Actress and activist Angelina Jolie has taken her fight against sexual violence in war zones to Japan, calling for action to "shatter" the impunity of attackers.

The Salt star, who serves as special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was in the country on Monday (29Jul13) to promote her directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, which features a harrowing rape scene. She hopes viewers will join her cause after watching the movie.

She says, "When I started down the road, making this film, I thought only of telling a story and doing my best to try to give a voice to survivors. But today I am here not only as a director, but as a campaigner, and a part of a global effort that is growing every day...

"This is just a beginning. Our aim must be to shatter impunity, so that rape can no longer be used as a weapon of war anywhere in the world as it was in Bosnia, and as it is today from Congo to Syria."

Jolie will follow up the Bosnia war film with Unbroken, a story about a World War Ii pilot who was taken hostage by Japanese soldiers.