The military establishment began to ignore complaints. The public disclosure prompted apologies — on your knees. But change is necessary.
Rina Gonoi is a fighter.
As a former soldier, as a judo practitioner and as a woman fighting on behalf of all women to hold accountable those who have sexually abused her.
Gonoi says he suffered physical and verbal abuse on a daily basis for more than a year while serving in the Japan SelfDefense Force (FADJ). When he left the force in June 2022 after two years of service, Gonoi vowed to bring his tormentors to justice.
The authorities didn’t seem to want to believe her at first. When he reported the alleged abuses to military authorities, two investigations were launched, but both were dropped for lack of evidence.
Not feeling defeated, she made her way to the TV stations. When she was ignored, she took her fight to social media a rare move in a country where sexual assault survivors face reprisals for speaking out.
“I wanted to help other people who were also victims of sexual harassment [nas FADJ]. From the attackers he wanted an apology and an acknowledgment of their actions; I didn’t want other people to go through what I went through; That’s why I reported it,” he said.
As a child, Gonoi wanted to be a professional judoka. Now she’s teaching other women to defend themselves. Courtesy: Rina Gonoi
Gonoi’s refusal to be silenced eventually led to a full investigation into sexual harassment across the FADJ, with prosecutors reopening an investigation that found she had experienced daily physical and verbal sexual harassment between the fall of 2020 and August 2021, according to the Gonoi defense team.
These conclusions led to a turning point: a rare admission of guilt and a public apology from Japan’s Ministry of Defense when Land SelfDefense Force Chief of Staff Yoshihide Yoshida bowed deeply and said, “In the name of Ground SelfDefense Forces, I sincerely want to thank you.” apologize to wife. Gonoi, who has been suffering for a long time. I’m sorry”.
According to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, five soldiers were also discharged without honor last December and four others were fined. Gonoi said he received personal apologies from several officers.
But that is not enough in her opinion and she is now suing criminal and civil law in court. Earlier this year she filed lawsuits against the government and the alleged attackers three of whom were charged with sexually assaulting Gonoi in March. So far, neither the accused nor their lawyers have commented on the criminal proceedings. Japanese prosecutors did not release any information about the case and did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. In the civil proceedings, four of the five accused recently denied sexual abuse, and a fifth admitted to the accusation.
The state responded by saying the harassment “cannot be tolerated,” but has not yet commented on Gonoi’s lawsuit.
Regardless of the outcome of those lawsuits, Gonoi believes there needs to be a greater fight against what he believes is a maledominated culture of sexual harassment in the military.
Rina Gonoi, a former member of the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force, looks at old photos on her cellphone. Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images Report publicly
Japan’s struggles with gender inequality, highlighted during the #MeToo campaign, are well documented. The country ranks last among all G7 countries and 116th out of 146 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Inequality Index.
But Gonoi’s experience will likely be particularly damaging to the FADJ, which has gone to great lengths to promote the image of an institution committed to gender equality.
Fumika Sato, a sociologist at Hitotsubashi University, said many women choose military service because they feel it offers more job security and more gender equality than the private sector.
“Women choose FADJ because they think it’s an organization that fairly recognizes their skills. It is very rare that they have pledged to protect the country out of a sense of national defense,” Sato said.
Gonoi, for example, joined the Ground Forces in April 2020 and viewed it as a kind of “payback” but also as a way to pursue his dreams of training as a judoka and competing in the Olympics.
Regardless of the FADJ’s image, Sato said sexual harassment within the ranks is a longstanding problem that is often hidden because military personnel have a hard time admitting their vulnerability.
“There is a perception that only strong people are considered fit for the organization, and there is an attitude that those who claim to be victims of harassment have no place in the organization,” Sato explained. “It makes it hard for people to talk.”
Rina Gonoi says she suffered physical and verbal sexual abuse while serving in the Japan SelfDefense Forces. Courtesy of Rina Gonoi Underrecruitment
Rina Gonoi’s fight comes at a time when the FADJ is facing a recruitment deficit that is undermining its efforts to increase its armed forces amid rising regional tensions with North Korea and China.
Last year, Japan announced that it would increase its defense budget for 2023 to a record 6.8 trillion yen ($50 billion), a 26% increase, which would bring its defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2027 .
Experts say attracting enough women will be crucial for Tokyo to meet its goals. The FADJ was supposed to have a workforce of around 250,000 troops, but failed to meet its recruitment targets and says it has a manpower shortfall of around 16,000 soldiers a shortfall that experts say has limited its operational capabilities.
The force has for years tried to encourage women to enroll, in line with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Womennomics” policy, which aims to combat the effects of Japan’s aging population and shrinking workforce. In April 2015, the Department of Defense launched a series of initiatives, providing funding for everything from gender awareness programs to setting up day care centers for the children of FADJ employees.
But Japan lags behind its competitors. According to the Department of Defense, as of March 2022, there were 20,000 women in the FADJ, representing about 8% of the organization’s total strength, which is still below the NATO average of 12% in 2019. And to reach that threshold by 2030, Tokyo needs to reach more women.
A spokesman for the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force told CNN, “We believe that promoting female ADJ employees is important to ensure a stable, highly skilled workforce and to embed diversity in the organization.” ADJ continues to actively recruit female employees ADJ employees with the goal of increasing the proportion of women among all ADJ employees to 12% or more by (fiscal year) 2030.”
Former Japanese soldier Rina Gonoi during a news conference at the National Press Club in Tokyo January 30, 2023. Richard A. Brooks/AFP/Getty Images Roll Back Progress
FADJ has made progress in this area. When it was founded in 1954, only women were hired as nurses.
