Court orders journalist to pay damages to reporter Shiori Ito in rape lawsuit

Dec 19, 2019 | News On Japan

Dec 19, 2019 (Japan Today) - The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered prominent reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi to pay 3.3 million yen in damages to journalist Shiori Ito in a civil lawsuit over her allegations he had raped her.

Ito, 30, had sought 11 million yen in damages for her suffering after prosecutors declined to indict Yamaguchi following her complaint to police that he had raped her while she was unconscious.

Yamaguchi, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, had filed a countersuit in the high-profile case, seeking 130 million yen in damages from Ito. The court on Wednesday ruled against his suit.

Yamaguchi told a news conference several hours after the court ruling that he planned to appeal the verdict. He said that he had done nothing illegal and he was not convinced by the verdict.

Ito made waves in 2017 when she took the rare step of going public with allegations that Yamaguchi, a senior television reporter known for his reporting on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had raped her in 2015 after she met him for drinks to discuss an offer to help her find a job.

The court said in a summary of the verdict that the credibility of Ito's account, in which she said she was forced to have sex while unconscious and despite resisting after she regained consciousness, was relatively high.

It also said there were grave doubts about the credibility of Yamaguchi's statements, in which he said the sex was consensual.

Ito, who has become a prominent face of the #MeToo movement in Japan, fought back tears as she spoke through a megaphone to reporters and supporters outside the court, saying she felt"full of gratitude."

Source: ANNnewsCH

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