It forms part of a wider overhaul of Japan's laws on sex crimes, after multiple rape acquittals in 2019 caused outcry. The current law in Japan means victims of rape need to prove that there was "violence and intimidation" used during the rape and that it was "impossible to resist" to secure a conviction. Another saw a man found not guilty of raping a woman who had passed out from drinking because he "misunderstood" that she consented to having sex