Japanese actress accuses director, starts #MeToo group

TOKYO — A Japanese actress who won a settlement from a director she said sexually harassed her says she plans to use the money she won to start a #MeToo group for Japan’s entertainment industry.

The 20-year-old actress, who goes by the name Chino, leads the Tokyo-based theatre troupe TremendousCircus. She says director Mikiya Ichihara took her to karaoke in 2015 when she was still a high school student, touched her and made obscene remarks, promising to land her roles.

Ichihara apologized and paid several hundreds of thousands of yen (thousands of dollars) to Chino after she made the allegations against him in Twitter late last year after seeing the #MeToo movement abroad.

Victims of sexual misconduct in Japan rarely go public because they often face a social backlash and victim blaming.