Domestic abuse soars in Japan, and it’s men reporting women for the violence
- The number of male complaints of domestic violence increase eight-fold in four years, but a recent survey suggests figures may be far higher
After decades of being perceived by many Japanese men as second-class citizens who are good for little more than cooking, cleaning and bearing children, women here are fighting back. And they are not pulling any punches.
On May 31, police in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, arrested 44-year-old Mika Masaoka on suspicion of murdering her husband, Kenichi. Masaoka told police that she lost her temper during an argument and stabbed him in the neck and chest with a kitchen knife.
In March, 43-year-old woman was arrested in the Tokyo suburb of Machida and charged with drugging her boyfriend and then stabbing him at least 10 times. Chinatsu Sato told police she was unhappy in her relationship with Tomio Arashi and had been planning to kill him for about a week.
That same month, a 65-year-old woman from Osaka Prefecture was charged with murder after she smothered her husband early one morning. Yoshiko Imaguchi said she killed her husband, Mitsuaki, 74, because she was stressed by his incessant complaining.
As regular and violent as the above cases are, they represent only a fraction of a much wider, but perhaps less visible trend. Reports of women getting violent or abusing men have skyrocketed in Japan in recent years, with experts suggesting economic decline and a “calm and gentle” male culture shift may be driving the animosity.