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Japanese society is inundated with fantasies of incest and sexual predation, yet information on the sexual abuse of children in the home is scarce. Japan has become accustomed to the idea of child abuse in recent years, but the issue of sexual abuse by family members is "still largely taboo,"1 and official figures limit the number of reported instances.2 Interestingly, and indicative of the state of group proclivities, "at the start of the 2000s," Japanese law "[did] not recognize incest (kinshin sokari) as a crime...unless rape or indecent assault ha[d] taken place (a difficult thing to prove) and the victim [was] prepared to press charges (which is very hard for them to do)."3 Thus, it would appear that "consensual" incest, or incest without indecent assault, or incest without a complaining victim, though reprehensible,4 was sanctioned by the legal system. Furthermore, heedless to the possibilities of the victimization of male children and older female children, Japanese law stood mute regarding sexual activity with boys and explicitly allowed sexual activity with girls of thirteen and above. Thus, incest with a male was perhaps officially unthinkable, but perfectly legal.
The Law for Punishing Acts Related to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and for Protecting Children passed the Japanese Diet in 1999. Inconsistently, Article 2 defined a "child" as "a person under the age of 18 years," Article 3 set the "Age of majority" at "twenty (20) years old," and Article 177 defined "the Age of consent for sexual activity" as "thirteen (13) years." Articles 731 and 737 sanctioned child marriage, defining the "Age for consent for marriage" as "eighteen (18) years for men, and sixteen (16) years for women," i.e., female children could marry. Moreover, under Article 177, rape was classified as a crime committed against a female. "A person who, through violence or intimidation, has sexual intercourse with a female person of not less than thirteen (13) years of age commits the crime of rape," punishable by not less than two years imprisonment. "The same shall apply to a person who has sexual intercourse with a female person under thirteen (13) years of age." Male persons were ostensibly overlooked as potential rape victims.5
The best indicator of the ambivalent manner in which the sexual abuse of...