Recently, Yasuharu Ishikawa, president of stripe International, a well-known Japanese fashion brand, officially resigned.
All because he has repeatedly harassed female employees of his company, including late-night riots, forced hugs and kisses, forced indecency, forced female employees to have sex with him, and other bad behaviors.
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As early as the end of 2018, he was exposed to repeated harassment of female employees of the company, and the company deliberately set up an "internal temporary investigation meeting" for this purpose, at which Ishikawa admitted that he had 4 sexual harassment incidents.
However, the company only gave him a "serious warning", which was a futile punishment.
Afterwards, Ishikawa is still in the top position, and the related sex scandal has been artificially blocked. During this period, he also became a member of the "Japan Equal Rights Policy Legislation for Men and Women".
It wasn't until early March of this year, when the Asahi Shimbun struck him one after another to report on his sex scandal, that the truth was revealed.
Who would have thought that the president, who owns The most well-known women's clothing brand in Japan, manages more than half of the female staff, and once sought to create a comfortable working environment for female employees, will extend his magic to his own female employees?
-01-
People seek welfare before, and sexual harassment after people
During his tenure at Stripe International, Yasuharu Ishikawa was very committed to improving the welfare of the company's female colleagues, such as extending maternity leave and providing special allowances, and he was also a member of The Japan "Equal Rights and Policy Legislation for Men and Women."
Japan's gender equality and policy legislation is composed of 25 cabinet members and non-governmental parliamentarians, with the aim of "respecting the human rights of men and women and the participation of women in the policy" for the purpose of "filing a case on the policy of respecting the human rights of men and women and the participation of women". Ishikawa was elected to the Diet in March 2019 as an entrepreneur committed to balancing the work and childcare environment.
In November 2019, he attended the "Men and Women Painting Conference" held at the Prime Minister's Residence, where he gave a one-minute speech, saying that his group aims to provide a comfortable working environment for all men and women.
< h5 class= "image_desc" > Yasunharu Ishikawa at the meeting</h5>
Now, it is revealed that he has repeatedly harassed female employees since 2015, using his position, which is really ironic.
According to the Asahi Shimbun, at an "internal interim investigation meeting" held at Stripe in 2018, Ishikawa admitted to four incidents of sexual harassment between August 2015 and May 2018:
First: Let the female staff go to the hotel where they are staying and forcibly molest them without the consent of the other party.
Second: Send a photo of yourself to a female employee via LINE and ask them to send a private photo.
Third: Late at night, the attempt to get the female staff to the hotel bar.
Fourth: Privately coax female staff to come out for a "date."
<h5 class = "image_desc" > (part of the chat history exposed on the Asahi Shimbun</h5>).
In addition, some unknown facts were revealed at the meeting: Ishikawa threatened female employees to have sexual relations, forcibly hugged female employees, forcibly kissed female employees, and so on.
And that, perhaps, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Entrepreneurs like Ishikawa become major shareholders and are absolute rights holders in the organization. These high-ranking people use their power and sexual violence through sexual harassment and sexual assault in order to satisfy their desire to conquer and manipulate others.
The abuser's temporary desire to vent, for the victim, will bring a lingering shadow to the life, and even ruin the life.
-02-
Why did young talents become hypocrites?
Before the sex scandal, Yasunori Ishikawa was arguably one of Japan's young entrepreneurs.
He single-handedly created Stripe International in 1994, which includes clothing brands such as Earth Music & Ecology, which are popular with young women. In 2009, the company's annual turnover was 20 billion yen, and in 2019, it soared to 140 billion yen. At the end of 2019, the number of employees reached 3699.
< h5 class = "image_desc" > sex scandal exposed, netizens spoofed CM</h5>
Among them, Earth Music & Ecology led the "Mori Girl" trend at the beginning of the millennium, with popular female stars such as Aoi Miyazaki and Shiriko Hirose as brand spokespersons, ranking among the most well-known Japanese brands, and basically every senior Japanese girl wears Earth Music & Ecology.
