Shiori Ito (born 1989) is a Japanese journalist who has studied and worked in Japan and abroad.
Her book Black Box was published in Japanese in 2017. In this book, she explains what happened to her in 2015. She was raped by a well-known and senior Japanese journalist:
Noriyuki Yamaguchi
(born 1966)
When she reported that crime to the police, they were not very eager to accept her report. They said she had no evidence of a crime.
Shiori Ito wanted the police to arrest the perpetrator, but this did not happen.
Why was he not arrested?
Shiori Ito suspects it is because the perpetrator was a personal friend of Shinzo Abe who was the Japanese Prime Minister at the time.
In 2017, Shiori Ito decided to go public with her case. She held a press conference where she did not hide her face and where she used her real name.
The book was written in 2015, 2016, and 2017. It was published in 2017 and covers the case from the beginning in 2015 until 2017, when she decided to go public with her case. An English version of the book was published in 2021.
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Her documentary film Black Box Diaries premiered in 2024. She is the director of the film about her case and she appears in almost every scene.
This unusual and very personal film covers the case from the beginning in 2015 until 2023. It covers her struggle for justice over several years.
Since the police refused to arrest the perpetrator and prosecute him in a criminal trial, she decided to file a civil suit against him.
The case began in September 2017. It ended in December 2019 when the court issued a verdict. The court accepted and supported her case against the perpetrator. The court ordered the perpetrator to pay 3.3 million yen in damages.
But the perpetrator said he was innocent. He refused to accept the verdict. He appealed to a higher court. In July 2022, the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of the lower court. The verdict says the perpetrator must pay 3.3 million yen in damages to the victim Shiori Ito.
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What do reviewers say about this documentary film?
Here are some results:
77 percent = IMDb
82 percent = Meta
98 percent = Rotten Tomatoes
(the critics)
Six user reviews are posted on IMDb.
Here are the headlines and the ratings offered:
70 percent = Shining a light
80 percent = Hard to watch
80 percent = Brave quest for justice
90 percent = Powerful doc
100 percent = A survivor’s fight for justice
100 percent = Legal demands
As you can see, the reviews are quite good. I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them.
The topic is important. The story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
Japan’s Secret Shame
This documentary film premiered on British television (BBC) in 2018
# 2. A book
Black Box
By Shiori Ito
(2021)
This is the English version. The Japanese original was published in 2017
# 3. The following items are available online
Police considered Shiori Ito's rape case a black box. She forced Japanese society to look inside
ABC Net News,
Australia,
03 September 2024
How Shiori Ito Took on Her Powerful Rapist and Changed Japan Forever
By Marlow Stern,
Rolling Stone,
25 January 2024
The Woman Who Launched the Japanese #Me Too Movement Tells Her Story
By Dan Schindel,
Hyperallergic,
23 October 2024
*****
Japan's Secret Shame
This documentary film premiered
on British television (BBC)
in 2018
*****
Black Box
by Shiori Ito
The English version of the book
was published in 2021
*****
The Japanese journalist
Shiori Ito
(born 1989)
*****
