Latest news with #ForeignCorrespondents'ClubofJapan
Japan Today
2 days ago
- Japan Today
Osaka prosecutor who accused boss of rape faces backlash
By Aya Tamura In Japan, prosecutors are powerful public officials who are meant to protect the public from rapists and other criminals. But what if the chief prosecutor is an accused rapist himself? That's the explosive charge leveled by Hikari, a female prosecutor with the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office who says she was raped by her boss in 2018. Her pain did not end after the alleged attack. She says it got worse due to a campaign by former chief prosecutor Kentaro Kitagawa and others to silence her, and a colleague who slandered her by spreading rumors claiming she had romantic feelings for Kitagawa. Hikari's quest for justice is the latest MeToo case in Japan involving women who refused to be silenced after being assaulted by establishment figures. They include filmmaker Shiori Ito and former Ground Self-Defense Force member Rina Gonoi. Kitagawa, 65, has been indicted and initially admitted the rape charge, but later recanted, saying the sexual encounter was consensual. On May 21, Hikari -- not her real name -- held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo in which she disclosed a handwritten letter she had received from Kitagawa, asking her to keep quiet about what happened. According to the indictment, in September 2018, Hikari drank at a social gathering for work and became intoxicated before trying to catch a taxi. Kitagawa half-forced his way into the vehicle and took Hikari to his official residence where he raped her. A groggy Hikari regained consciousness and pleaded for Kitagawa to stop, but he continued the sexual assault, telling her, "You are my woman now." In an interview with Kyodo News in early May, Hikari said she believes she was "bullied by the prosecutors' organization" into initially not speaking publicly about the incident. She wishes to remain anonymous as she intends to continue her work. Hikari developed post-traumatic stress disorder and was unable to continue work as a prosecutor, a job she loved. In Kitagawa's six-page letter written to Hikari, dated Oct. 28, 2019, he apologizes for the "irreparable damage" his actions caused and for the fact that his apology following the incident was insufficient. But after begging Hikari's forgiveness several times, Kitagawa asks her to keep the rape secret. "If this incident becomes public, I will not be able to live on, and I have decided that I will have no choice but to commit suicide," the letter reads. The scandal would harm Kitagawa and the Public Prosecutors Office, leading to resignations by other high-ranking officials, it adds. At the press conference, Hikari recalled that she was too scared to speak out about what happened. She finally decided she could not live without holding Kitagawa responsible and filed a formal report in February 2024 demanding strict punishment. She said she returned 10 million yen ($70,000) in compensation that Kitagawa had paid her and her husband. "My dignity as a human being and as a prosecutor was trampled on, my body and soul harmonious life with my family, my precious job, the time I had spent working tainted and my future was stolen from me," she said. Kitagawa was arrested in June 2024 on a charge of quasi-forcible sexual intercourse and indicted on the same charge in July. At the first hearing of his trial in October, Kitagawa admitted to the indictment, saying he had "no intention of fighting the case," and apologized for "causing serious and severe harm to the victim." However, the situation took a dramatic turn in December when his new defense council made it clear that Kitagawa would be denying the charge. He suddenly claimed there was consent and no intention to commit a crime. The trial has not been held since he changed his plea to not guilty. Hikari's trauma continues to this day. After returning to work briefly in September 2024, a female deputy prosecutor in the same department, on the same floor, began circulating rumors about the incident and her involvement with Kitagawa. Hikari refers to this as a "secondary rape." According to Hikari, the deputy prosecutor leaked her personal information and details of the sexual assault, and said her victim's report and PTSD claims were fraudulent. Hikari was again forced to take sick leave. Hikari filed claims of defamation and harassment among other charges against the deputy prosecutor, but the woman was not charged and only received a warning. Hikari and her lawyer are preparing to file a review with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, claiming the decision not to prosecute the deputy prosecutor is unjust. She is also calling for the establishment of an independent committee to review the responses to her case. "Harassment is rampant in the Public Prosecutors Office," she said. "I believe that both the Kitagawa case and the further accusations by the deputy public prosecutor are the result of this kind of prosecutorial terrain." In an email to Hikari's lawyer, a high-ranking official of the Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office said the office stands by its decision not to pursue a case against the deputy prosecutor based on the law and evidence. The official also argues further that publicly speaking about the incident "undermines the credibility of the office." "This is not an attempt to keep her quiet or a threat, but an obvious request, so we ask that she refrain from saying she has been told to shut up or threatened," the official said. © KYODO
Asahi Shimbun
6 days ago
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Tamaki says ‘misogynistic' remark was due to poor English
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, at a news conference in the Diet on June 24 (Yuki Minami) Criticized as misogynistic, an opposition leader said his comment that policy is 'difficult to understand' for women was misunderstood due to his imperfect English skills. 'I regret having used an awkward expression due to my poor English,' Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, wrote on the social media platform X on June 25. 'I had no intention of making a derogatory comment about women.' At a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo the day before, Tamaki was asked about the low support for his party among women. Speaking in English, Tamaki replied that he does not know why the support is sluggish and said: 'I think our policy is good not only for men but also women, and but I think it's very difficult to understand for them.' The remark drew online criticism for suggesting that women have difficulty understanding the DPP's policy. In his June 25 post on X, Tamaki acknowledged that his comment has been described as misogynistic. 'What I wanted to convey was, 'I believe the DPP's policies are good for women as well, but the reality is that they have not reached women, and I feel it challenging,' he wrote. He added that he should have used the word 'deliver' instead of 'understand' in his original remark. (This article was written by Yuki Minami and Ryutaro Abe.)
