Sexual Assault by Chief Prosecutor: Victim’s 5 Years of Silence Carries Great Weight

Editorial

14:59 JST, November 3, 2024

A female prosecutor who was sexually assaulted by the then head of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office has bravely spoken out. The entire prosecution organization should take seriously this accusation made with all her heart.

Kentaro Kitagawa, then chief prosecutor of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, was charged with constructive forcible sexual intercourse as he allegedly sexually assaulted the female subordinate prosecutor, who was unable to resist due to being drunk. At the first hearing of the trial, Kitagawa admitted to the charges, expressed his remorse and apologized.

The incident occurred in September 2018, six months after the defendant was appointed as the chief prosecutor. According to the opening statement by the prosecution and other sources, after a party to celebrate his appointment, the defendant pushed the woman, who was too drunk to walk, into a taxi and took her to his official residence, where he sexually assaulted her.

When the woman woke up in the official residence and resisted, he is said to have said, “Now you’re mine,” and continued to assault her. After the incident, Kitagawa coerced the woman not to tell anyone, saying, “If this gets out, the prosecutor general will have to resign” and “I’ll have to die.”

The mission of prosecutors is to ascertain the truth of incidents and seek appropriate punishment for perpetrators. It is hard to believe that the head of a prosecution organization would become a perpetrator of a sex crime. It is also despicable that he would try to silence the victim.

All the facts of the case should be thoroughly clarified through the trial. The prosecution needs to seek severe punishment.

The woman also claims that a colleague, an assistant public prosecutor, leaked information about the investigation to the defendant’s side, who was the assistant prosecutor’s superior, and spread the word that her version of events was “fake.” If this is true, suspicions cannot be avoided that a systematic cover-up occurred. The prosecution must also thoroughly investigate this matter.

The woman reported the assault to the prosecution organization in February this year, more than five years after the incident occurred. This shows the depth of the mental and physical damage that victims of sexual crimes suffer, as well as the difficulty of speaking out within an organization.

At a press conference, the woman spoke of her anguish, saying: “I have suffered for a long time. As a woman and as a prosecutor, my dignity has been trampled on.” However, she said she was unable to come forward with her story of assault because the defendant, who held a key position in the prosecution organization, had hinted at suicide and she was worried about the impact it would have on the organization.

Because many sex crimes are committed in a closed environment, there often is a lack of objective evidence, and it is said to be difficult to establish a case. In addition, many times perpetrators claim that it was consensual.

There must be people in companies and other organizations who are suffering because they are victims of sex crimes but are unable to speak out. The victim in this case held a press conference in the hope that other victims suffering in the same way would not have to suffer in silence. Her determination must be taken seriously by society as a whole.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 3, 2024)