#ActiveBystander video shows Japan how to stop sexual violence against women

What would you do if you saw a man upskirt someone on an escalator, or drop a pill into his date’s drink while she went to the toilet? If your answer is “nothing,” then you are in agreement with the majority of Japanese people. Shiori Onuki, however, wants to change Japan’s cultural acceptance of sexual violence toward women. She has made an online video that shows viewers actions they can take to defuse such situations.

The video is called #ActiveBystander and shows examples of some of the everyday acts of sexual violence that women face in Japan, and how one young man decides to react to them. With a version subtitled in English, the video is getting huge thumbs ups from viewers in Japan and overseas. This is the video getting praises worldwide:

Acts of sexual violence Japanese women face everyday

The first half of the video shows the man turning away as he witnesses six different acts of sexual violence toward women that occur in Japan daily. They include a case of “butsukariya,” in which a man intentionally bumps into a woman’s chest as they pass each other on the street, and a persistent on-street pickup attempt.

“By turning away, you are creating a society that permits sexual violence to happen,” the voiceover says midway through the video. We then see the man in the same situations. But this time, taking small actions that stop the abuse or comfort the victim. “What would you do if you were me?” he challenges the viewer at the end.

Onuki is a sex education YouTuber who is also known by her nickname Shiori-nu. [Read the interview about her work to improve sexual education in Japan here.] She made the video, she says, “because I believe there is meaning in sending a message to third parties that calls on them to help change society into one in which it is difficult to carry out sexual violence.”

Sexual violence is prevalent in Japan, Onuki says. “It’s a country where a way of thinking that discriminates against women is deeply rooted, so daily life is full of that kind of sexual violence.”

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, ranks Japan 121st out of 153 countries in terms of gender parity, with the largest gap among advanced economies.

Sending a different kind of message

Public service announcements in Japan are usually made by Advertising Council Japan or by the government, and run on television. But #ActiveBystander is different. Onuki made the video herself, at a personal cost of around 200,000 yen. The reason she did it, she says, is that she wanted to send a different message.

“Japanese public service ads that aim to prevent sexual violence tend to send a message that women themselves should prevent it by, for example, taking a taxi instead of walking home late at night, or by not wearing revealing clothing,” Onuki says.

“I thought that by just waiting, Japan is probably not going to send out a different message,” she says. With her own YouTube channel, she had a place to promote the video and friends around to make it with, so “I figured I would try to create the message myself, and I made the video.”

She sees the monotony of men in powerful positions as thwarting unconventional ideas. “At the top of Japan’s big companies, it’s just men, so I think there probably isn’t anyone who would have the idea of sending such a message.”

A message with universal appeal

Since its release in October 2020, #ActiveBystander has been viewed 102,275 times on YouTube alone, with an extra 82,381 views of the English-subtitled version. It has even garnered fans overseas. Members of the Australian anti-gender discrimination Facebook group Destroy the Joint have praised it for speaking directly to men since violence against women will only end when men get on board.

On that page, a foreign resident of Japan shares her experience. “This is probably the very first time, ever, that a campaign that fully blames the male has been made and publicized here in Japan. For one thing, the subject is generally taboo; and for another thing, the vast majority of the time women are blamed for male sexual aggression. Too often, bystanders won’t even step in to help. In fact, in all the times (which are MANY) that I have found myself yelling at a chikan (groper), people just look away and pretend nothing is happening. I’ve never been asked, “are you okay,” nor has anyone made eye contact with me to check if I need help.”

A huge gap in lived experience between the two genders

Onuki says that making the video showed her how vastly different men and women’s awareness of sexual violence is. “The scenes we shot are familiar problems for women, but when shooting them with (male) friends (including the cameraman and actors) and explaining the scenes to them, many times they were surprised, saying ‘I’ve never seen this kind of thing,’ or ‘Is this kind of thing really happening in Japan?’ I realized that there’s a huge gap in what one sees based on whether one is living in Japan as a woman or as a man.”

#ActiveBystander is helping men see what they usually miss. As viewer Marushikaku writes on YouTube, “I think this video is great at giving men, who aren’t usually subjected to sexual violence, an image of what sexual violence looks like. If you’ve never been subjected to sexual violence, then you don’t know what it’s like. And if you don’t know that, then you can’t become aware of it, and if you’re not aware of it, then you can’t offer help.”

Many viewers have praised the ad for clearly labeling the incidents that it shows as sexual violence. It reframes the understanding of such events as attacks, and therefore they are not caused by the actions of the victim, nor by the clothing they wear. That is a significant shift in recognition in a country where people are discouraged from making a scene and expected to endure discomfort to maintain peace.

Onuki says she added the English subtitles so that people in other countries could also watch the video. She also did it, she says, to show those outside Japan that people in the country are taking action—that not everyone here accepts that Japan’s terrible gender gap is a condition that cannot be changed. “I would be happy if they think that Japan is also changing,” she says.

Learn more about Onuki’s lead to improve sex education in Japan here.