New | Japan plans to crack down on 'revenge porn' with new legislation

The Japanese government is planning to introduce new legislation to clamp down on “revenge porn,” a burgeoning problem that some commentators in Japan are labelling as a “new social crisis.”

The number of cases has risen rapidly in recent years, up from 8,121 incidents that police were required to handle in 2008 to 27,334 reports in 2012. When the figures for last year are released later this year, authorities anticipate that the total will have surpassed 30,000.

While the posting of indecent still images or videos of former partners - the vast majority of whom are women - is calculated to humiliate the victim, there are cases that have led to far more serious incidents.

In October, a schoolgirl aged 18 was allegedly stabbed to death by a former boyfriend after she broke off their relationship.

Charles Ikenaga was hiding in a closet in the home of Saaya Suzuki in the west Tokyo suburb of Mitaka before the attack.

Suzuki had blocked Ikenaga’s phone calls and mail messages after he began to make threats against her, including a threat to post explicit photos of her on the internet.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been stung into action by the surge in cases, with Junko Mihara, who heads the party’s women’s section, saying that the law needs to be changed so that victims have the right to demand that images or videos be swiftly removed from the internet.