A cartoon cat in a purple robe brandishes a tiny gavel as it comforts another cat yowling from abuse: the images welcoming visitors to Sorehara, a Japanese website for anonymous complaints about harassment and other grievances, are deceptively endearing.
“You don’t have to suffer alone. Get help from the cat who seeks justice,” it says.
Sorehara, an abbreviation of the Japanese for “That’s harassment,” was devised by a 21-year-old college student and, like many #MeToo apps and websites, is meant to help victims of abuse safely fight back against their tormentors.
It allows users to send anonymous complaints by email, without registering any personal information and is gaining popularity in Japan.
The website doesn’t focus just on sexual misbehaviour. Sorehara goes to very Japanese extremes in allowing users to register their disapproval electronically to those who offend them in all sorts of ways, including indulging in garlic, wearing excessive perfume or smelling too strongly of cigarette smoke.
Victim blaming can be severe in highly conformist Japan so anonymity is essential for helping them feel safe, says Tatsuki Yoshida, 21, who developed Sorehara and founded his start-up Quaerere last year.
“In Japan, companies don’t like to deal with harassment issues. People who raise their voices about harassment usually just get moved to a different department or maybe given a raise. Or they get fired,” he said.
A college sophomore, he is taking time off from his studies to work on Sorehara.
Sorehara offers users various options, including “power harassment,” bullying, alcohol harassment, sexual harassment and even “smell harassment.”
Next, they chose the level of severity, ranging from mere annoyance to threatening legal action. They fill in the email and a name or nickname of the person accused of the misbehaviour, but not their own email or name.
Recipients get an email politely notifying them of the harassment claim, asking if they recognize it and giving a choice of responses such as: “I will reflect on my behaviour,” or “I have done nothing wrong.”
An English version was released recently, and a Korean-language version is in the works.
