Jul 09 (NHK) - Japan's Supreme Court has upheld a high court decision that a former TV reporter must pay damages to a journalist who says he raped her.
Journalist Ito Shiori filed the suit in 2017, saying that a former Tokyo Broadcasting System Television reporter sexually assaulted her.
She said Yamaguchi Noriyuki raped her while she was in a state of intoxication and unconscious following a dinner with him in 2015.
Yamaguchi argued that the act was consensual and counter-sued Ito.
In 2022, the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court decision ordering Yamaguchi to pay Ito 3.3 million yen, the current equivalent of 24,000 dollars in damages.
The high court said Ito's testimony was credible as it was concrete and consistent, and that it is appropriate to recognize that Yamaguchi had sexual intercourse without Ito's consent.
But unlike the district court, the high court also ordered Ito to pay damages of 550,000 yen, or currently about 4,000 dollars, to Yamaguchi for defamation.
The court said Ito's claim in her book and at a news conference that Yamaguchi had given her a date-rape drug during dinner was not credible as there was no appropriate proof to back it up. The ruling prompted both Ito and Yamaguchi to appeal to the supreme court.
The top court by Friday rejected the appeals from the two, finalizing the high court's ruling.
Source: TBS NEWS
