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| Seiko Matsuda is the Buddycom Japan woman of the
year for 1998. She has achieved this (dubious?) distinction by having a case of
alleged sexual harrassment decided in her favor. The suit was brought against
her in Japanese court by a jilted foreign lover. The Japanese judicial system
set a precedent which let it be known that this sort of frivolous
he-said-she-said case just won't get anywhere in Japanese courtrooms. In filing
the suit the plaintiff had alleged that some sort of financial remuneration had
been contingent upon some sort of sexual quid pro quo to which the plaintiff
had been too proud to consent. The plaintiff's lawyers had been expecting that
sentiment in Japanese society had reached depths as low as American society
whereby utterly ridiculous allegations result in multi-million dollar payoffs
if the appropriate sexually related "magic buttons" are pushed in the
courtroom. Tort law, from the Latin participle, tortus, twisted,
crooked, dubious, represents the twisted, crooked, and dubious hair-splitting
legalese and courtroom machinations which learned and honorable men use to
justify the most egregious and unfair miscarriages of justice in the courtrooms
of America. Percieved from a slightly different but equally cynical
perspective, and again from Latin, the verb toquere, to twist or to
wring; a tort is the sly act of twisting or wringing millions of dollars by
building mountains from molehills within the minds of jurors. In an American
courtroom, Martina Navratilova, a person unfortunately percieved by many as
somewhat of a virago, and a homosexual, had been successfully two-timed by a
cunningly clever and beautiful vixen, with the help and complicity of capable
lawyers. The plaintiff's lawyers in Ms. Matsuda's case remarked amongst
themselves, "This little girl must have millions in her fat Japanese bank
account. Can't a similarly preposterous miscarriage of justice be effectuated
in a Japanese courtroom?"
The panel of Japanese judges answered that rhetorical question firmly, quietly, "No." |
| As a result of the court's decision in her
favor, Ms. Matsuda's popularity has soared. She is a virtual hero. Whereas some
Japanese women who consort with foreign men are considered gullible or loose or
worse, she apparently consorted and then exhibited behavior which demonstrated
clearly who had been in control. Japanese men certainly can not apply the
pejorative label, "yellow cab" to Ms. Matsuda. They would ask not what she
could give them, but rather what they could give her to win her affections. Her
agent has commented that her schedule has become so full that she has
difficulty fulfilling comittments for television, movies, recordings, public
appearances, etc.. But he notes that she will do her best. The plaintiff is
stuck with expensive legal costs, which in Japan are quite substantial and is
said to be in seclusion. In hiding would be more like it. We tried to get an
interview with the young man, but he hurried away mumbling over his shoulder
something to the effect that he had no comment.
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| A Japanese woman was seen demonstrating in support of Ms. Matsuda outside the courtroom. |
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