is a former Japanese journalist and a biographer of former Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

. He has been accused of the rape of

Shiori Itō , , is a Japanese journalist and filmmaker. Her work focuses on gender equality and human rights issues. Itō's activism led to her inclusion in the ''Time'' 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Itō gained international attention after speaki ...

, while she was an intern at

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

. His denials and the police's refusal to press the charges against Yamaguchi sparked the

Me too movement #MeToo is a social movement and Consciousness raising, awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which women publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was init ...

in Japan.

History

Noriyuki Yamaguchi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1966. He attended the

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

Faculty of Economics. He later joined the

Tokyo Broadcasting System Television JORX-DTV (channel 6), branded as , is the flagship station of the Japan News Network in the Kantō region. It is owned-and-operated by , a subsidiary of TBS Holdings. TBS Television is one of the "five private broadcasters based in Tokyo." ...

where he was assigned to the news department as a photojournalist. His overseas assignments included London, England,

Phnom Penh, Cambodia Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

, and Washington, DC, US. After retiring, he appeared on TV programs such as TV Asahi and Fuji TV and on the radio. On 23 April 2015, he was dismissed as Washington bureau chief and moved from the news bureau to the sales bureau. On 30 May 2016, he left TBS Television to become a visiting fellow at the

East West Center East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

, an American think tank, with journalists. According to Yamaguchi's Facebook account, he is now self-employed.

Biographer for Shinzo Abe

Yamaguchi is the personal biographer for

, the former prime minister of Japan. He published two books while Abe was still the incumbent prime minister.

Works

* America Invaded by China (中国に侵略されたアメリカ) * Prime Minister (総理) * Dark Fight (暗闘)

Civil Lawsuits

formally filed a lawsuit against Yamaguchi in September 2017 for raping her in a hotel on 4 April 2015. Itō previously filed a police report in July 2016, although it was dropped by prosecutors for insufficient evidence. Itaru Nakamura, a close confidant of both Prime Minister Abe and Yamaguchi and acting chief of the

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 4 ...

Investigative Division at the time, admitted in the weekly magazine

Shukan Shincho A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are ofte ...

to having halted the probe and arrest warrant. Itō subsequently filed a complaint with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, but a September 2017 ruling did not charge Yamaguchi since "there was no common law basis to overturn." A Tokyo court in December 2019 awarded Itō 3.3 million yen (US$30,000) plus additional fees in damages from Yamaguchi; however, he stated that he would appeal the decision. (She had initially sought from Yamaguchi 11 million yen (US$100,000) in compensation.) Yamaguchi denied the charges and filed a countersuit against Itō, seeking 130 million yen (US$1,180,000) in compensation, claiming the incident was consensual and the ensuing accusations has damaged his reputation, although that suit was later turned down due to inconsistencies in his testimony. This ruling has garnered international attention due to the underreporting of sexual assaults and rape in Japan, and the number of societal and legal obstacles Itō had to endure for speaking up. The Japanese high court upheld the lower court ruling in favor of Itō, ordering Yamaguchi to pay 3.3 million yen to her. The presiding judge concluded that Yamaguchi began sexual intercourse with an unconscious Itō. The court also ordered Itō to pay 550,000 yen to Yamaguchi for damages for defaming him by the claim in her book accusing him of giving her a date drug, with no evidence. Both have appealed their rulings. In the final appeal in 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Yamaguchi's appeal. The second trial judgment, which found that Yamaguchi had engaged in sexual acts without consent and ordered him to pay compensation of approximately 3.32 million yen, was finalized. In a decision dated 7 July 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that there were no grounds for appeal, such as a violation of the constitution. Itō's book ''Black Box'', published in Japanese and English talks about the incident and her experiences that followed. Itō's film Black Box Diaries received critical acclaim and was named one of the top 5 documentary films of 2024 by the

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...

and nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film in the

97th Academy Awards The 97th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly r ...

Disputes with Yoshinori Kobayashi

On 24 January 2019, Yamaguchi filed a civil suit against cartoonist

Yoshinori Kobayashi is a Japanese manga artist known for his far-right political commentary manga ''Gōmanism Sengen''. In particular, the three volumes '' On War'' (''Sensōron'') of this series made him famous in Japan, together selling more than 1.5 million ...

. Yamaguchi stated that Kobayashi disseminated false information completely different from the facts in the

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

Gomanism Declaration drawn by Kobayashi in the SAPIO magazine's August 2017 issue, where Yamaguchi was depicted as a criminal."Monthly Hanada April 2019", Asuka Shinsha, 29 February 2019, pp. 32–39.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamaguchi, Noriyuki Living people 1966 births 20th-century Japanese journalists 21st-century Japanese journalists Japanese male journalists Tokyo Broadcasting System Japanese rapists Violence against women in Japan Keio University alumni