Abstract 

Today, with the development of social media, people from all walks of life are creating communities that transcend national, regional, and linguistic boundaries. The increase in the number of these communities has brought various real-life issues to the Internet agenda as people of like-mindedness and ideas interact more actively with each other.

The community is diverse, with some being used as a forum for exchanging opinions on games, YouTube, and other forms of entertainment, while others are used to discuss politics, the environment, and other matters that are deeply related to real-life situations.

This paper takes an in-depth look at the advantages and disadvantages of social media communities, using the #MeToo movement as an example, especially in Japan, where the movement has gained momentum around the world.

 

#MeToo movement in Japan and social media’s position on these events.

Introduction

The #Metoo movement is a hashtag used by a large movement that has emerged on social media. In that hashtag, experiences of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of sexual victimization are confessed and shared, with the implication that “I am a victim, too.”One catalyst for the large social media movement was a 2017 article by a New York Times reporter accusing Harvey Weinstein, a film producer of alleged sexual abuse(Kantor, 2017).The article, which later became known as the Weinstein Effect, prompted American actress Alyssa Milano to call out “MeToo” on Twitter at the time for women who had suffered similar sexual assaults(MIlano, 2017), and many celebrities and ordinary sexual assault victims around the world responded to the call. And general sexual victimization, with many posts made by victims of sexual assault.This is an overview of the social media movement called the #MeToo movement.

In this Paper, I pay particular attention to the events that took place in Japan and discuss them in detail.

Case of Shiori Ito, a pioneer of #MeToo Movement in Japan

The most significant impact of the #MeToo movement in Japan came from a post by freelance journalist Ms. Shiori Ito. Shiori Ito was one of the pioneers of the #MeToo movement in Japan when she publicly shared her own experiences of sexual victimization under her own name(The Guardian, 2019).

She had filed a police report in 2015 alleging that she had been accused of semi-rape after a dinner with Takayuki Yamaguchi, then a political reporter and Washington Bureau Chief for a major Japanese TV station(The Guardian, 2019). The following year, however, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office ruled that Yamaguchi had not been charged with a crime. Furthermore, the following year, the Tokyo Sixth Public Prosecutor’s Office, composed of citizens, voted that “after careful investigation, there was no sufficient reason to overturn the indictment made by the public prosecutor.” (BBC, 2019)

Based on this, Ito filed a civil lawsuit against Yamaguchi in September 2017, claiming that “I suffered emotional distress due to unwanted sexual acts. Shortly after, in October, she published “Black Box,” her memoir of her own claims as a freelance journalist, and held a press conference at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ). Her memoir has since been translated into nine languages and published around the world.

Later, in 2018, she held a press conference at the United Nations headquarters, claiming that the #MeToo movement has not become a major movement because Japanese women victims are afraid of social backlash from accusations of real names, and advocating for the #WeToo (we act together) movement to take on accusers in society at large(Mainichi Japan, 2018). Her efforts to do so pushed many women who had been hesitant to speak out, and became a major catalyst for the spread of “#MeToo” in Japan. Miss Ito subsequently won the civil suit she filed against Mr. Yamaguchi, and Mr. Yamaguchi was ordered to pay approximately 3.32 million Japanese yen. The public attention and change in public awareness caused by the #MeToo movement may have had something to do with the fact that the criminal complaint was lost and the civil lawsuit was won.

On the other hand, Ms. Ito has also been negatively affected by her participation in the #MeToo movement by exposing her real name and face. The biggest of these is bashing on social media (51). After her press conference, some social media users have slandered her claims, saying that her shirt not being buttoned up to the top is not a gesture that is typical of a sexual victim(Stewart, McKirdy and Ogura, 2018).

These slurs continued without end, eventually leading Ms. Ito to leave Japan and live in London, England, because she feared for her safety.

In September 2020, Ito was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” for her actions, including her #MeToo movement, and for her commitment to gender equality and human rights issues; TIME magazine’s introduction, written by Chizuko Ueno, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, noted, “. She is credited with “bringing change to Japanese women by bravely denouncing sexual assault,” “encouraging Japanese women to join the #MeToo movement,” “sparking flower demonstrations protesting sexual violence,” and “leading to calls for changes in the penal code.

Accusations by Other Women

Not only in the case of Shiori Ito, numerous women in Japan have made accusations of sexual harassment under the #MeToo banner. One of them, writer Haruka Ito, filed an accusation on Buzzfeed Japan in December 2017 about sexual harassment she suffered while working for a major Japanese advertising agency.The accusation was made by Ito’s boss at the time, Yuki Kishi.Ito said, “I did not aim for revenge, but just wanted to show that sexual harassment is a despicable act and that the public reacts in this way.He said, “I wanted to criticize not only him but also men’s attitudes that they would not show to their own gender, and to deter harassment.As a result, Kishi, who received the complaint, explained the circumstances and apologized to Ito.He has since resigned from the company he represented.

In 2018, KaoRi, who had modeled for photographer Araki Nobuyoshi, known in Japan as “Ara-ki-” for over 15 years, accused Araki of sexual harassment and power harassment on her blog(KaoRi, 2018). She describes herself as an unknown person, and therefore did not expect that her article would be widely read. However, due to the high profile of the #MeToo movement itself, her blog has attracted a great deal of attention, and she has received numerous supportive comments(Kobayashi. 2018).

In light of KaoRi’s accusations, Kiko Mizuhara, a leading model in Japan, also accused Araki of sexual harassment on her Instagram.According to Mizuhara, she revealed that when she was semi-nude in a past ad shoot, many men who were not staff members visited her to observe, despite her refusal to do so.