<h5 class="image_desc" > Earth Music ads shot by actresses such as Aoi Miyazaki and Silk Hirose</h5>
Ishikawa is good at running his own social platform, and has painstakingly created his own perfect entrepreneurial personality: paying attention to society, keen on public welfare, kind to help students, and loving to run marathons.
Led the company to actively participate in the LGBT affirmative action movement, and won the highest award "Academy Award" for 4 consecutive years:
In November 2019, he received the Order of the Blue Ribbon of Japan in recognition of his contributions to the rain disaster in western Japan:
There was also a book that was ranked first in the Amazon business book list:
At the same time, Ishikawa loves Chinese culture and pays attention to the development of China's society. For example, in February this year, he expressed solidarity with Wuhan and cheered for China on Weibo:
It also provided 3,800 masks for free to employees in China:
Therefore, in addition to the condemnation of Ishikawa on the Internet, there are also people who make different voices: Ishikawa has done all these meaningful things, why should he overturn everything because of his sex scandal?
It can only be said that Ishikawa's painstaking management of his own people for so many years has achieved its goal.
Today, the glory he has received and the good deeds he has done will only make his sexual harassment look even uglier.
Why didn't he affect the lives of many innocent girls and even destroy their otherwise beautiful lives through such a vicious act of "sexual harassment"?
-03-
Sexual violence is rife
No longer do the silent majority
After the incident was exposed, Ishikawa initially resigned only as a member of the Legislative Council on Japan's Equal Rights Policy for Men and Women.
Later, as public opinion continued to escalate, he was pressured to resign from the company he founded, and his position as president was succeeded by Tachibana Takayoshi, a managing director:
Nonetheless, Ishikawa still owns a 40% stake in Stripe and remains the legal owner of Stripe International, thus continuing to enjoy the benefits generated by Stripe.
Ishikawa's punishment was nothing more than that. For the time being, the victims of the incident have not yet been seen to resort to the law and to make legal charges against him.
But the victims are no longer able to swallow their voices, can break the silence, and speak out boldly, and have been very brave.
After all, despite the openness of Sexuality in Japanese society, there are too many people who regard public discussion of sexual assault as taboo.
In the 2019 Global Ranking of Gender Equality, Japan ranked only 121st, the lowest compared to the past. The plight of Japanese women is obvious to all, but everyone is accustomed to it, and this "habituation" is a mistake.
Until Ito Shiori broke this "habit", she was the first woman in Japanese history to publicly look and report sexual assault under her real name, and after 4 years, she finally won the case.
The perpetrator of the incident was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe biographer and former TBS Station Washington bureau chief Keiyuki Yamaguchi. After the sexual assault, Yamaguchi still published books, appeared on the show, and also ridiculed the matter on the show, and used his strong network of connections to obstruct Ito's complaints at every turn, and even brazenly counter-sued Ito for defamation.
Popular model Keiko Mizuhara also had her own personal experience on her own IG story:
"When I was in my early 20s, I used to shoot a commercial for a certain company, which was the kind of picture of the upper body being completely naked and covering the chest with my hands. At that time, I didn't know why there were a lot of men on the shooting scene, about 20 or so, who should all be the top management of this company. I told the photographer that I didn't want to shoot naked under these conditions, but he insisted that I must shoot. 'It's work and can't be rejected'. So I was forced to finish the shooting naked under the gaze of many men, and I was very nervous and annoyed. ”
This photographer is Keisuke Araki. In 2018, Araki's inspiration muse model KaoRi exposed his long-term physical and mental abuse, and she exposed Araki's belief that "men are superior to women" regard women as props and do not respect models.
Sexual violence like this is not far away, it is all around us. Right now, when you're reading this article, it's playing out.
Women should not be silent in the face of sexual violence, because silence is tolerance for crime, condoning the atrocities of the perpetrator. Society as a whole must also correct the old concept that "no Say No is equal to consent" and educate everyone to realize that "without Say Yes is equal to disagreement." ”
As Shiori Ito mentions in the book Black Box:
"If we remain silent, the evil consequences it appeases will be reflected in our future lives and in the lives of our children, just like looking in the mirror."
I hope that each of us can come up with understanding, think more empathy, and understand the "pain of others". Institutions can be improved to protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice.