Photo/Illutration The building housing the Fukuoka High Court in Fukuoka (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

FUKUOKA--The Fukuoka High Court on Feb. 5 overturned a lower court decision that found an accused rapist innocent and handed the 44-year-old company executive a four-year prison term.

Activists and legal experts applauded the decision.

The court determined that the woman was unable to put up resistance as she was drunk and passed out when the incident occurred in February 2017.

The defendant, Yasuhiko Shiiya, is a resident of this city.

In his ruling, Presiding Judge Tomonao Onizawa said, “The defendant had sex with the victim by taking advantage of her vulnerability and inability to resist. It was a despicable and vicious act.”

Activists and legal experts who were enraged by the lower court ruling last year were delighted with the high court decision.

“All of the points of the district court ruling that we found totally unacceptable were rejected by the high court,” said Sakura Kamitani, a lawyer who has dealt with sex crime cases. “The ruling was just and appropriate.”

Shiiya was indicted on charges of quasi-rape in the incident involving a 22-year-old woman who got blind drunk at a restaurant in Fukuoka’s Chuo Ward.

Prosecutors asserted that Shiiya took advantage of her inability to resist.

A major issue of contention was whether the defendant was aware she was in such a state of inebriation before he violated her.

In its March 2019 ruling, the Fukuoka District Court acquitted him of the quasi-rape charges, concluding that he was not aware the woman was so incapacitated.

The court acknowledged that the victim was too drunk to resist but maintained she was still able to mumble a few words and did not make any gesture of a clear rejection of Shiiya's advances.

That, the court construed, led Shiiya to believe the woman was agreeable to having sex with him and he was not aware of the state she was in.

Shiiya was found innocent in the quasi-rape case as the district court concluded he did not take advantage of her inability to resist.

Kamitani said the district court ruling amounted to a “second rape” for the victim.

“The damage the woman suffered by the court decision was beyond imagination,” she said.

Prosecutors appealed the district court decision to the Fukuoka High Court, arguing that the defendant was well aware she could not resist.

In the court hearing last November, the defendant refused to answer 50 or so questions from the court and prosecutors seeking to clarify the circumstances of the assault, saying, “I remain silent.”

No new testimony or evidence was given during the single hearing of the high court trial.

In his ruling, Onizawa determined that Shiiya was “sufficiently aware the victim was in a state of being unable to resist” as he had sex with her while she was passed out from drinking too much alcohol.

Shiiya defended his behavior during lower court sessions, saying he had the impression the woman did not dislike him.

“An acquaintance told me that the woman said she thinks I am nice,” he said on one occasion. “She did not turn away from me when I called out and pressed myself against her.”

Referring to those statements, Onizawa denounced Shiiya’s thought process as “outrageous and irrational.”

“The defendant reached a far-fetched conclusion,” the judge said, adding that his statements overall were not credible.

After the ruling, lawyers representing the defendant said their client will make a response after studying the verdict.

The Fukuoka District Court’s decision to acquit Shiiya was one of four such decisions over a matter of months last year concerning cases of sexual violence against women.

Outraged by the rulings, a crowd of more than 500 people gathered in front of Tokyo Station in the capital on the night of April 11, in what became known as the “flower demonstration” because they clutched flowers in their hands, to highlight the issue across the country.

On the 11th of each month, people gather across the country to express their hope to eradicate sexual violence.

(This article was compiled from reports by Eishi Kado and Azusa Mishima.)