding managerial positions than men. For me, it was easy. I always choose what I want to do instead of what will give me a sense of stability even though (or rather, because) I know the sense of stability is false.
It was the same when I graduated from polytechnic. In order to get to live in Japan, I applied to study at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at NUS. Out of the 6 choices we could fill in the application form (3 for NUS, 3 for NTU), I only filled one (i.e. NUS – FASS). Since my purpose was clear, if I couldn’t get in, I would start working instead of furthering my studies in another field.
Whenever I have difficulty choosing something, I always default to this method that helps me decide and perhaps you can use it too: In 10 years’ time, would you be prouder to tell people you’ve lived and worked in Japan, or would you be prouder to tell people you’ve had a good job in Singapore?
Like I’ve said in an earlier post, every decision is neutral and it’s entirely up to you to make it turn out a good or bad decision.
Hello, Thank you so much for your reply and advice.
It’s like … FINALLY someone understand my situation 😀
Before i left a comment on your blog, i asked myself which job can i see myself doing everyday rather than having the feel of dragging myself to work.
Of course other than that, in Japan i get to live alone which is something that i want to do that cannot be done in singapore. (no money to buy condo ) Plus the freedom, culture etc.
After living alone in okazaki for 1 year, returning to singapore living with family, feels a little out of place.
But anyways whatever decision i make, i will make sure i will not regret and make the best out of it.
Random: bee cheng hiang the bak hwa store is advancing into japan market this year, they are probably in need of people right now in japan.
If you do make the move to Japan, no matter the outcome, you’ll be the one with interesting stories to tell.
You’re not trying to recruit me into Bee Cheng Hiang, are you?
Nope, happen to heard from someone about their advancement into japan market.
Oo.hope everything fine now …I felt sad for the women in Japan
Hi Lee Hoon, it is indeed sad but I suppose we can take heart in that there’s been change, albeit gradual, in the society regarding the position of women, so hopefully those in power (i.e. the new Tokyo mayor Ms. Koike, etc.) can work to help protect the people of Japan against such heinous crimes.