TOCHIGI(TR) – A female Cambodian trainee, 23, who worked at a strawberry farm here, will soon file a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court seeking damages for alleged repeated rapes by the farm’s male owner that led to pregnancy and abortion.
The woman further claims that the man threatened to send her back to Japan if she refused, her lawyer revealed on December 10, reports San-in Chuo Shimpo (Dec. 10).
The woman claims that she was continuously sexually assaulted by the 58-year-old male owner just a few months after she started working at the farm in Ibaraki Prefecture in July 2022.
According to her, the assaults continued “almost daily” for about five months until April 2023.
In November 2023, the farm owner denied, through his lawyer at the time, that he had forced her into a sexual relationship.
After her pregnancy was discovered in January 2023, she was forced to have an abortion without having received a sufficient explanation in her native language. The sexual abuse allegedly continued even after the abortion.
The woman, who was in debt for the cost of entering Japan, which is not unusual for technical intern trainees, said she felt she could not refuse him because he threatened her.
“I had no choice but to comply because I was afraid of losing my job,” she said through an interpreter in an interview with Kyodo News.
Police recommended not to prosecute
Kyodo News sought comment from the potential defendant on the woman’s decision to file a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court, but he did not respond.
The Cambodian woman sought help from a Gifu Prefecture labor union that supports technical intern trainees. She was afforded protection in April 2023, her lawyer said.
According to investigators, the woman filed a complaint with the prefectural police on suspicion of rape in 2023. The case was referred to the prosecutor’s office in December of the same year. However, police recommended not to prosecute due to insufficient evidence.
This past June, the woman was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while resuming work as a trainee in another prefecture. She then decided to bring the case to civil litigation.
She is seeking tens of millions of yen in compensation for sexual assault, abortion and PTSD.