The Nagasaki municipal government was ordered by a court Monday to pay around ¥19.75 million in compensation to a female journalist who was sexually assaulted by a male senior official in 2007 and suffered additional harm as a result of falsehoods spread by another official.
The plaintiff's side had demanded that the city pay around ¥74 million in the suit filed at the Nagasaki District Court, arguing the now-deceased official misused his position and exercised authority to assault the reporter, and the city also failed to prevent additional harm.
The reporter was sexually assaulted by the official, who was then the head of the city's atomic bomb survivors' department, in July 2007 while conducting an interview for the Aug. 9 anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II, according to a complaint filed in 2019.