AllAfrica
06-05-2025
- Business
- AllAfrica
Trump's speech at Tokyo press club 32 years ago proved prophetic
In April, the US president, Donald Trump, announced a policy of reciprocal tariffs, arguing that America had been taken advantage of by 'cheaters' and 'pillaged' by foreigners. Since then, stock markets around the world have plummeted, and concern has spread that Trump's moves will trigger a recession that risks bringing down the system of trade that has been in place since the end of World War II. A strong backlash immediately ensued, with the Financial Times describing Trump's moves as 'utter lunacy' and 'an act of war against the entire world.' Trump is now viewed as one of the most domineering and most unpredictable politicians in the world. The archive of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan contains a precious beacon that casts light on Trump's unpredictable behavior. This is in the form of an audio recording of Trump, who visited Japan 32 years ago not as a politician, but as a businessman. On August 18, 1993, while on a visit to Tokyo, Trump held a press luncheon at the FCCJ, which at that time was located in the Yurakucho Denki Building. He was in the process of discussing various business ventures such as real estate and casinos, but suddenly changed the subject to the trade imbalance between Japan and the United States. In his view, in the previous US-Japan trade negotiations, America had been represented by 'morons.' He explained: I think the Japanese negotiators have done one of the great tap-tap-taps ever. That's keeping the ball rolling, giving absolutely nothing and having the American idiots say, 'Thank you.' At the time, the US had a huge trade deficit with Japan, and was demanding the opening of sectors such as automobiles, semiconductors and supercomputers. Dissatisfied with the slow progress of the negotiations, Trump singled out Carla Hills, the US trade representative under President George HW Bush, for criticism: When I look at the job that Carla Hills did, saying that we must understand it takes time … it really doesn't take time. It doesn't take time at all. Free trade doesn't take time. You don't have to sit back for four years and eight years and not have free trade. He continued: The Japanese friends I've seen over the last few days – and they're very good friends – they themselves laugh at the stupidity of my government. They laugh … they all know I'm right. They say I'm right. There was a portentousness to Trump's remarks. Six years before his press conference in Tokyo, on September 2, 1987, Trump had published an open letter in major American newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. The letter sharply criticized Japan and other nations for taking advantage of the US over the past decades: The saga continues unabated as we defend the Persian Gulf, an area of only marginal significance to the United States for its oil supplies, but one upon which Japan and others are almost totally dependent. Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests? The world is laughing at America's politicians as we protect ships we don't own, carrying oil we don't need, destined for allies who won't help. From this perspective, we can see that Trump's worldview was created in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and the language he uses today has not appreciably changed. In other words, he is still living in the world of 1993. The origin of Trump's worldview can be attributed to his anger at the US government for not immediately resolving Japan's huge trade surplus vis-a-vis the US, at a time when Japan was ranked as the world's second largest economy. And the reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump last month were to be the weapon he would wield to resolve the trade imbalance. What is important here is the significance of the year 1993. Just four years earlier, the Berlin Wall had fallen, tearing down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the end of World War II. In December 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed. Communism had finally been defeated, and from now on Western-style democracy and capitalism could be expected to spread throughout the world. Americans were filled with a sense of optimism and exaltation. Ironically, Trump was confronting multiple challenges to his businesses at the time. In the 1980s, Trump had expanded his business empire to include hotels, casinos, and an airline, but wound up incurring huge debts. One of those companies, Trump Shuttle, was an airline that connected New York, Washington, DC, and Boston. However, after Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, fuel prices surged and passenger demand dropped, while costs of running an airline soared. Trump eventually sold it off to a competitor. At the FCCJ, he remarked to reporters: I was unlucky in going into a very lousy business, something called the airline business. Have any of you been involved in the airline? This business is the worst, I'll tell you. President Bush marshaled the US-led