The scandal surrounding ex-SMAP member Nakai Masahiro has renewed discussion about sexual harassment in the Japanese workplace. Now, women are taking to social media to share their outrageous —and outraging — stories of how abuse and creepy behavior have pushed them out of their jobs.
Singer and TV host Nakai Masahiro made headlines when it surfaced he had paid a massive financial settlement to a female Fuji TV employee. Since then, Fuji has come under scrutiny for charges that some of its employees routinely pressured female announcers to “entertain” famous male celebrities.
These events were set up as dinner parties that were thinly veiled excuses for the stars to pressure the women into sex. One Fuji TV announcer interviewed pseudonymously by tabloid Weekly Bunshun told a reporter her work opportunities diminished after she refused one celeb’s advances.
The incident has once again surfaced how common sexual harassment is in the workplace —and how often women are simply expected to endure it. Women report not only getting sexually harassed on the job but also targeted during the job recruitment process itself.
A single room on a business trip with her boss
A trending hashtag on social media site X a few days ago captured some of these women’s stories. The hashtag 私が退職した本当の理由 (watashi ga taishoku shita hontou no riyuu), “the real reason I quit my job,” appeared to take off as a Japanese equivalent of the #MeToo hashtag – and it documented some horrifying stories.
As one example, user @enyokov19 wrote: ” There’s the time I went on a business trip with my boss and he only reserved one room. There were two futons. I cringed. After he muttered something about getting another drink somewhere, I told the staff this was a business trip and they quickly prepared a room for me. The staff member’s face was one of shock. Unbelievable.”
Another user, @mGQ4U9JtfqLlE8O, said: “My old bosses made me clean the dirty bathroom every day, and when I said we should take turns, they bullied me for pushing ‘women’s work’ on them and drove me to resign. When I was having trouble finding a new job, a male relative said, ‘If the interviewer’s a dude, you can use your body to get hired. Women have it easy.'”
Shueisha Online gathered up other stories under this hashtag in a recent article.
“I kept refusing to date one of my sempai who told me, ‘You’re in a world of hurt if you don’t go out with me.’ He wouldn’t teach me anything and gradually started ignoring me. I quit within a year.”
“My boss got drunk and fondled my breast. I told my immediate coworkers the next day. My sexually harassing boss quit to avoid consequences – and people got mad at me instead. It appears he was a top performer who lifted performance across the entire company. Like I knew.”
Women ask men to take their stories seriously
As a result of the hashtag’s popularity, some commenters have popped onto the thread urging men to read the women’s stories and take them seriously. Other women have thanked women for sharing their stories, saying that it makes them feel less isolated and alone.
“After I told the company about being sexually harassed, I was told, ‘That person’s top-notch, you just gotta get used to it,” and, ‘They do good work, cut ’em some slack,” wrote user @9A4510. ” That got me wondering, am I the only one making a fuss here? This hashtag made me realize it’s the company that’s insane. I’m glad I quit.”
Other users used the tag to argue that the problem was systemic – i.e., the people leading companies are mostly men. One poster, humanmachine22, noted how, when the G7 held a Ministerial Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, Japan was the only G7 nation that sent a man to speak for women’s issues.
Statistics bear this out. A recent report revealed that, while Japanese female company presidents are at a historic high, they still hold the top position at only 8.4% of Japanese companies.
Some people have asked me why I think the Nakai Masahiro scandal hasn’t gone away. Why wasn’t it just swept under the rug like so many past scandals?
I think the answer is that Japanese society is slowly changing. High-profile incidents, such as Ito Shiori’s sexual assault case and subsequent awareness campaign, have done a lot to raise awareness of the issues.
Other gender-based rules, such as companies that forbid women to wear glasses, have also made headlines in recent years. To add insult to injury, working women in Japan are still doing the vast majority of the housework when they get home from their jobs.
Put more simply, Japanese women are mad as hell and aren’t gonna take it anymore.
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