Three Cambodian women in their 20s have filed a lawsuit against their former employer over allegations he raped one of the women over a five-month period, with local media reporting the other two women said the man also touched their breasts and other parts of their bodies. The suit against the strawberry farmer in Tochigi Prefecture, filed on Monday at the Tokyo District Court, also accuses him of not paying them overtime wages.

The women are seeking compensation for damages and unpaid overtime wages, saying that the employer not paying overtime became a regular practice at the farm, according to a statement from their lawyer.

The statement said the employer "exploited their vulnerable position" in repeatedly threatening to "send them back to their home country" or "fire them."

The women, who arrived in Japan under the foreign technical intern program, allege they were forced to work long hours without proper compensation from 2022 to 2023.

All three women were in Japan for the first time, having incurred significant debt to do so. With limited knowledge of the Japanese language and no prior experience in the country, they were placed in a vulnerable position under the technical intern program, which prohibited them from transferring to another employer, according to the statement.

Starting in December 2022, the employer coerced one of the women, who was 21 at the time, into sexual acts, the statement said. From then until her rescue in April 2023 — excluding her pregnancy in January, subsequent abortion, and during her regular menstruation — she was raped nearly every day and endured conditions “akin to sexual slavery,” the statement added.

Additionally, when her pregnancy was discovered, the employer forced her to sign an abortion consent form, despite her not understanding Japanese, and had her undergo the procedure without informing her beforehand, according to the lawyer's statement.

“The repeated sexual abuse of a technical intern as a sex slave and the forced abortion against her will are severe human rights violations, and the victim has developed post-traumatic stress disorder,” their lawyer said in the statement.

The three women reached out for help online with the labor union in Gifu Prefecture on April 11, 2023, and were rescued the following day.

The farmer admitted to having sexual relations with the woman but denied threatening her, stating he believed it was consensual, according to an NHK report on Monday. As for the other two women, he said he did not touch their breasts or engage in any similar behavior. He expressed his intention to contest the case in court, the report said.

In November, the Immigration Services Agency outlined the circumstances under which foreign technical interns can change their training provider due to "unavoidable situations," such as being subjected to sexual harassment, abuse of power at the workplace, or physical violence. This clarification aims to encourage interns to apply for a transfer officially rather than disappearing.

There has been uncertainty about which specific situations meet these criteria, resulting in delays in determining whether a case qualifies.

During this waiting period, trainees have often found themselves in limbo, unable to support themselves, according to the agency.