Japanese Women Now

Sexual Harassment on Campus

By TAKAHASHI, June
Associate Professor, Fukushima University

It was 1989 that the word of "sexual harassment" was generally recognized in Japan, but people had not realized that there are sexual harassments in educational settings until recently. Focusing on sexual harassment in universities/colleges, which is commonly called sexual harassment on campus (hereinafter referred to as SHOC for short), this page will give an outline of SHOC since 1990s as well as movements against it.

An incident to get SHOC recognized in society and the cause of SHOC

The greatest incident that has gotten SHOC known widely in society is the media coverage of a professor at Kyoto University having resigned on suspicion of his sexually harassing his former secretary and the secretary having pled restoration of her human rights. This incident occurred in 1993 (the Yano scandal).

Characteristics of SHOC include (1) abuse of the teaching staff's high standing both in society and in the institution; (2) the faculty's world is a predominantly male-oriented society, so that the voice of women who are susceptible to SHOC cannot be heard well; and (3) if a student or graduate student is sexually harassed, it may be violation of rights to education or freedom of studies, unlike sexual harassment in the workplace.

What has caused SHOC and tacitly suppressed the voice of victims are an wrong impression that "university people are noble-minded, so there should be no sexual harassment there"; unawareness of their living in an atmosphere that is unknowingly biased in terms of gender equality because the majority there is men; and their feeling that they cannot escape from the situation, such as "there are no other places but under this professor or at this university where I can study my specialized field" because study in every field is highly specialized today.

Of course even before the Yano scandal, there had been complaints about SHOC, such as in the University of the Ryukyus (a professor has allegedly harassed an overseas student) and Mie University (between the teaching staff), but what made SHOC widely known was the scandal.

Movements against SHOC

At the forefront of the movements against SHOC was the Japan Society of Women's Studies submitting to the Education Minister a request for addressing SHOC in June 1994, which was followed by the University of Tokyo Female Staff's Association founded in July declaring its aim of "investigating discrimination against women and sexual harassment in the university".

In 1996, volunteers among graduate students at Nagoya University and volunteers of the teaching staff at Fukushima University respectively opened a Web site to think about SHOC, which facilitated recognition of SHOC in society. Around that time, a necessity for nationwide cooperation began to be discussed, and in September 1997 "Sexual Harassment on Campus National Network (shoc-net)" was formed in response to the appeal of the late Ms. Kazuko Watanabe.

According to geographical division of Japan, Shoc-net is divided into 10 blocks, and each block carries out such activities as counseling victims, collecting information concerning the actual situation of sexual harassment, providing support to victims, and developing training programs. Also it holds regular meetings on a national level and periodically issues newsletters as well as routinely exchanges information and opinions through a mailing list. If necessary, it advocates for the necessary measures on the government, law courts, universities, and others.

The actual condition of SHOC

A research showed that about 15% of undergraduates, about 34% of graduate students, and about 36% of the teaching staff (both full-time and part-time) have experienced some forms of sexual harassment (source: a research conducted in 1995 by Women' Studies Education Network). We should understand that why there have been a limited number of complaints about SHOC so far is not because there have actually been only a small number of SHOC but because some kind of power relationship has worked to restrain victims from making complaints. It is estimated that not a few cases occur even today.

Among many SHOC cases, some have been brought into courts. In a suit involving Tohoku University, the court completely admitted the assertion of the plaintiff who was a victim of SHOC, and the ruling ordered the defendant to pay a unprecedented large amount of compensation compared with the previous suits against SHOC in Japan (the judgment in the first trial in June 1999 and the judgment in a review by an appellate court on an appeal in July 2000). This determined the direction of the rulings thereafter.

Furthermore, as a result of the appeal of active organizations including Shoc-net, universities made an active effort to handle SHOC, and in March 1999, as an official order, the Ministry of Education (presently the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) notified each school of regulations concerning prevention of sexual harassment. Each university worked out its own guidelines on SHOC, and there are many universities that set up counselor's room for students and the staff. These universities also spread information and knowledge among students. Moreover, education and instruction is given to the staff, although not at many universities.

As a result of universities' efforts, the number of complaints against SHOC is sharply increasing. As of the autumn of 2000, the Education Ministry reportedly had several dozen pending cases that require it to determine punishment of national schools' teaching staff.

Conclusion

The SHOC problem has never come to an end. It is reflected in the fact that there are still a large number of complaints. What we should address now is to work out how to comfort victims and to establish an effective system in preventing victims from being created.

Besides universities, elementary, junior high, high, and other schools are also facing the problem of sexual harassment. Termed as school sexual harassment, their problems are considered, and as SHOC, a nationwide network has formed to implement activities to deal with them.

TAKAHASHI, June: Associate professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, F ukushima University; a member of the representatives of the Tohoku block of Sexual Harassment on Campus National Network; engages in Gender Studies in the university; co-author of The Pleasure of Sociology (Yachiyo-shuppan, 1999); and co-supervisor (with Kimiko Kimoto) of translation of Maggie Humm's The Dictionary of Feminist Theory (Akashi-shoten, 1999).

Related Links
Sexual Harassment on Campus National Network
*Japanese text only

Nagoya University Sexual Harrasment Consious Network
*Japanese text only

Sexual Harassment On Campus' WEBpage (ShocWeb) Project Homepage.
*Japanese text only

WOM has been working on the initiative Japanese Women Now in order to provide information about contemporary legal/social environment surrounding Japanese women. It is our hope that information on this page help readers gain further understandings on gender issues in Japan.

Authors of articles contributed to this initiative are active and knowledgeable members of the respective fields of selected topics. The contents are based on the fact available as of late 2001, when these articles were written. The original Japanese articles are also available on our Japanese Home Page.

Topics selected in this initiative are: Domestic Violence, Compulsory Selection of a Family Name for a Married Couple, Elderly Care and Women, Women and Work, Sexual Harassment in Working Place, Sexual Harassment on Campus, Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Single Mothering, Child Abuse, Women and Medical Care, and Reproductive Health/Rights. ===＞GO to Index

This initiative was made possible by the grant from Asian Women's Fund.