Citation

Suga T. Sex. Reprod. Health Matters 2021; 29(1): e1874601.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/26410397.2021.1874601

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In Japan, domestic violence refers to "violence perpetrated by a person who is or has been in an intimate relationship, such as a spouse or lover". 1 In the Cabinet Office survey in 2018, 31.3% of women and 19.9% of men said they had experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Among these, 13.8% of women and 4.8% of men had experienced severe IPV on a number of occasions. During COVID-19, people were required to refrain from going out, so domestic violence in the home increased, and the number of consultations seen at the Public Spousal Violence Counselling Support Center increased by 1.3 in April 2020 compared to April 2019, although there has been some stabilisation since, with no differences between July and September 2020 and the same period in 2019. The Public Spousal Violence Counselling Support Center is an organisation that has 292 centres in Japan, providing spousal relationships counselling face-to-face, or by telephone.

In response to the increase in domestic violence, the private organisation All Japan Women's Shelter Network submitted a request to the Japanese government on March 31, to intensify the prevention of domestic violence and child abuse as a countermeasure during COVID-19. 3 The contents of the request were to "start a public domestic violence consultation service despite the emergency situation of COVID-19" and called for "telephone consultation, web consultation (WEB), text chats for real time communication (LINE), establishment of consultations with foreigners (for those in international marriages), survivor protection, accompanying assistance, cooperation with private shelters, and individual subsidies (of a special flat-rate support of US$935)...

Language: en

Keywords

*domestic violence in Japan; *DV Consultation Plus; *gender studies; *sexual violence