TOKYO (TR) – A woman who was repeatedly sexually abused and impregnated by her alcoholic father revealed that police and child services repeatedly ignored her pleas for help, with officers even demanding she physically reenact the assaults to prove her claims.
The harrowing account underscores a growing crisis in Japan regarding domestic sexual abuse, reports ABEMA Prime (Aug. 22).
According to the National Police Agency, arrests of parents and guardians for sexual abuse are on the rise, with approximately 70 percent of victims being biological or adopted children. Experts warn these figures represent only the tip of the iceberg.
The woman, identified by the pseudonym Kana, now in her 20s, recently shared her experiences detailing systemic failures by multiple agencies.
Ran away from home
Raised in what appeared to be a respectable household, Kana endured constant physical violence from her father. The sexual abuse began when she was 9 years old.
“My father was an alcoholic. When night fell, he would get drunk and become violent in the living room. I was terrified of the night,” she said. Her mother, frequently traveling abroad for work, also directed physical violence toward Kana due to the stress of her husband’s domestic abuse.
At age 14, Kana ran away from home but was tracked down by police after her parents filed a missing person report. While in the interrogation room, she disclosed the ongoing sexual abuse to the officers.
“Not only did they not believe me, but a police officer told me that unless I reenacted exactly what was done to me right in front of them, they couldn’t trust my story,” Kana said.
She was subsequently sent back to her abusive home.
Pregnant with her father’s child
This was not the first time authorities dismissed her. At age 6, she attempted to tell school teachers, but was ignored because her parents held respectable jobs. When Kana later contacted a child consultation center herself, workers conducted a home visit but concluded that her parents “looked like good people” and maintained a tidy house, dismissing the possibility of abuse.
Left without a lifeline, the abuse escalated. At 15, during her first year of high school, Kana realized she was pregnant with her father’s child.
When she confronted her father with the pregnancy, he panicked. “He was drunk, and he yelled at me, asking why I got pregnant and why I wasn’t taking my medicine properly,” she said. He then beat her. With her mother away on business, Kana underwent an abortion alone.
The trauma led to repeated overdoses, self-harm, and a suicide attempt. Her mother remains unaware of the pregnancy and abortion to this day.
Shadowed in secrecy
Dr. Koichi Furuhashi, a child psychiatrist, acknowledged the catastrophic institutional failures in Kana’s case. While noting that authorities have improved their protocols over the past five years, he admitted that poor handling by individual officers and caseworkers still occurs.
Furuhashi explained that domestic sexual abuse is often shrouded in secrecy due to the closed nature of the family unit and psychological “grooming” by the perpetrators. Abusers often manipulate young victims with gifts while threatening that the family will be destroyed or the parents will divorce if the child speaks out.
“Children have a limited worldview, so they assume what happens in their home happens in every home. It was like being brainwashed,” Kana explained.
Kana is now using social media and blogs to document her experiences and advocate for other victims. She urged children currently trapped in abusive homes to seek out trustworthy adults or use the internet to voice their struggles and escape isolation.
