KYODO NEWS - Jul 8, 2019 - 20:38 | All, Japan

Japanese journalist Shiori Ito, who has accused an older male political writer of rape, said in a damages lawsuit Monday that she tried to stop him and was "desperate to protect" herself.

Ito, 30, is seeking 11 million yen ($101,500) in compensation from Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief for Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc., known as TBS, who later published a best-selling book on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yamaguchi has denied any unlawful act.

"I felt dizzy when I was dining together (with Yamaguchi), and when I woke up at a hotel I was being raped," Ito said in a hearing at the Tokyo District Court. "I was desperate to protect my body, telling him to 'stop.'"

(Shiori Ito at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Oct. 24, 2017.)

Ito claims she was raped at a hotel in 2015 following a dinner in Tokyo with Yamaguchi, who had promised assistance in getting her a job.

"Even now I have flashbacks," she told the hearing, adding that the stress has led to some physical ailments.

Following the incident, she filed a complaint with police, but prosecutors dropped the case in July 2016 citing insufficient evidence.

Ito later filed a complaint with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, but it also judged in September 2017 that the prosecutors' decision was "appropriate," saying there was no reason to overturn it.

Yamaguchi told the hearing his act was consensual.

"Ito, who got drunk, threw up at the hotel and I showed displeasure as my belongings got dirty," said Yamaguchi, who is in his 50s and quit TBS in 2016 to become a freelance journalist. "Maybe she was trying to ease the awkward atmosphere. She was the one who initiated things by pulling me by the hand."

The trial also includes a counter-lawsuit filed by Yamaguchi, who is seeking 130 million yen in compensation from Ito, claiming his social reputation has been damaged by her remarks.

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