TOKYO, June 5 — The Japanese prosecutors office will launch an investigation into harassment within the organisation, the justice minister said today, in light of a rape allegation involving a former regional chief.

Very few women in Japan speak out about sexual assault but a prosecutor who uses the pseudonym Hikari came forward in 2024 to accuse her former boss of raping her six years earlier.

She demanded an independent probe, but her request was rejected, prompting her to resign in April.

Kentaro Kitagawa, who retired after serving as head of the Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office, was arrested and admitted the assault but later withdrew his statement, saying the sex was consensual.

Justice minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi told reporters today that “a probe into harassment is scheduled for this fiscal year for all staff” at the prosecutor’s office.

But the question of an independent panel “needs to be decided with the utmost caution” due to the ongoing criminal case, he said.

Hikari made a request to the justice ministry and the prosecutors’ office that such a panel be set up to investigate cases involving others in the legal profession and to implement measures to prevent harassment.

She told AFP today that an internal investigation was “completely pointless”, adding that an independent probe was “absolutely necessary”.

“They seem to completely fail to grasp that the cause cannot be identified and the problem will recur unless a fair and impartial investigation is carried out,” she said.

Hikari has previously said she is “certain that there are other instances of harassment and additional offences” inside the prosecutor’s office.

She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and her condition worsened after she learned in 2024 that people close to Kitagawa, especially an assistant prosecutor — who Hikari says is his lover — had spread malicious rumours about her.

She filed a criminal complaint against the assistant prosecutor the following year, but the Osaka prosecutor’s office dismissed it, only imposing a reprimand.

Hikari has said she was not used to drinking strong alcohol and lost her memory halfway through an office gathering in 2018.

The next thing she knew, she said, she was in Kitagawa’s home and was being raped.

Hikari kept quiet after it happened, as Kitagawa had pleaded with her not to go public, saying it would be a damaging scandal for the organisation and threatening to harm himself, she said. — AFP

* If you are experiencing sexual violence, the following hotlines offer free and confidential support: Talian Kasih at 15999 or WhatsApp 019-2615999 (24/7); All Women’s Action Society at 016-2374221/016-2284221 (9.30am-5.30pm); and Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) at 03-30008858 or SMS/WhatsApp TINA 018-9888058 (24/7)