- Today, the Akita Branch of the Sendai High Court issued a ruling on the appeal of a female part-time staff member at the Akita Prefectural College of Agriculture, who had filed a suit for damages claiming that she had been sexually assaulted by her superior, a professor at the college, while staying in a hotel during an academic meeting. The Sendai High Court recognized her claim, reversing a lower court decision and giving her victory.
RENGO Akita and the rest of the RENGO organization gave support to her during her court case, and RENGO highly appreciates the fact that the court correctly recognized the facts.
- In January 1997, the Akita District Court, at the first trial, dismissed her complaint, and in fact ordered her to pay damages to the assailant, based on defamation of character. RENGO saw this as a textbook case of sexual harassment, where a woman's human rights, personal rights, and sexual freedom are violated by a person making use of his status, and saw the case as a grave issue, as the court showed a lack of understanding of the mental state into which victims of sexual harassment can fall.
RENGO was extremely concerned at the ruling of the district court, which found that her deposition was unreliable since she had not called for help at the time of the assault. Consequently, RENGO has developed a campaign asking people around the country to present statements of their views on this issue, and has given financial support to the plaintiff starting with the time of her appeal.
- In its ruling, the High Court recognized the appellant's claim for damages of ¥ 1.8 million, and dismissed the professor's claim for damages on the basis of defamation of character. The reason given was that, "The women's deposition is the more reliable," and "It is reasonable to assume that a person fabricating a sexual incident could suffer damage herself." RENGO believes that this was a fruit of our movement, and that our position was accepted.
- Under the revised Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) that will take effect in April 1999, employers are given the responsibility to consider the prevention of sexual harassment in their personnel policies. Sexual harassment in the workplace is socially unacceptable.
RENGO believes that companies should have to take thoroughgoing measures based on the EEOL, and that the situation must end where problems of sexual harassment cannot be solved without workers having to go to court individually. In the future, we will strengthen our activities to ensure that the EEOL is fully implemented at all workplaces, including unorganized workplaces.
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