Photo/Illutration Lawyers representing three Cambodian women hold a news conference after filing a lawsuit on Dec. 16. (Yuto Yoneda)

Three Cambodian women sued a strawberry farm operator in Tochigi Prefecture, saying he sexually abused them and forced one to have an abortion when they were working as technical intern trainees.

The lawsuit, filed with the Tokyo District Court on Dec. 16, seeks damages of about 90 million yen ($586,000) from the farm operator.

The three plaintiffs worked at the man’s farm from 2022 to 2023 under the government’s technical trainee program.

According to the lawsuit, the operator repeatedly forced one of them, a woman in her 20s, to engage in sexual acts by threatening, “If you say ‘no,’ I will send you back to (Cambodia).”

When she discovered she was pregnant in January last year, the woman, who did not fully understand Japanese, was forced to sign an abortion consent form and underwent surgery at the instruction of the man, according to the lawsuit.

The other two plaintiffs said he touched them on the breasts and buttocks.

In April 2023, the three women reported the incidents to a labor union in Gifu Prefecture and left the farm.

The plaintiffs said the man took advantage of their vulnerable position as technical trainees to sexually assault them.

The man’s actions are a “serious violation of human rights,” and the women are seeking compensation for emotional distress and unpaid overtime wages, the lawsuit says.

The woman who said she was forced to have an abortion said through an aid group, “I was very scared, but I was even more scared to think that I would be sent back to Cambodia.”

She added: “I had borrowed money to come to Japan and could not leave, so I endured it in silence. Please help me so that there will be no more victims like me.”

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