Rena Fukazawa had filed a lawsuit against the university and the former professor, claiming a total of 5.5 million yen (RM18,400) in damages. -The Japan News
TOKYO (The Japan News/Asia News Network): The Tokyo District Court has ordered Waseda University and Naomi Watanabe, a Japanese literary critic and former professor at the prestigious private university, to pay 550,000 yen (RM18,400) in damages to a former graduate student for sexual harassment.
Rena Fukazawa, 32, now a writer, filed a lawsuit with the court against Watanabe, 71, and the university, claiming a total of 5.5 million yen in damages.
Watanabe was a professor at Waseda’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where Fukazawa had been a student.
Tokyo District Court judge Kokoro Nakamura ruled on Thursday (April 6) that Watanabe made sexually offensive remarks to Fukazawa, saying that he “violated the plaintiff’s personal rights and deprived her of the benefits of learning in a positive learning environment”.
Fukazawa enrolled in the graduate school’s creative writing and criticism course in April 2016. The court ruled that Watanabe, who was her academic adviser, made several sexually suggestive statements to her.
For instance, he said at a restaurant in April 2017: “After you graduate, I’m going to make you my woman.”
Fukazawa dropped out in March 2018, and in July that year, Watanabe was dismissed by the university for sexual harassment.
The court ruled that Watanabe’s remarks were “illegal and beyond the limits of being socially acceptable” and had caused Fukazawa to suffer tremendous emotional distress. It found both Watanabe and the university liable for damages.
The university was ordered to pay an additional 55,000 yen aside from the 550,000 yen in compensation for the actions of another professor who, after being consulted by Fukazawa, said she was partly to blame for what occurred.
While pursuing her career as a writer, Fukazawa founded the “Don’t Overlook Harassment at Universities” association in 2020, through which she disseminates information about sexual harassment and other incidents at universities.
“I hope the university will not repeat the same mistake,” Fukazawa said at a press conference in Tokyo after the ruling.
The lawyer representing Watanabe said: “He deeply regrets what he said (to her), and we would like to discuss a response.”
Waseda released a statement saying: “We sincerely and deeply apologise to the victim.”
