Singapore punishes Japanese hairdresser with caning for rape

A court in Singapore has sentenced a Japanese man to prison and caning for the “brutal and cruel” rape of a university student in 2019.

Hairdresser Ikko Kita, 38, could be the first Japanese citizen to be caned in the city-state, the Japanese embassy in Singapore told BBC News.

He will receive 20 lashes and be sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.

Caning is a controversial but widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore and is mandatory for crimes such as vandalism, robbery and drug trafficking.

According to court documents, Kita met the woman in December 2019 at Clarke Quay, a popular nightlife district.

The woman, who was 20 at the time, did not know Kita. She was drunk when he took her to his apartment and raped her.

He also filmed the act with his mobile phone and later sent the picture to a friend.

The victim then managed to leave the apartment and report the rape to the police later that same day.

Kita was arrested the same day and has been in police custody ever since.

Police found two videos of the rape on his cell phone.

Judge Aedit Abdullah described the attack as “brutal and cruel”, adding that the victim was “defenceless, obviously drunk and unable to care for herself”.

The judge also rejected the defense’s argument that the victim had allegedly initially indicated that she consented to sexual intercourse.

The verdict was widely reported in Japan and was also a trending topic on social media.

Some users have expressed dismay at the use of corporal punishment in modern Singapore, but there were also some who celebrated the verdict.

One said, “When sexual assault occurs in Japan, society and the police make victims feel guilty, and the punishments are far too lenient.”

In Singapore, it is claimed that corporal punishment has a deterrent effect on violent crime, although some human rights groups say there is no clear evidence for this.

Caning in Singapore involves hitting the back of the thigh with a wooden stick, which can leave permanent scars.

According to the human rights group Transformative Justice Collective, the stick is about 5 feet long and has a diameter of no more than 1/2 inch.

This practice attracted international attention in 1994 when 19-year-old US citizen Michael Fay was sentenced to six lashes for vandalism.

Despite an appeal by US President Bill Clinton, Singapore authorities carried out the caning against Fay, but reduced the number of blows.