Five Of His Soldiers Fired For Sexual Harassment, Japan's Army Self-Defense Chief Of Staff: This Is Very Serious

JAKARTA - Five members of the Japanese Army Self-Defense Forces (GSDF) were dishonorably dismissed on Thursday for sexually harassing a former female co-worker from fall 2020 to August last year.

Not only that, but the Ministry of Defense also gave a six-month suspension to the unit commander where Rina Gonoi (23) was the victim of abuse, for failing to take adequate action after receiving complaints from her.

A second lieutenant was given a warning for making explicit sexual comments, while two other high-ranking officers were warned for violating command and surveillance duties.

General Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff of GSDF, said at Thursday's press conference he would "continuously enforce" measures to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.

"We take this very seriously and will build an organizational culture that does not tolerate harassment," he stressed.

According to the Ministry of Defense, Gonoi, who is a member of a unit at Koriyama Camp in Fukushima Prefecture, has been sexually harassed every day, including two sexual harassment incidents during training in June and August last year.

After leaving service in June, Gonoi published allegations of harassment online under his real name and petitioned the Ministry of Defense for an investigation.

After hearing that the perpetrator had been convicted, Gonoi tweeted that he hoped the perpetrators would be " sincerely responsible, regardless of the severity of punishment."