TOKYO: Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Tuesday that he has ordered a special probe covering the entire Self-Defense Forces in response to sexual assault allegations.

The special defense inspection will be conducted after former Ground SDF member Rina Gonoi, 22, sought a third-party reinvestigation into alleged sexual assault by then colleagues last year.

“Harassment is a violation of basic human rights and must not happen,” Hamada told a news conference.

Gonoi visited the Defense Ministry on Wednesday to submit a petition for the reinvestigation signed by over 100,000 people.

In August last year, Gonoi took a leave from work at a GSDF camp in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, after three male GSDF colleagues senior to her allegedly pressed the lower part of their bodies against her.

An SDF police unit has sent papers on the three to public prosecutors on suspicion of indecent assault.

In May this year, the Fukushima District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to prosecute them. Gonoi quit the GSDF the following month, challenged the decision and made public her allegations online.

On Tuesday, Hamada said he has dispatched prosecutors of the Inspector General’s Office of Legal Compliance of his ministry to the GSDF Northeastern Army, which oversees the unit to which Gonoi belonged at the time of the incident.

The ministry will also set up an expert panel to review measures against harassment.

JIJI Press