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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the work of the Tokyo Rape Crisis Centre in the 1980s, analysing how the centre challenged dominant narratives of sexual violence by exposing rape myths, highlighting structural causes, and promoting consent, while supporting victims’ voices and agency.

Paper long abstract

Dominant narratives about sexual violence are rooted in rape myths; they reinforce stigma and victim-blaming attitudes, which silence victims, making sexual violence invisible and hindering social justice and change. Victims’ voices, therefore, by breaking this silence, have the potential to challenge such narratives. While speaking publicly is often a risky choice, in recent years, riding the wave of the #MeToo movement, increasing numbers of sexual violence victims in Japan have been sharing their stories. Central to enabling this shift is the availability of supportive environments and safe spaces in which victims’ voices are taken seriously.

One of the first organisations in Japan that tried to create such a space was the Tokyo Rape Crisis Centre (TRCC), established in 1983 in the capital by a group of women. The TRCC has been active for over forty years, providing phone support for victims of sexual violence and engaging in various educational and awareness-raising activities. Positioning the founding of the TRCC as the beginning of anti-sexual violence activism in Japan, in this paper, I aim to explore how its activities have been pivotal in challenging dominant narratives of sexual violence and reframing it as a societal, rather than individual, issue.

Drawing on TRCC lectures and newsletters from the 1980s, I analyse how the organisation initiated public conversations on rape myths, the structural roots of sexual violence in patriarchy, shortcomings in the legal system, evolving understandings of consent, and the right to sexual self-determination. In the 1980s, when there were no institutional support services specifically targeting victims of sexual abuse, and the taboo and stigma on sexual violence systemically silenced victims, the TRCC offered one of the first platforms where their voices were heard and validated.

The TRCC kickstarted a (slow and still ongoing) process of social and cultural change. Not only did it lay the groundwork for later forms of anti-sexual violence activism, but it also contributed to expanding the narrative possibilities available to survivors, making it incrementally easier for them to speak out and reclaim control over their own stories.