A Japanese court has ordered a high-profile TV reporter to pay 3.3 million yen ($30,000; £22,917) in damages to a journalist who accused him of rape.
Shiori Ito alleged that Noriyuki Yamaguchi raped her in 2015 while she was unconscious.
Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence for a criminal case, so Ms Ito brought a civil case.
Ms Ito has become a symbol of the #MeToo movement in a country where people rarely report sexual assault.
“I’m so happy,” said 30-year-old Ms Ito, who held up a sign which read “victory” after the verdict was announced.
But in a news conference hours later, Mr Yamaguchi said he planned to appeal – and he again denied the rape allegations.
According to Ms Ito, 53-year-old Mr Yamaguchi – who is said to have close ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – invited her to dinner to discuss a possible job opportunity in 2015.
She suspects she may have been drugged, saying that when she regained consciousness, she was “in a hotel room and he was on top of me”.
Ms Ito was an intern at news agency Reuters when the alleged rape occurred.
Mr Yamaguchi was then Washington bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting System, a major media firm in Japan.
Source: BBC
