A former television reporter is appealing a civil court ruling that ordered him to pay damages to Japanese #MeToo symbol Shiori Ito in a high-profile rape case.
Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief for TBS TV and a biographer of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has denied Ito’s allegation that he had sexual intercourse with her without her consent at a Tokyo hotel in 2015 while she was in a state of intoxication and unconscious.
The Tokyo District Court last month ordered Yamaguchi, 53, to pay ¥3.3 million in damages to the 30-year-old Ito, who is also a journalist.
The court rejected a counter lawsuit filed by Yamaguchi seeking ¥130 million in compensation from Ito. He claimed his social reputation has been damaged by her remarks.
Ito filed a criminal complaint with police, but prosecutors dropped the case in 2016.
She later filed a complaint with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, but it judged in 2017 that the prosecutors’ decision was appropriate.
