TOKYO (TR) – A feminine worker of East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has filed a lawsuit towards the railway large, demanding over 8.1 million yen in damages after she was allegedly mocked by superiors and ignored by administration following a office voyeurism case.
The lawsuit, filed on September 18, accuses JR East of failing in its responsibility to keep up a secure working surroundings and making an attempt to brush the incident underneath the rug, studies Ben54.jp (Sep. 18).
According to the grievance, the ordeal started on August 5, 2024, when a male colleague was arrested in a separate voyeurism case. When police examined the suspect’s smartphone, they found a trove of tosatsu (voyeur) photographs taken inside the corporate’s restroom.
The plaintiff realized she was a sufferer weeks later when a coworker casually approached her, saying, “I heard you’re a victim. The culprit is [Colleague A].” She confirmed the photographs with police and filed a legal grievance. The perpetrator was fired in September and obtained a suspended jail sentence in November.
However, the crime itself was solely the start of the lady’s nightmare.
While in police custody, the suspect allegedly used his spouse — additionally a JR East worker — to ask one other male coworker to filter his desk and locker. The gadgets he desperately needed hidden? The feminine sufferer’s footwear and used sanitary pads.
The coworker was caught sneaking into the workplace late at evening by a night-shift worker, thwarting the tried destruction of proof. When the sufferer reported this to the corporate, administration refused to penalize the confederate, reportedly claiming they might not punish an “unsuccessful attempt.” When the corporate lastly checked the perpetrator’s desk, the used sanitary pads and ladies’s sneakers had been found.
“Voyeurism is common”
The lawsuit highlights a deeply ingrained tradition of misogyny within the aftermath of the invention, citing a sequence of extremely insensitive remarks from administration and medical employees.
When she sought assist, an industrial doctor reportedly advised her, “Voyeurism is common here. You’re just lucky he was caught.”
A supervisor allegedly dismissed her misery by saying, “It’s tough being cute.” Meanwhile, her boss refused to make the incident public, and one other worker was overheard at an organization consuming occasion bragging, “Something amazing happened. It’ll make for great drinking gossip next month.”
The firm can be accused of leaking her identification to coworkers and exposing the perpetrator’s precise hidden-camera strategies throughout a employees assembly, regardless of her express pleas for confidentiality.
Furthermore, her request for a office switch was allegedly ignored for 3 months. When administration lastly provided a brand new place, it was an administrative position at a practice heart the place girls made up simply 2.6% of the employees, requiring a grueling day by day commute of as much as three hours.
Workplace damage
Diagnosed with acute stress dysfunction, the lady has been on a depart of absence since January 2025 and had her situation formally acknowledged as a office damage in March.
She is in search of 8,169,360 yen to cowl emotional misery, misplaced wages, and authorized charges.
Speaking from behind a display screen at a press convention in Tokyo, the sufferer expressed her frustration. “They wouldn’t let me quit, they wouldn’t let me take leave, and they wouldn’t transfer me. I had no escape,” she stated. “I want to change a corporate culture where victims of sex crimes cannot raise their voices.”
When approached for remark, a JR East consultant said that the corporate had not but obtained the authorized grievance and declined to remark additional.