On July 9, 42-year-old Ikuko Ishida held a news conference in Tokyo to talk about child sex abuse. Ishida claims to have been the victim of sexual coercion at the hands of a male teacher in Sapporo from the day before she graduated junior high school until she was a university sophomore. As reported by Mainichi Shimbun, she told reporters, "I didn't have any concept that I could be suspicious of someone who is a teacher, someone who is meant to set an example as an ideal adult."
Struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from that experience, Ishida finally attempted to seek justice four years ago. However, the Sapporo Municipal Board of Education refused to punish the teacher, who was still a classroom instructor and denied her allegations. Since the statute of limitations had expired, the police were of no help, so Ishida sued the board of education and the teacher in Tokyo District Court in February 2019, but the case was rejected because the alleged crime had taken place so long ago.
Ishida appealed and is now carrying out her own research into sexual violence against children by school teachers. In that capacity, she attended a meeting by a government panel studying the Penal Code with regard to sexual crimes, especially time limits for bringing charges against alleged perpetrators. As Ishida told the panel in July, "Children don't have an awareness of themselves as victims, and, until they can face the scary things that happen to them, they will avoid them."