There were nearly 9,500 consultations over cases of workplace sexual harassment in Japan in fiscal 1999, up about 35 percent from the previous year, according to a Labor Ministry report released Tuesday.
The ministry's equal-employment offices in Japan's 47 prefectures dealt with 9,451 cases between April last year and this March -- an increase of 2,432 from fiscal 1998, the report says.
The offices advised 4,882 female workers or their families about workplace sexual harassment in fiscal 1999. Common inquiries included what actions female employees could take after having been sexually harassed at work. A prevalent complaint was that their companies did nothing to address their claims.