HOW IS SEXUAL ASSAULT CONCEPTUALISED IN JAPAN’S LAWS?
The legal understanding of sexual assault is based in prevailing social constructions of sexuality. This paper considers the specific law dealing with rape in Japan, and argues that the endemic gender bias within it leads to a number of problems. According to Japanese law (see Appendix 1a), the fundamental characteristics to establish the crime of rape against a person over the age of thirteen are: the use of violence or threat; the victim being female; and that fornication takes place, meaning that the attacker must be male. As Burns (2002: 21) shows, the law requires that there be penetration of the vagina by the penis, without the consent of the victim, achieved by the use of violence or threat, and mens rea (criminal intent) i.e. the rapist intended to have sex with the victim against her will. The definition of rape in Japan is limited to vaginal penetration by a penis, therefore excluding forced oral and anal penetration and penetration by any other object, as well as rape of men
