In accordance with the policies for sexual harassment, more Japanese have become aware that sexual harassment is an infringement of human rights and needs to be stopped. The author(s) conducted the survey on violence against women (a Japanese version of the “survey on women’s well-being and safety in Europe”) in Kansai region in 2016. In this presentation, the author presents the reality of sexual harassment (e.g., the occurrence of specific types of sexual harassment) in Japan and compare some results of the Japanese survey with those of the EU survey.
Important findings include that close to half (44%) of Japanese women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime and their rate is lower than that for European women (55%). The percent “gap” between Japan and EU is smaller in sexual harassment than in other forms of violence against women (refer to our previous paper). Our multivariate analysis with Japanese data suggests that young, well-educated women who are currently in education or employed are more likely to experience sexual harassment, and which are consistent with those of EU survey.
These findings are discussed in consideration of various aspects of Japanese society such as traditional gender role expectation.
Keywords: sexual harassment, cross-national comparison, Japan, European Union, gender role