BLACK BOX
BY Shiori Ito / TRanslated from japanese BY Allison Markin Powell
Winner, English PEN award
Winner, 7th FPAJ (Free Press Association of Japan) Best Journalism Award
Black Box details the harrowing experience of sexual assault Shiori Ito faced as a young journalist in Japan, as well as the national reckoning that followed.
In 2017, Ito went public with the accusation that Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent TV journalist in Japan, had raped her two years previously. But when Ito had gone to the police after the assault, she was told that her case was a “black box”: it had happened behind closed doors and was therefore unprosecutable.
Ito became aware of the alarming amount of black boxes built into legal and investigative systems in Japan, and the inaccessible economy around legal advice for victims of sexual assault and gender-based violence. From the attitude of investigators to the difficulties retrieving time-limited security camera footage, Ito’s experience navigates the labyrinthine expectations placed upon victims.
Upon publication in 2017, Ito’s account was integral to the #MeToo movement in Japan and became a necessary catalyst for cultural and legal change. As international outlets covered every step of her story – documented in the BBC film Japan’s Secret Shame – her book launched a societal reckoning. At the end of 2019, Ito won a civil case against Yamaguchi. In 2022, Japan's Supreme Court upheld a high court decision that Yamaguchi must pay damages.
Ito's personal story is the kernel of a searing journalistic exposé, exposing how Japan’s relatively low official rates of sexual assault mask a culture of victim-shaming and institutional failure on the part of the police, law and media to bring perpetrators to justice.
PRAISE
“This is a truly extraordinary, urgent book that everyone who wants to truly understand our present moment must read. Ito’s writing is clear, lucid and brave - she is an essential and powerful voice. This book left me both angry and hopeful, furious and inspired. An astonishing achievement.” — Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of I Choose Elena and My Body Keeps Your Secrets
”Ito radiates with passion and conviction for seeking the truth.” — Ryuichi Sakamoto, musician and activist
”Ito has forever changed life for Japanese women with her brave accusation of sexual violence against her harasser.” — TIME
“A black box is a system which can be viewed without any knowledge of its internal workings, whose implementation is opaque; it is also term once applied by the prosecutor at Itō Shiori's trial to the details of her rape case. In this extraordinary memoir, Itō not only documents the inside of this black box in cool, unflinching prose, but allows us to see the mechanisms by which sexual assault cases are rendered 'opaque' and condemned, in the same breath, to distrust, disrepute, and invisibility. The resulting account goes beyond devastating and compulsive personal record, beyond necessary and unflattering description of Japan-as-patriarchy, to provide a rare portrait of the murky structures supporting rape culture the world over, rendered in matter-of-fact brushstrokes.” — Polly Barton, translator and author of Fifty Sounds
“These are not the words of a victim, but of a serious journalist. The vital urgency of Shiori Ito’s record forces us to recognize the existence of the many similar cases that have gone unrecorded. Behind her words are the cries of countless others who did not speak up because of the intense pressure against them. I hope that these cries will not be silenced. I hope that someday we can progress further to a world where there are no such screams. This book is a step toward making such hopes not an impossible dream.” —Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman
“Shiori Ito gives a fascinating insight into Japanese social and legal mores, from ‘quasi-rape’ to the way women are treated in the media. Her account of her courageous fight against sexual violence rejects the harmful trope of the cardboard victim, reclaiming her identity as an adventurous, lively, determined, blithe spirit.” —Sohaila Abdulali, author of What We Talk about When We Talk about Rape
MORE INFORMATION
Publication date: 24 June 2021
Format: B-format paperback (198mm × 129mm)
Extent: 224pp
ISBNs: 9781911284598 (print) / 9781911284581 (ebook)
Rights held: UK
