A sexually harassed Maritime Self-Defense Force member quit the service after a superior forced her to meet her assailant and listen to his apology, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.

The meeting was held at an MSDF department in western Japan late last year when the government was conducting a sweeping investigation into the extent of sexual harassment and abuse at the Self-Defense Forces.

“I felt devastated realizing that awareness of the problem at the top level has not reached the front lines,” the former MSDF member in her 20s told The Asahi Shimbun.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara condemned the handling of her harassment complaint as “outrageous.”

The former MSDF member said a senior colleague had repeatedly touched her chest and legs and even hugged her from behind in a break room since summer 2022.

She reported the harassment during an MSDF department inspection around autumn. She also told a senior female member about the colleague’s actions.

In December, an MSDF captain who was the second highest ranking officer in the department, summoned her to a meeting room.

She could see her assailant inside the room through the gap in the door.

She tearfully told the captain, “I don’t want to speak with him.”

But the No. 2 officer urged her to meet him, saying, “So, you’re saying you don’t need an apology?” and “We’ll have to create another opportunity like this.”

She said she entered the meeting room, and the assailant expressed his intention to resign.

But the captain told him: “You can’t just decide that on your own as you have a family. Don’t be discouraged.”

The captain then addressed her, “Please let him apologize properly and make it easier on him.”

She told The Asahi Shimbun that it was difficult for her to muster up the courage to report the escalating harassment in the first place. And at the meeting, she only heard words that seemed to encourage the assailant.

She was so shocked that she could not go to work from the next day.

After being diagnosed with depression she quit the MSDF at the end of March this year, citing “physical and mental fatigue due to sexual and power harassments.”

Just before leaving the force, the chief of her department reportedly told her that forcing her to meet with her assailant was “the worst thing to do” and that the captain would be “strictly disciplined.”

A NEW INVESTIGATION

The Defense Ministry’s Maritime Staff Office said it is investigating the incident and considering disciplinary action against both the assailant and the No. 2 officer.

“We will deal strictly with the case in accordance with relevant regulations to create an organizational environment that does not tolerate any harassment,” an official of the office’s public relations department said.

The sweeping sex-abuse investigation into SDF personnel started in September 2022 after Rina Gonoi, 24, came forward about being sexually assaulted while serving in the Ground SDF.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers said such attacks were “unacceptable behavior.”

According to the results of the Defense Ministry’s investigation, an estimated 179 of the 1,325 damage complaints in the SDF involved sexual harassment.

The Maritime Staff Office said the case of the former MSDF member was not included in those numbers.

Defense chief Kihara said he has instructed relevant authorities to urgently inspect and promptly report the handling of all harassment cases as of Oct. 30.

“We will ensure that the instructions are thoroughly implemented for all SDF troops and create an environment in which harassment will not be tolerated at all,” Kihara told a news conference on Oct. 31.

Kaori Okamoto, a professor of clinical psychology at Seisen Jogakuin College, said: “A sexual assault victim ended up being hurt twice over when she faced additional harm that seemed to disregard her human rights.”

Okamoto said the MSDF captain failed to do the most basic and important thing: to check her feelings and respond accordingly.

“The entire organization should reflect on this and make improvements,” she said.

(This article was written by Nobuya Sawa, senior staff writer, Yoshitaka Ito, senior staff writer, and Kaigo Narisawa.)