HOKKAIDO (TR) – Four female workers from Myanmar have fled a farm, accusing their employer — a local town councilor — and his family of rampant physical abuse, sexual harassment, and verbal threats, reports HBC News (Aug. 21).
The women, aged between 19 and 30, are currently taking shelter at a Christian church in Sapporo City. They arrived in Japan under the government’s “Specified Skilled Worker” visa program to harvest crops at an agricultural corporation in Kyogoku, a major farming town at the foot of Mount Yotei.
Struck her in the back
The farm is managed by a man in his 60s who also serves as a local town councilor, alongside his two sons in their 40s. According to the women, the abuse began almost immediately upon their arrival.
A 30-year-old worker, who arrived in mid-May, said she was assaulted just days into her employment. While working in the fields, she failed to understand a Japanese instruction from the father to let go of a rope. In response, he allegedly struck her in the back twice with a metal rod.
“I had never been hit in my life. I was struck so suddenly that I just cried,” she said. The father continuously berated her in the days that followed, poking her in the chest and slapping her buttocks.
Sexual harassment
Another 20-year-old worker, who started in early July, claimed the father slapped her hat off her head when she mentioned feeling unwell. The blow knocked off her eyeglasses, heavily bending the frames and rendering them unusable. Other workers reported having harvested vegetables violently thrown at them when they made mistakes.
The physical violence was accompanied by relentless sexual harassment.
A 22-year-old worker said the father groped her buttocks the moment she bent over to pick up dropped broccoli, while a 19-year-old victim said he routinely touched their arms, put his arms around their shoulders, and groped them.
Lewd exhibitions
The father also allegedly subjected the young women to lewd exhibitions. Noting that their underwear lines became visible when their clothes were soaked with sweat, he reportedly called several of the women forward and told them, “Just seeing underwear lines gives a man an erection.” He then allegedly pointed out his own bulging crotch through his trousers to the terrified women.
Under constant threat of being deported back to Myanmar, the women were forced to work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., lining up each morning to wait for the father and sons to arrive.
Before finally escaping the farm in August, the women managed to secretly record audio data of the men’s daily, expletive-laden outbursts as evidence of the ongoing human rights violations.