The Japanese Navy accepted its first female recruits in 1977. And by the early 1990s, most roles—except those requiring combat missions—were open to women. Finally, in 1992, the National Defense Academy of Japan began to admit women, which enabled them to become senior officers. Since then, new female leaders have begun to take the reins. For example, in March 2018, the Japanese Navy appointed the first woman to command a squadron of warships. Later that same year he appointed his first female fighter pilot.
As a child, Gonoi says he viewed FADJ members as heroes. He grew up wanting to be like her after mostly female officials came to his aid after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated his hometown of HigashiMatsushima in northern Miyagi Prefecture. from Japan.
Gonoi marveled at how FADJ members helped citizens regain a sense of normalcy, for example by ensuring they had makeshift areas to shower. Young Gonoi was enthralled by that human touch.
a frustrated dream
Years later, Gonoi told CNN at an FADJ post in Fukushima — another area decimated by the 2011 disaster — that he had suffered sexual harassment for the first time.
“They made comments about my body and the size of my breasts. Or they came up to me in the hallway and suddenly hugged me in the hallway. “Things like that happened every day,” Gonoi recalls of his time on the station.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back came in August 2021, when Gonoi was allegedly pinned to the floor of a dormitory while several senior male officers simulated intercourse. It was this incident that prompted them to press charges against their attackers.
But Gonoi’s complaints were dismissed and no action was taken internally within the FADJ.
“At first they didn’t admit to doing anything wrong. They tried to cover up what I had gone through, but then a new inquest was ordered. At the time, they admitted what I had been through,” Gonoi said.
An external investigation was also dropped for lack of evidence, as none of the men who witnessed their sexual assault were willing to testify.
Ultimately, Gonoi felt he had no choice but to step down in June 2022.
Sato, the sociologist, said that only by taking his fight on social media to publicize his case did Gonoi be able to change the FADJ’s mind.
“The Department of Defense acted as always, siding with the criminals and isolating the victims. However, this sparked a great deal of public outrage and surprised so many people in the Ministry of Defense who realized that if they did not take proper action, the army’s own reputation would be at risk,” Sato said.
In recent months, the Department of Defense has tried to improve its image. In March, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said: “Harassment shakes the foundations of the FADJ, destroys mutual trust between its members and must never happen.”
Harassment is a violation of basic human rights and obviously should never be allowed in the Land SelfDefense Force, where unit action forms the basis, as it leads to a loss of mutual trust and undermines the strength of personnel,” he said for the Earth Self Defense Force told CNN.
“For this reason, the FDSG actively participates in various efforts to eliminate harassment based on the direction of the Minister and carefully implements measures such as educating their commanders and others.”
“To this end, we will continue to use measures such as group formation and elearning to raise employee awareness, education to promote understanding and improve the leadership skills of employees (especially managers), and the improvement and strengthening of system consulting.”
Rina Gonoi, former member of the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force pictured February 22, 2023. Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images A battle won, now it was war
Gonoi tells CNN that he went back and forth on his decision before finally raising his voice.
“If you speak your mind, there’s a huge risk of being abused and slandered by others, even if what you’ve been through is real and you’re really suffering,” Gonoi said.
But she didn’t give up.
“At first they didn’t admit to doing anything wrong they tried to cover up what I had been through, but then a new inquest was ordered; At the time, they admitted what I had been through.”
The government has yet to respond to Gonoi’s complaints, but last October Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a parliamentary session that he understood that sexual harassment cases had been inadequately handled by the SelfDefense Force and the Defense Ministry.
The official added that while harassment “should not be tolerated in any organization,” there were instances where coverups were pointed out.
And he said the government and Department of Defense are committed to eliminating all forms of harassment.
“We recognize that perpetrators of sexual harassment should be severely punished. We also conduct a dedicated defense inspection to thoroughly detect harassment. We are committed to eliminating all forms of harassment,” he said.
At a press conference last year, Gonoi said three of her attackers knelt to apologize after she received direct apologies from four of her attackers. She said the attackers realized their actions and repeatedly bowed their heads, and one of them cried.
“When I came to FADJ I dreamed a lot about what I wanted to achieve there. If the FADJ had thoroughly investigated what happened to me, I think I could still have stayed there. It was all too late,” she said.
Officers were fired last December, but Gonoi questions the seriousness of her apology and has decided to pursue civil and criminal proceedings — not for money, she says, but because she wanted “a heartfelt apology.”
In the civil lawsuit, four of the five plaintiffs recently denied sexual abuse, a fifth admitted the allegations. Gonoi told reporters after the hearing, “I felt different emotions sadness, frustration, anger, etc. which I cannot put into words. I knew her apology was just a formality.”
However, the government said it would continue to “take drastic measures” aimed at “establishing an organizational environment that will not tolerate any form of harassment”.
Today, Gonoi said she was being abused on social media, with some users commenting on her appearance or accusing her of tarnishing the FADJ’s reputation.
She struggles with depression and still has “flashbacks” of what happened to her, but is grateful for the support she’s received on social media.
The young woman wants the FADJ to enlighten their powers to recognize harassment as a crime, install surveillance cameras and not allow female officers to be left alone in situations where they are in much larger numbers than their male counterparts.
But she said she hasn’t lost faith in the FADJ. What she wishes most of all would be for FADJ to be a safer place so other new recruits don’t have to go through the same things she did. He wants to travel and continue practicing judo.
“There’s an attitude in Japan that you can’t laugh and have fun after being a victim, but I don’t want my life to be dictated by that,” Gonoi said.
“I am happy to have joined the ADJ and to be able to work for my country. It wasn’t all bad and I want to live life as normally as possible, knowing that somehow everything will be alright in the end.”