In 2022, several actresses filed accusations of sexual harassment against film directors Sono Shion and Hideo Sakaki, actor Houka Kinoshita, playwright Kenichi Tani, and others.Each of the accused reacted differently to the accusations, including some who made no admission, apologized, etc.

Sexual victimization in the Japanese entertainment industry, including the case of KaoRi in 2018, has been widely reported on #MeToo.

Merits and Demerits of movement in Social Media Considered through the #MeToo Movement

We have presented and looked at many #MeToo accused cases, and in light of these cases, we would like to take a deeper look at some advantages and disadvantages of the movement in social media.

Advantages

The first advantage is the expansion of voices.Social media is a tool that can amplify individual voices.If one wants to create an account, one can easily do so with a few simple operations, and one can spread one’s principles as a sender oneself.It allows people in marginal positions, who are often excluded from the larger traditional media such as TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers, to share their experiences.One movement that has used this advantage to a great extent to become a worldwide movement is #Me Too.In this case, the company has succeeded in making visible the sexual assault of women, which has been suppressed in many cases, and putting it on the agenda as a major issue.This would have been a difficult task to accomplish in the absence of social media.

The second advantage is the potential to raise awareness among previously uninterested segments of the population.Many social media outlets have features such as hot words and trends that summarize what is currently being discussed.Therefore, even if a movement starts from a small part of the population, if it is able to become a trend, it can reach people who have been indifferent to it until now.#MeToo has successfully brought issues such as sexual harassment, assault, and gender inequality to the forefront of the conversation, issues that have rarely been brought to light in the first place.The second advantage is that the project will be able to gather opinions from a variety of perspectives, including both interested and disinterested segments of the population, stimulate discussion, and promote a change in social consciousness.

The third advantage is the ability to build a community.Because anyone can be a voice in social media, people with similar experiences can connect with each other to create a community and generate a larger movement.Also, unlike communities in real life, where people’s faces and names are known, those who wish to remain anonymous can do so anonymously, while those who wish to make accusations, even using their own names, can do so under their own names, thus allowing people to become part of the community with a certain degree of self-restriction on their information.Not only that, but it also allows people to be a part of the community they want to be a part of, regardless of region, gender, age, religion, or race.In fact, #MeToo, which spread from the U.S., has become a major movement that has spread through social media to other countries around the world, including Japan, South Korea, and Italy.

A fourth benefit is that social media voices can create pressure for change.Sharing stories and experiences publicly on social media often gives people new perspectives, which is a common occurrence in social media.In time, new perspectives and voices that have not been picked up before can grow louder and lead to improvements to underlying problems related to institutions and policies outside of social media.In #MeToo in Japan, there was a large outcry about sexual victimization that had not been visualized before.Subsequently, Japan enacted a new law stating that sexual intercourse without consent is illegal, and it can be assumed that the new law and the #MeToo movement have something to do with this change in awareness.

A fifth advantage is the ability to spread a movement on a global scale.As mentioned in the third advantage of creating a community, social media platforms allow topics to be spread around the world by people with broad interests.As a result, movements such as #MeToo, which had similar events in different parts of the world, were able to cross borders and become international movements more quickly than would have been possible in the absence of the Internet, gaining attention and support from around the world.

Disadvantages

The first is the possibility of backlash and harassment. The advantage of being able to reach a large number of people has the disadvantage of also reaching people with completely different opinions.As such, movement participants may face backlash from critics, harassment, threats, online abuse, and more.This can have a negative impact on mental health and well-being.In fact, Shiori Ito, who spread #MeToo in Japan, had to move her residence from Japan to the UK due to the mindless slander of some people.

The second drawback is that, due to the nature of social media, you are more likely to see opinions that are similar to your own, creating the possibility that you may not be able to pick up on opposing opinions. Social media platforms “are media in which people tend to follow those with similar opinions to their own.As a result, the opinions that followers spread are often similar to their own.If we are not conscious of this, we may amplify certain voices while excluding others, potentially distorting representation of the issue and eliminating certain viewpoints.

The third drawback is the risk of misinformation.While social media has the advantage that “anyone can be a source,” there are many cases where “the source of information becomes vague because anyone can send out information.In addition, there are accounts that intentionally spread misinformation, and if individuals are not able to consciously select and choose the information they follow, there is a risk that misinformation will spread rapidly.It must be noted that this can lead to distortions of the narrative and the discrediting of the movement.

Conclusion 

Overall, while the use of social media in movements such as #MeToo is a very powerful tool, it is important to recognize its potential benefits and drawbacks.Balancing these factors will maximize the effectiveness of the exercise and minimize damage to participants.

Reference 

• Kantor J. 2017, October. “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades”, The New York Times. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html?smid=url-share)
• Milano A. 2017, October. “Tweet”. @Alyssa_Milano. (https://x.com/alyssa_milano/status/919659438700670976?s=61&t=WHsKRbBunxOQtENfyIxvTQ)
• 2019, December. “Shiori Ito, symbol of Japan’s MeToo movement, wins rape lawsuit damages”. The Guardian. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/18/shiori-ito-symbol-of-japans-metoo-movement-wins-lawsuit-damages)
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• 2018, March. “Anti-sexual violence campaigner, alleged rape victim Ito holds UN news conference”. Mainichi Japan. (https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180319/p2a/00m/0na/006000c)
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• KaoRi. 2018, April. “Is The Knowledge Really Correct?” Note. (https://note.com/kaori_la_danse/n/nb0b7c2a59b65)
• Kobayashi, A. 2018, April.  “Me, called Muse of Araki. KaoRi talked about her feelings after her confession.” BuzzFeed Japan. (https://www.buzzfeed.com/jp/akikokobayashi/kaori)