ASDF Member Sues Govt for Damages over Sexual Harassment

Tokyo, Feb. 27 (Jiji Press)--A female member of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force filed an 11.7-million-yen damages lawsuit against the government with Tokyo District Court Monday, alleging that the ASDF inappropriately responded to her sexual harassment complaint, her lawyer told a press conference the same day.

According to the lawyer, she began to suffer repeated verbal sexual abuse by a male colleague soon after she was assigned to the Naha base in Okinawa Prefecture in 2010, and sought advice from authorities within the base. However, she was told that the ASDF would not deal with individual harassment cases.

In 2016, she sued the man in question in the Okinawa capital for compensation.

Naha District Court rejected the damages request, but found that "there is sufficient possibility to determine that there were illegal remarks that violated personal rights."

After the ruling, the ASDF distributed materials for sexual harassment education at the base mentioning the woman by name and portrayed her as being at fault.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]