Japan Press Weekly

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2019 November 27 - December 3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Fujino calls for revision of Penal Code in order to protect mentally-handicapped from sexual abuse

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Fujino Yasufumi on November 27 demanded that the Penal Code include a provision which recognizes sexual violence against people with mental disabilities, regardless of their age, as a punishable crime.

Fujino at a Judicial Affairs Committee meeting of the House also took up the issue of a Shizuoka District Court decision which acquitted the father who had forcibly had sex with his daughter (rape) in her early teens.

This is one of the four judgements delivered by local courts in March of this year, including two father-to-daughter rape cases, given "not guilty" verdicts.

The sexual assault case Fujino cited was after a daughter with "mild mental disabilities" had confided to a staff member at a children’s consultation center regarding sexual assaults by her father. This staff member testified that the girl showed up at the center wrapped in a blanket and her face had been white with fear. However, the Shizuoka District Court ruled, "It cannot deny the possibility that she had only acted like she was victimized by immoral sex."

Fujino urged the judicial affairs authorities to fully investigate as to how a judgment like this could be made.

Past related articles:
> Protest against sexual violence take place in 10 locations nationwide [June 12, 2019]
> Sex crime victims demand that sex without consent be punished as crime [May 14, 2019]