Grievance mechanisms and challenges to ensuring effective remedies for athlete abuses in Japan

Abstract

Unfortunately, harassment and abuse in the sporting context have been serious social issues in Japan for a long time. There are three judicial and non-judicial mechanisms that address sports-related abuses: civil procedure, criminal procedure, and disciplinary measures by sporting organizations. Victims can avail of all these mechanisms simultaneously or choose one or two of them. Theoretically, these three mechanisms operate independently, but in practice, each one affects others. Although victims are desperately in need of support, grievance mechanisms sometimes fail to protect victims due to inflexible jurisdiction of the sports-governing bodies. Another challenge is the lack of a system to share information about sport-related human rights abuse cases among sports-governing bodies to prevent further abuse cases. Considering this background, this paper proposes legal measures to effectively prevent harassment and abuse in Japanese sports, taking lessons from to laws, systems, and projects for safe sport in other countries including the U.S., Canada, and Germany. We conclude by proposing the establishment of a centralized entity in Japan, which maintains functions of reporting, investigating, and adjudicating harassment and abuses in Japanese sports, while promoting the concept of safe sport in Japan.