A Japanese care industry leader has been charged with indecent exposure and is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault from female staff members. Kazumi Watanabe, 55, is a male who identifies as a “transgender woman.”
On February 7, Watanabe was indicted on charges of indecent exposure by Osaka police. The indictment came after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple female staff members.
Watanabe is the owner and head of Aoi Sodanshitsu, a public company that provides services for disabled or otherwise disadvantaged individuals and their families. The company had an agreement with the municipal government of Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, which referred people with vulnerabilities to Aoi Sodanshitsu for assistance when needed. Watanabe and his staff would then provide supportive consultations and referrals to relevant welfare services.
Aoi Sodanshitsu is a subsidiary of Akari, a privately owned company that is also owned by Watanabe.
Law enforcement determined that Watanabe deceived his female victims, who were both staff at his company, by lying about his “gender identity” and also took advantage of his position as their employer. Watanabe stands accused of forcible sexual assault among other crimes, but has only been indicted on indecent exposure charges as of the writing of this article.
Charges related to the alleged sexual assaults have been put on hold while the indecent exposure charges are still being investigated, according to a report by domestic news outlet, The Mainichi.
Both women targeted by Watanabe report being victimized while employed at Watanabe’s privately owned company, Akari, in the spring of 2021.
According to The Mainichi, the 55-year-old is suspected to have “repeatedly performed sexual assault incidents while abusing his power as the victims’ boss so they could not refuse [his advances].”
Both victims report feeling deceived by Watanabe, who used his “gender identity” as a way of getting closer to them.
Watanabe often told others around him that his “body was a man,” but his “heart was a woman.” He dressed in women’s clothing, had manicured nails, and claimed to have “gender dysphoria,” a diagnosis he is not known to officially have.
One of the victims, a woman in her 50s, spoke to local media and said she felt “tricked” by her former employer.
“I was tricked… and he used my weaknesses against me. He played dirty and it’s unforgivable.”
The victim had been working at the company for only a few months when the incident occurred. Part of her work duties included supporting disabled or disadvantaged clients and their families by listening to their concerns and engaging in consultations. She said she had enjoyed her job, which had been directly under Watanabe’s supervision.
The victim explains that in May of 2021, Watanabe approached her while the two were alone in the workplace. He offered her a massage to relieve her stressful posture. While the victim appears to have been reluctant to let Watanabe touch her body at first, the man quickly asserted: “I have gender identity disorder. I’m not interested in female bodies.”
The woman eventually complied as she was scared to disrespect her boss and lose her job. Her guard lowered because of Watanabe’s claims about his identity, the victim allowed him to massage her. She says it started off with her shoulders, but gradually escalated until Watanabe was touching the lower half of her body. He then assaulted her.
Following the abuse, Watanabe threatened to strip the employee of her certification if she quit. She reported the case to the police following the threat.
Another victim, a part-time worker in her 30s, had been lured to a hotel in Osaka under the pretenses that Watanabe, who claimed he was a trained aesthetician, would offer her a massage to help with physical pain. The woman reported being sexually assaulted in the hotel to police, the incident taking place in April 2021.
In addition to the first two victims, police are now investigating reports by other women who have come forward, including by some who accessed the services of Watanabe’s private and public companies.
Watanabe has reportedly denied both allegations by his two female staff.
Since news of the allegations against Watanabe has broken, some trans activists on social media have expressed concern about the media coverage, with one even claiming that coverage of the incident will be “used for trans hate.”
Twitter user @SaikiMako complained that The Mainichi‘s article had mentioned Watanabe’s self-declared gender identity, and called on the outlet to delete the content.
But the majority of Japanese netizens discussing the story on social media are pointing out the impacts of gender ideology on women and society at large.
One Japanese Twitter user attempted to bring the story to an English audience, informing non-Japanese speakers that Japanese police and media have yet to send out “a word of concern for the women victims. In a city with a population of only 56,000, there was only one assailant, and multiple victims.”
They have not sent out a word of concern for the women victims.
— 毛糸子 (@dompenguinn) February 8, 2023
In a city with a population of only 56,000, there was only one assailant, and multiple victims.
The user continued, adding “Incidents like this need to be held accountable by those in authority who told us to believe the gender of our hearts.”
International rankings, including those from the World Economic Forum, consistently place Japan as one of the most unequal countries in the developed world in terms of political representation and economic opportunities for women.
Sexual harassment, upskirting, and public groping are so prevalent in the nation that advertisements on public transportation can be seen warning passengers to be on alert for sexually-motivated crimes, and most major railways offer some form of specially designated women-only spaces or train cars. In addition, voyeurism pornography has been increasing in popularity in recent years, motivating men to install cameras in women’s spaces of undress in order to film them unaware.
Last month, Ko Onishi of the Communist Party of Japan was arrested after breaking into a building and committing an act of voyeurism. According to police, Onishi put a cell phone through the door of a women’s restroom and recorded a video an unidentified female in a state of undress.
Some women in Japan are also now being pushed to ignore their skepticism towards gender ideology and accept that men who identify as transgender are in fact “female.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, Japan Women’s University (JWU), along with several other women’s universities, has begun accepting men who self-declare a transgender status as students.
JWU announced it would be adopting a self-identification policy to be implemented at the start of 2024, despite half of the female students currently enrolled expressing opposition or hesitation.
In response to female student’s concerns about the policy, JWU released a “Diversity Declaration” outlining how administrators intended to work towards convincing female students to change their views on gender ideology. Young women who express skepticism on the topic may be asked to speak with “gender-specialist counselors,” who will try to convince them that some men are actually women.
Gender ideology also appears to be colliding with Japan’s centuries-long tradition of public bathing and creating legal confusion. While the areas are presumed to be segregated based on sex, the introduction of legal document revision means that males who change their gender marker to “female” are technically able to access the facilities.
In January, Reduxx reported on Nao Wasada, a trans-identified man who also uses the name Suzanne Misaki. Wasada uploaded a video to his YouTube channel on December 5 titled “What Happened After a Former Man Took Off His Clothes and Entered the Women’s Bath.” In the vlog, Wasada described his experience entering the women’s section of the bath house in highly sexualized terms.
Wasada also declared on social media that the visit documented in the vlog was not his first time entering a women’s public bath. He compared women’s breasts to a buffet, depicting the scenes of the women’s bathhouse as “all-you-can-fill boobs while your heart is pounding.”
Many online users responded negatively to Wasada’s vlog, asserting that Wasada poses a threat to the women in the facilities he enters.
The Japanese government currently requires “sex-reassignment surgery” in order for individuals to alter sex markers on official documents, though activists are pushing for reforms which would allow for self-identification on the basis of a subjective gender identity with no medical transition.
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