Shaima Khalil
Tokyo correspondent
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Shiori has become the face of the country’s metoo movement
When Japanese journalist Shiori Ito decided to talk about her rape allegations, she knew she was standing in front of a society that preferred silence.
“I’m afraid … But everything I want to do is talk about the truth,” said Shiori in the opening scene of his documentary nominated for Black Box Diaries Oscars.
Shiori has become the face of the metoo movement of Japan after having accused an eminent Noriyuki Yamaguchi rape journalist.
His beginnings as an acclaimed director, based on his memories of the same name, is a story of his quest for justice after the authorities have found insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.
But there is a country where he has not yet played: Japan, where he met enormous controversy. Her former lawyers have accused her of including audio and video sequences that she did not have permission to use, which he said, violated confidence and put her sources in danger. Shiori defends what she did as necessary for the “public good”.
It is a surprising turn in a story that grabbed Japan when it broke for the first time – the 28 -year -old Shiori has ignored his family’s request to remain silent. And after her public accusation did not lead to a criminal case, she filed a civil complaint against Yamaguchi and won $ 30,000 (£ 22,917) in damages.
Shiori told the BBC that the film implied “relive its trauma”: “It took me four years (to make the film) because emotionally I was struggling.”
She was an intern at the Reuters news agency in 2015 when she said that Yamaguchi invited her to discuss a job opportunity. He was the head of the Washington office of a large Japanese media company, Tokyo Broadcasting System.
Shiori says she was raped following a dinner in Tokyo with Yamaguchi, who has always denied allegations.
Images of video surveillance of a shoad in intoxication dragged by a taxi and in a hotel are among the more than 400 hours of sequences that it has published for the documentary.
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Yamaguchi has always denied allegations against him
The publishing process, she said, was “really difficult. It was like hardcore exhibition therapy”.
When the film was released, video surveillance images have become a source of friction as an ex-Ex-Ex-Averters of Shiori, who helped her win his trial, criticized the documentary.
They said it was not useful to use video surveillance images – and that it had violated a commitment not to use it outside of legal proceedings. .
Last week, his former lawyers – led by Yoko Nishihiro – held another press conference, saying that his use of images posed challenges for other cases of sexual assault.
“If the fact that the evidence of the trial was made public, we will not be able to obtain cooperation in future cases,” said Nishihiro.
Ms. Nishihiro said Shiori also used unauthorized recordings, saying that she had only discovered it during a screening of the film last July.
This included the audio of a police detective who finally acted as a denunciator on the investigation process – as well as as a video of a taxi driver who testified on the night of alleged rape. Both, according to lawyers, were identifiable and none had given his consent to be presented in the film.
“I have been so trying to protect her for eight and a half years, and I feel like I was completely torn apart,” said Nishihiro.
“I want her to explain and that she is held responsible.”
Shiori had previously recognized that she did not have the hotel’s permission to use video surveillance, but argued that it was “the only visual proof” that she had from the night when she was sexually assaulted.
She added that the inclusion of police detective audio was necessary due to “the concealment of the investigation”, adding that it published the video “for the public good”.
“We are standing at different points of view,” she said about her former lawyers.
“For me, (it’s for) very public. For them, it is” not to break the rules “.”
There has been no official explanation to explain why the film has not yet been distributed. Shiori said that “Japan is still not ready to speak (IT)”, but it is not clear how much it is also due to legal obstacles.
In her latest statement last week, Shiori apologized and said she would reissue documentary parties to ensure that individuals would not be identified, adding that an expected version would be projected in the future.
“There are times that I want me to put (the documentary). There are moments of which I am not proud but I wanted to put it all and show that we are so human,” she told the BBC. “No one is perfect.”
During the nine years that followed the assault, the fight of Shiori against the Japanese judicial system was well chronic in the media – and is something she said that she wanted to detail in her documentary.
She encountered a wave of upheavals when she became public in 2017, receiving hate mail and online abuses.
“People told me that you don’t cry enough … You don’t wear suitable clothes … You are too strong.”
Some criticized the way she was dressed at the press conference where she first accused Yamaguchi – they said that her shirt had been too low. Shiori said she had left Japan for a few months, fearing for her safety.
The case of Shiori was followed by other high -level cases. In 2023, former soldier Rina Gonoi also became public with his history, accusing three former soldiers of sexual assault. It is also the year when Japan adopted historical laws that redefined rape to include “non -consensual sexual intercourse” and has passed the age of consent from 13 to 16 years.
Gonoi finally won his case, but Shiori said that it is proof that the fight against sexual violence has a price, adding: “It is worth going to this as a survivor in search of justice? It should not be so. You must sacrifice a lot.”
For the moment, it is not clear if her film will never be screened in Japan, but she says that her return home would be her ultimate price.
“This is my love letter in Japan. I really want one day I can project my film, and my family can also watch it,” she added.
“This is what I really hope … More than winning an Oscar.”
