Help Nine Prosecute Her Attacker
Nine Yamamoto-Masson has worked fearlessly for womxn*, BIPoCs, and displaced people in Berlin. She is a tireless advocate and activist focusing on gender and racial intersectional justice. If you don't know Nine, please check out her bio below!
She was sexually assaulted this spring on a research trip to Hiroshima, Japan, while researching for her (unfunded) PhD, activism, and trying to find our more about her family history. Nine has decided to press charges against her assailant, with the support of a Japanese women’s organisation who will provide a lawyer and the legal know-how to bring her case forward.
As sexually violent crimes are extremely underreported and often not prosecuted in Japan, Nine's case is important and significant. Due to peculiarities in the Japanese criminal justice system, Nine MUST return to Hiroshima in order to charge her assailant and bring her case to trial (and unlike other national legal systems in Japan there are no travel subsidies for victims of violent crime to pursue their cases). Her friends and fellow activists would love to help get her there by February 2019. This is important also to stop this violent sexual predator from potentially assaulting other women.
Please help us raise these funds! This is bigger than Nine – it's an opportunity to bring an assailant to justice, shed light on the taboo against speaking about and fighting sexual violence internationally and to address the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence by individuals connected to the US military occupation. With your help, we can be there for Nine in the way she has so often been there for her community, fight sexual violence and make a difference in a the fight against sexism and sexual violence in Japan and worldwide.
Please pitch in whatever you can, we will be so grateful! If you cannot donate, please share with your network.
Your donation will go directly towards:
- Flights to Japan for Nine & an emotional support person
- Accommodation for their stay in Hiroshima for the investigation and trial
- Living costs, e.g. public transport, sim card
- Weekly Skype therapy
- Translation costs
We are also throwing a party to raise funds for Nine on October 6 in Berlin – you can find the Facebook event here!
For any enquiries relating to this fundraiser please write us at fundraiserfornine[at]gmail[dot]com
Nine Yamamoto-Masson is a French-Japanese artist, practising theorist, researcher, translator, radio maker, activist and community organiser. She studied philosophy, film theory, history of art, cultural studies, literature and linguistics at the universities of Paris Sorbonne, Berlin Humboldt, NYU, London Goldsmiths, University of Amsterdam and Tokyo Waseda.
In Berlin she works with self-organised grassroots anti-racist organisations and with activists who organise hands-on support for refugees and fight gender-based-discrimination. In early 2017 she joined Artists Without a Cause as co-director. She is also the founding member of Berlin Refugee Help and the anti-right wing campaign, Wählen Gegen Rechts (Vote Against the Right).
Nine's work: www.nineyamamotomasson.com
Further information about sexual violence in Japan:
Politico - Saying #MeToo in Japan
New York Times - She Broke Japan’s Silence on Rape
The Guardian - Sexual assaults by US military in Japan unlikely to end in prison
The Mainichi - Interview: Why is there no end to sexual violence by U.S. military personnel in Okinawa?
