Leiden University Student Repository

Dembinski, Gabrielle (2023)

Saying #MeToo: A Kamikaze Mission in Japan? An Analysis of Victim Blaming and the Failure of the #Metoo movement in Japan

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

More than 95%. This is the highly alarming number of incidents of sexual violence in Japan that are not reported to the police according to a study from 2018.1 In fact, in Japan, sexual crimes continue to carry a heavy stigma and society’s approach to it remains sexist and archaic.2 From 2017, #MeToo, a hashtag constituted of two simple but powerful words has travelled around the world enabling women to voice their allegations of sex crimes. This movement could have been the opportunity to break the silence about sexual violence in Japan, nonetheless, it did not seem to take root in the country. This thesis aims to shed light on the struggle endured by victims of sexual violence in Japan who dared to speak up in a society unwilling to understand their pain. This thesis intends to dive into this matter and analyse how the adverse reactions to allegations of sex crimes reflect Japanese society’s stance toward the #MeToo movement.

MeToo

sexual assault

sexual crime

social media

allegations

Japan

women

Author

Dembinski, Gabrielle

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

East Asia

Supervisors

Wits C.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en