This film follows the moving story of 29-year-old Japanese journalist, Shiori Ito, who alleges she was raped by a well-known TV journalist and biographer of Japan’s prime minister, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, after the two met for a work dinner in 2015. Mr Yamaguchi strenuously denies the claims.Despite reporting the case to the police, a process in which Shiori was required to re-enact the alleged rape with a life-size doll, the case was dropped after a year long investigation. When Shiori took the unprecedented decision to go public with her allegations and reveal her identity, she was met with with public humiliation and hate mail.With unique access, the film follows Shiori over the year after she went public. While the global #MeToo movement galvanised women across the world to speak up about their allegations of sexual assault, in Japan the response was muted. Undeterred, Shiori visits the institutions she believes failed her and meets other women who are too afraid to speak out. The film interweaves Shiori’s story with the broader social context in Japan, where until 2017, the minimum sentence for rape was shorter than theft.
