KANAZAWA (TR) – A high court here this week upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a 54-year-old former company executive who repeatedly raped his teenage daughter, dismissing his defense that he had paid “restitution” by covering her everyday living expenses, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Apr. 22).
On Tuesday, the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court rejected the appeal of Hiroji Daimon, who was convicted of quasi-rape for sexually assaulting his biological daughter, Riho Fukuyama, multiple times from when she was in middle school until high school.
According to the ruling, Daimon took advantage of his daughter’s inability to resist. Court documents specifically detailed an incident in August 2016, when Fukuyama was 16.
Presiding judge Keisuke Masuda noted that the victim was “repeatedly forced into sexual intercourse and had lost the will to resist,” recognizing that she felt she had to submit because she was entirely dependent on her father financially.
Daimon appealed his original eight-year sentence handed down by the Toyama District Court last year. In a bid for leniency, he claimed his “remorse had deepened” and bizarrely argued that the living expenses he provided during Fukuyama’s student years should be considered “financial restitution” for his crimes.
Judge Masuda swiftly struck down the appeal, labeling Daimon’s claims an “unreasonable excuse” and stating there was “no room” to reconsider the original prison term.
Advocate against sexual violence
Fukuyama, now 26, has taken the rare step of coming forward under her real name to publicly advocate against sexual violence. She attended the appellate ruling and addressed the media alongside her husband afterward, expressing profound relief but lingering anger.
“I am shocked he would use the fact that he provided my living expenses as a justification for his actions,” Fukuyama told reporters. “If he was truly remorseful, he would not have appealed the sentence in the first place.”
She delivered a final, resolute message regarding her abuser: “If he really is sorry, I want him to spend his eight years in prison thinking carefully about what he did wrong. I will never see him again.”
