Photo/Illutration Rina Gonoi, a former Ground Self-Defense Force member, at a news conference on Oct. 17 in Tokyo (Sayuri Ide)

A former Ground Self-Defense Force member on Oct. 17 said she cried upon meeting the four male members of the Self-Defense Forces who sexually harassed her and receiving a "belated apology."

“I am scarred for life. I want them to live their lives paying for their crimes,” Rina Gonoi, 23, said at a news conference held after the meetings.

Gonoi also said, “Tears flowed from my eyes when I received an apology. I thought it was a belated apology, but I also thought, ‘Finally, the day has come.’”

She met each of the four men individually behind closed doors and talked for about an hour, according to Gonoi and other sources.

The meetings were set up through the intermediation of the Defense Ministry.

Some of the men cried, some dropped to their knees to ask for mercy and some said they would leave the SDF after the ministry decides on a punishment, sources said.

ASSAULT IN THE MOUNTAINS

Gonoi was sexually harassed by three men during a training exercise in the mountains in August 2021.

She was called to join them while they were drinking. They then pushed her to the ground. They forcibly spread her legs open and alternately and repeatedly pressed their crotches against her.

Gonoi said they also pressed themselves against her daily.

She reported what occurred to an SDF sexual harassment counselor and other personnel.

But she was unable to obtain corroborating testimony, and her complaint was dismissed.

The three men were referred to prosecutors on suspicion of indecent assault by the GSDF police unit, but the case was ultimately dropped.

In September this year, the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution concluded the dismissal of the case was unjust.

In June, after Gonoi left the GSDF, she went public about the incidents while disclosing her identity.

She collected more than 110,000 signatures on the internet and urged the ministry to unravel the truth. The ministry conducted an internal investigation.

At the end of September, the ministry admitted she had been sexually harassed daily with physical contact and verbal remarks.

Gonoi said she asked the men during the Oct. 17 meeting, “Why didn’t you admit the truth from the beginning?”

She said the men told her, “I didn’t want my family to know,” or “I wanted to cover for my friend.”

The three men whose indictment case was dropped promised her they will tell the truth when a reinvestigation is conducted, Gonoi said.

ONLINE PLEA BRINGS CRUEL REMARKS

Gonoi pressed charges against the men on the internet, and she suffered character assassination because of it.

Since late June, the moment Gonoi leveled the sexual harassment allegations on YouTube, she has received defaming comments on the site and direct messages through Twitter, such as “Stop telling lies!” and “Don’t cause trouble for the SDF.”

Some wrote, “you’re ugly” or “but you look like a guy.”

“Making an accusation with my name and face shown, I knew I had to accept some risk,” Gonoi said. “But I didn’t think it would be this cruel. Sometimes I didn’t see the point in living.”

Gonoi is from Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture. The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami hit the region when she was an elementary school fifth-grader.

When she was at an evacuation center, female SDF members gave her a bath and played with her, which made her want to join the SDF when she grew up.

She has been taking judo since kindergarten, and she competed in a national tournament in the martial art as a junior and senior high school student.

She wanted to compete in judo as an Olympian. Therefore, she left her university and joined the SDF in 2020. However, the sexual violence robbed her of her dreams.

VICTIM VOWS TO REMAIN STRONG

Gonoi thanked her supporters at the news conference on Oct. 17.

“It was a fight of uncertainty, but I believed in myself and kept going,” she said.

She is currently teaching judo in Yokohama.

“I want to stay strong, make other people smile and do something for other people. I just want to be myself and live my life,” she said.

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