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Sign up todayBlack Box
The Memoir That Sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement
Narrator
Emily Woo Zeller
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Translator
Allison Markin Powell
Length
6 hours 20 minutes
Language
English
Now an award-winning documentary film by Shiori Itō
Black Box is a riveting, sobering memoir that chronicles one woman’s struggle for justice, calling for changes to an industry—and in society at large—to ensure that future victims of sexual assault can come forward without being silenced and humiliated.
In 2015, an aspiring young journalist named Shiori Ito charged prominent reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi with rape. After meeting up for drinks and networking, Ito remembers regaining consciousness in a hotel room while being assaulted. But when she went to the police, Ito was told that her case was a “black box”—untouchable and unprosecutable.
Upon publication in 2017, Ito’s searing account foregrounded the #MeToo movement in Japan and became the center of an urgent cultural and legal shift around recognizing sexual assault and gender-based violence. As international outlets covered every step of her story—even documenting it in the BBC film Japan’s Secret Shame—this book launched a societal reckoning. At the end of 2019, Ito won a civil case against Yamaguchi.
With careful and quiet fury, Black Box recounts a broken system of repression and violence—but it also heralds the beginning of a new solidarity movement seeking a more equitable path toward justice.
Shiori Itō is a freelance journalist who contributes news footage and documentaries to the Economist, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and other primarily non-Japanese media outlets. In 2017 she published Black Box about her own experiences as a rape survivor, making her one of the few women in Japan to speak out against sexual assault. In 2020, she was named one of Time’s Most Influential People of the year.
Emily Woo Zeller is an Audie and Earphones Award–winning narrator, voice-over artist, actor, dancer, and choreographer. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013. Her voice-over career includes work in animated film and television in Southeast Asia.
Allison Markin Powell has been awarded grants from English PEN and the NEA, and the 2020 PEN America Translation Prize for The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. Her other translations include works by Osamu Dazai, Kanako Nishi, and Fuminori Nakamura. She was the guest editor for the first Japan issue of Words Without Borders, served as cochair of the PEN America Translation Committee, and currently represents the committee on PEN’s Board of Trustees. She maintains the database Japanese Literature in English and lives in New York.
Reviews
“Ito’s determination to seek justice, for herself and for other survivors of sexual violence, is inspiring.”
“Astonishingly courageous—a blueprint for systemic change.”
“Such a beautifully written book, which means so much more when layered with the pain and injustice it covers.”
“Behind Shiori Ito’s words are the cries of countless others who did not speak up because of the intense pressure against them. I hope that these cries will not be silenced. This book is a step toward making such hopes not an impossible dream.”
“Black Box is a moving study of sexist Japan, political corruption, police failure to investigate rape, and justice sought and won by Ito’s own efforts and investigation.”
“Ito’s account of her courageous fight against sexual violence rejects the harmful trope of the cardboard victim, reclaiming her identity as an adventurous, lively, determined, blithe spirit.”
“A master class on how to refuse to be silenced, even when an entire government is set against you.”
“Deeply researched and impeccably reported.”
“Unforgettable.”
“Her memoir is both infuriating and inspiring.”
“This unflinching, heavily researched book shimmers with vulnerability, introspection, and purpose as the author skillfully lays the facts alongside the physical and emotional tolls they had on her…Witten with devastating moral and emotional clarity.”
“Groundbreaking…[Ito] is writing this book not to bring attention to herself but to help others, and in response to the man and the system he relied on to erase her and the violence he had enacted on her.”
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