But once I had given my statement, he told me that few rape complaints ever lead to convictions, and advised me in the strongest possible terms to drop it. To be fair to the police, they arranged for an officer from the right district to come across town to my local station. Not for the first time, or the last, I considered giving up. I would have to give my statement again, to an officer from the appropriate department in and the relevant police district. He said that because the hotel where I had been taken was in a different district, he could not file my complaint. After an hour or so I finished, emotionally exhausted. I later found out that only 8% of police officers in Japan are female.Ī male officer came in, and I once again had to give my account of what had happened. I would have to tell the whole thing again from the top to a sex crime officer – only male officers were available. When I finally finished, she said she was very sorry, but she was a traffic officer, so could not take my statement. When she arrived, I immediately started to pour out my heart to her (a story that the man I was accusing, has since vehemently denied) breaking down many times the whole tale from when I first met him came out in a flood of tears. Finally the desk sergeant relented, I was shown into an interview room and a female officer was found. Standing at the desk, with other people all around growing increasingly impatient with this young woman who was insisting on seeing a female officer, I had to say “I wish to make a complaint of rape”. At the time I was very distressed, and I thought it would be obvious to him, but no, despite my repeated requests, unless I could give a concrete reason, no female officer would be found. The desk sergeant said no female officers were available, and anyway why did I have to speak to a woman. When I first went to my local police station I asked to speak to a female police officer. Of course I knew they could not simply take my word, and would have to investigate, especially when the man I was accusing was strongly denying my account, but all I was asking was that they commit to at least do that - investigate.

It felt to me that the investigator showed little compassion: “If you can’t answer the exact time, you will never win the case, so you should drop it.” I was running from what I had experienced as the worst nightmare in my life – I wasn’t taking a note of the exact time. I could only remember that it was after 5:30am, but before 6am.

Tsukada shiori.