Outrage as medical student, ex-doctor get suspended sentences over gang-rape of woman
A Japanese court has given a medical student who raped a female student who was too drunk to resist a suspended prison term, provoking outrage among women’s rights groups.
The Chiba District Court on Thursday sentenced Mineto Masuda, 23, to three years, suspended for five years, for raping the woman at his apartment in Chiba city in September. Prosecutors had sought a four-year prison term.
The root cause of the problem is that there is insufficient sex education in Japanese schools so most young men do not know how to approach a woman
Yuji Fujisaka, a former doctor at Chiba University Hospital, was found guilty of indecent conduct and sentenced to two years, suspended for three years, in connection with the same incident.
Two other medical students at Chiba University, Kensuke Yamada and Masaya Yoshimoto, are currently on trial for gang rape over the attack.
In his ruling, Judge Noriaki Yoshimura said Masuda “assaulted the victim” despite the woman repeatedly rejecting his advances after she had been plied with drink by the other defendants.
But the judge decided to suspend the sentence on the grounds that “the crime was impulsive and not premeditated”. He added that the defendant “regretted his acts and can be corrected”.
The ruling has been me with shock and anger, with Sumire Hamada, head of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Centre, saying she is “furious about this ruling, but also at all the other similar cases that have happened before”.