About V.W.

Hsueh Dayung
Karin Hayashi

On August 4, 2022, I raised the issue on Twitter that there was serious ongoing harassment and sexual violence at Tokyo University of the Arts as a registered student. Afterward, we received far more responses than expected, including DMs of accusations from the victims suffering from similar damage.　As a consequence, we decided to openly take action by approaching the university on this matter by creating a network towards the following goals.

Goals of Actions

1. To seek appropriate punishment that should be given to perpetrators of harassment, sexual violence, etc. To support the victim to be able to come to school and carry out future activities without inconvenience.

2. There have been many reports of secondary perpetration by university staff. To make sure the university will create clear guidelines for dealing with incidents reported on harassment and deploys proper resources, such as specialized, trained staff to follow up with such victims.

3. Perpetrators of past harassment incidents are subject to appropriate punishment and/or penalty, and the university prevents recurrence.

Network

To achieve the above goals, it is essential first to create a supportive network that accepts victims who are suffering from, but unable to disclose their damage due to the university’s lack of capability to fairly and properly take care of such victims and prevent from creating new victims.
It is an undoubtful fact that many experienced harassment and sexual violence within this university. However, at present, there are still many cases of damage where these matters are not treated seriously as problems. There have been many reports of secondary abuse by counselors and other university staff. We can clearly point out that the university has no governance to deal with the damage. Since, depending on the department, the university and the industry in the same disciplines are closely related, there are always a strong fear for the victim that their accusation would put an end to their career as artists. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to grasp the current situation.
For these reasons, we would like to first focus on building a proper network to help the victims.

Call for collaborators

At this stage, we are planning to recruit collaborators for the following roles. We would be very grateful if you could suggest any new ideas to help us. Your suggestions would make our plans stronger. Since our planned activities are not comprehensive enough, we would like to keep you updated on the change and progress of our plan.

1. Those who retweet the tweets with content that they want to agree with this action, and those who take part in our signature campaign.

2. Those who connect this action to various active third parties through:
   ・Information sharing with other organizations and individuals, and communication to the media, and
   ・Translation into other languages, etc.

3. Those who participate in the management side of the following activities:
   ・Minutes taking
   ・Clerical work
   ・Schedule management
   ・Response to Emails

Further, we would especially like to ask for the cooperation of people outside the university in the following activities.
4. Those who participate in public relations activities and information dissemination such as their SNS on the network management side.
5. Those who actively participate in network guidelines, build relations with the outside, and release public statements on the network management side.

Regarding the 3 to 5 roles above, we would first like to have an interview with the current management members and ask for your participation.
Conclusion

We need help from inside and outside the Tokyo University of Art community. Even if it appears a trivial matter, any help from any of you will give us the power to appeal that sexual violence and harassment at the university are not " acquiesced customs" but "human rights violations and crimes that should be punished." Currently, it is difficult for a small number of people to protest against "human rights violations and crimes that should be punished."

Thank you.