multinational forces, attacking Iraq and successfully liberating Kuwait. Trump, however, criticized the first Gulf War as a 'shame': Nobody knows the real price the United States paid in this war. Nobody knows. And we weren't compensated properly for it at all. And we were foolish. Interestingly, Trump has agreed on a deal with Ukraine for its mineral resources, which he described as compensation for military aid the US had provided to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. At first glance, this may seem like a wild idea, but it is understandable considering the trauma and heavy damage the Gulf War had caused to Trump's business. The FCCJ press conference also gave us another important clue for understanding Trump: loyalty. He looked back on the time when his business struggled in the 1990s, and compared it to war: You learn things when you go through a war … You learn who's loyal; you learn who's not loyal. You learn who your friends are, and the truth is you can't really tell. I wish I could say that everybody with blonde hair or black hair or dark skin or light skin was loyal. But it just doesn't work that way. People I would have bet the ranch on – excuse me for the term – screwed me. He added: I say that at one point in my life, I'd like to be in trouble, so that I can find out who's going to be loyal and who's not going to be loyal.… You do learn a lot about loyalty. And I think it's a very important word. Trump has been true to his word, appointing people to cabinet posts chosen on the basis of their loyalty. He is also demanding that jobseekers hoping to join the administration be subjected to loyalty checks. To Trump, loyalty is everything. Loyalty may count for everything, but at the same time, there was irony in his predicament. At a time when Trump was struggling to extricate himself from a difficult business situation, the people who offered most fervent support were investors in Hong Kong and Japan. At the FCCJ, he said this about his supporters: Our largest group of purchasers are from Hong Kong and from Japan. And I just want to thank so many of them because they did stick with me. They did buy my products. They did go to my casino and they did, perhaps most importantly, make deals with me on casino bonds. Yet last month Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on Japan, one of the sources of his main benefactors. Unfortunately, it appears that those who were loyal to Trump were not treated with reciprocation. Trump's Tokyo press conference 32 years ago provides us with great insights into his mentality and the standards that guide his behavior. Those remarks remaine fully consistent with his current actions and policies as they relate to foreign affairs, defense, the economy and personnel. They might even be said to have been prophetic. In that sense, Trump has been consistent in his words and actions. His speech contained only one remark that could be regarded as contradictory. If Trump had continued to follow his words with the same conviction, not only would he have possibly changed the history of the United States, but the history of the world as well. He told his Tokyo audience: 'I'm not running for public office. Who cares if I'm politically correct?' Eiichiro Tokumoto is a writer based in Tokyo. This article was originally published by the FCCJ's Number 1 Shimbun. It is republished with permission, updated to reflect the fact that the Ukraine minerals deal has been agreed upon.
South China Morning Post
05-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Trump could end up making Asia, not America, great again
Could Donald Trump's 'Make America Great Again' policies end up instead making Asia – East Asia especially – greater than ever? Things appear to be moving in that direction as the US president's alienating trade and tariff policies create an incentive for East Asia and Europe to move into each other's arms. Advertisement Such a marriage, increasingly speculated upon, within the framework of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ( CPTPP ) could create one of the world's largest, most economically dynamic free-trade areas, offsetting much of the impact of US isolationism. The prospect of a Europe-Asia economic alliance is one card both regions could play if Trump's tariff tactics are perceived, particularly in Beijing and Brussels , as becoming too aggressive – although there is a counterargument that the US presence in Asia is so entrenched as to negate such threats. In the view of Yuqing Xing, an economics professor at Tokyo's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, the 'revolutionary changes' brought about by the Trump administration have created a favourable environment for China's application to join the CPTPP. There is debate, meanwhile, within the European Union over whether it should also join the trade pact. 'It is possible that the CPTPP will serve as a new framework of global trade in the age of globalisation,' Xing said during a recent debate at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo. Advertisement
