TOKYO - The Tokyo District Court has ordered Waseda University and Naomi Watanabe, a Japanese literary critic and former professor at the prestigious private university, to pay 550,000 yen in damages to a former graduate student for sexual harassment.
Tokyo District Court Judge Kokoro Nakamura ruled on Thursday that Watanabe made sexually offensive remarks to Ms Fukazawa, saying that he “violated the plaintiff’s personal rights and deprived her of the benefits of learning in a positive learning environment”. The court ruled that Watanabe’s remarks were “illegal and beyond the limits of being socially acceptable” and had caused Ms Fukazawa to suffer tremendous emotional distress. It found both Watanabe and the university were liable for damages.