Sexual Violence and the Law in Japan [Hardcover]

This book provides a detailed examination of judicial decision-making in Japanese cases involving sexual violence. It describes the culture of 'eroticised violence' in Japan, which sees the feminine body as culpable and the legal system which encourages homogeneity and conformity in decision-making and shows how the legal constraints confronting women claiming sexual assaults are enormous. It includes analysis of specific case studies and a discussion of recent moves to address the problem.Prelude: Rape v Murder - or (Excessive) Self-Defence?  1. Legal Storytelling and Sexual Violence  2. Hegemonic Masculinity and Guilty Feminine Bodies  3. Confronting the Japanese Criminal Justice System  4. Credibility in the Court: Scripting Rape  5. 'In Truth She Was Probably Very Drunk': Women Subject to Scrutiny  6. Markers of Truth: Silencing Women in the Court  7. Subversive Stories and Feminist Strategies  8. ConclusionThis book provides a detailed examination of judicial decision-making in Japanese cases involving sexual violence. It describes the culture of 'eroticised violence' in Japan, which sees the feminine body as culpable.Catherine Burns lectures in the School of Languages and linguistics, Griffith University, Australia. Her research interests include gender studies, law and popular culture in Japan, and feminist jurisprudence. Sexual Violence and the Law is not the study of misery, but a book of light and shade.  True, its main concern is to expose the institutionalized injustice women face as victims of sexual violence. But the book also devotes itself to feminist strategies to subvert the inherent patriarchy of the law...Even when its focus on the dark side of Japanese life, Burn's book sheds important new light on gender and sexuality in Japan...Playfully, Burns makes the most of her narrative method by assuming the role of storytell