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Japanese Double Standard Policy for Sexual Harrasment

13 Dec 2006
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What I would like to know is why in Japan, sexual harassment policy is one with a double standard, even though they have a seat in the UN security council?

The double standard is, for a Japanese national it is not illegal for them to grope foreign women, and only foreign women have any legal recourse if they are sexually assaulted in Japan by another fellow foreigner? In fact, the victim's visa could even be revoked or not renewed as she would have caused problems for Japanese nationals. Is this because the Japanese are not too kneen to update laws that are old when it comes to aiding foreigners? Also, Japanese nationals could go overseas and marry a foreigner, and also return to Japan, and marry a Japanese wife, if he wants to. It will not be considered bigamy unless he marries two Japanese wives.
 
Do you have any sources for any of this?

About the last part; I could perhaps see a Japanese person marrying someone in a foreign country and then returning to marry another Japanese person, since the foreigner wouldn't be registered on the koseki, and could be legally hidden from the family register. But this is all speculation, are there any actual instances of this happening? Just because someone can hide a second wife doesn't mean it's not considered bigamy. I've heard of instances of Americans leading double lives with two families, within a single state. Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean it's acceptable.
 
Bigamy in Japan - Japanese Wife

In response to the last part - Marrying a foreigner overseas and then marrying another person in Japan.

There is an actual example of this; however, it was a Japanese woman marrying a foreigner and upon returning to Japan married another foreign guy - never legally ending the first marriage.

...

My friend met her and married her in Japan and had registered with the local government office as required in Japan. However, the Japanese wife as it turned out had been married to another man abroad. This foreign marriage was a legally recognized marriage in Japan, consequently, according to Japanese law, she was guilty of a crime, bigamy.

To make matters worse, she also told him after they were married that she had herpes from a previous boyfriend. My friend tested positive! She not only was a bigamist, but she gave the foreign guy herpes as well.

Eventually he had to enagage legal help, which took an incredible amount of time and money that he had to pay to get the mess sorted out. He had to engage both foreign and Japanese legal counsel and ended up in Japanese family court.

My friend was uncharacteristically naive and was taken advantage by this girl looking to meet a well off foriegn guy. The word is that this Japanese woman is back out looking for the next guy, so please BE CAREFUL!
 
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It's a mildly amusing story if not a very believable one. It lost me when it mentioned the woman's name and the bit about herpes.
 
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