Groping on trains isn’t exactly a rare occurrence in Japan, and especially not on Tokyo’s busy commuter trains. Even the introduction of women-only carriages by some train operators hasn’t reduced the problem enough. As a recent survey has shown that a third of women in their 20s and 30s want more similarly limited train cars. Plus the introduction of them by train companies who have yet to offer the service.
The statistics clearly spell out their concerns, as 66% of 632 women interviewed said they had been groped on trains or at the station. That’s a hefty number it has to be said, and as well as adding women-only carriages, perhaps operators also need to try and fathom out what it is about trains and stations that causes so many men to behave this way.
Surely it can’t be the rank smelling toilets and vomit splattered platforms that cause such out of control behaviour can it?
wulong says
I heard Mexico City subways have entire trains designated women only between certain times of the day. I don’t know the reasons for it, though it’s probably worse than groping…
Ron says
I don’t know. I have never groped women on trains or platforms. Willing women in bars maybe, but never on trains or platforms (nevah evah), so don’t know why men behave like that.
In bars, you at least have an excuse of being drunk. No?
Cheers!
Toni says
There are two factors to consider. One is that trains are usually very crowded. Another is that many Japanese women would be to embarrassed to speak up if someone did molest her, not to mention feel ashamed. It’s a perfect situation for the chikan, who can do what he wants without a complaint from his victim and with no one knowing about it.
Adamu says
It seems like all the solutions to the chikan problem so far have given up on trying to educate men that it’s wrong. While in Japan I got the feeling that the ‘weird people’ that engage in this kind of activity are completely incorrigible. This is at the same time men reading porno manga on the trains are tolerated and Japan maintains one of the most openly-run adult entertainment industries in the world.
While taking women out of harm’s way is a necessary step, let’s not kid ourselves: train molestation for these guys is their way of taking porno to the next level. Men need to learn how to deal with women as people. And if the objectification of women is truly offensive then women need to speak up and let them know.
seb says
i have a question…why is it that these women don’t hit the men harassing them? or scream or somehing/ if the trains are packed, there are bound to be at least 1 gentleman to save the lady…
seb says
or how is it that NO ONE on a PACKED train sees anything???
Ken says
Toni is the only one who has it right. Everyone here is writing their opinion base on their culture and social mores. Has anyone here, except maybe Toni actually been to Japan? We are making comments about a society where people do not even make eye contact with you when you walk down the street as this would be impolite. I sat on a relatively crowded train car from Yokosuka to Toky and no one… NO ONE ever said a word.. to anyone. People we not even talking to the people they were obviously with so as not to disturb anyone else in the car. The men are taking advantage of social custom and the intent of Japanese citizens to stay out of each others business. Women will not shout out, or react because either they will be shamed or ignored out of “courtesy”. You can’t change decades upon decades of custom by having men attend a week long sensetivity training course. Japan will have to change from the inside out for that to happen, but fortunately it may be changing just by the number of arrests being made… who knows.
Betan says
I admit it, I have participated in the innocently insidious activity of touching females on crowded commuter train carriages. Do I consider women inferior or lesser than myself? No. But there is an electrifying erotic thrill stemming from the knowledge that even though they do not approve of the “groping” – they will not openly express objection because (as said previously) direct eye contact and vocalization in public is culturally shunned as impolite. Japan is a very ironic twist indeed – honor and courtesy in a region of the world that is so sexually depraved. It is unacceptable to make direct eye contact on the street witha women (who normally look downward), but perfectly acceptable to display demeaning pornographic magazines depicting japanese women in bondage and being brutalized sexually. I myself, for years, have enjoyed innocently rubbing my hand back and forth across the bottoms of attractive women standing in front of me on commuter trains. I have NEVER tried to put my hand down the back of their skirts or dress slacks and I have never actually penetrated their womanhood. That I would consider a rape, and rape is just not appealing. And, “groping” is not just relegated to men anymore. More and more, younger less-inhibited Japanese women (probably educated in the West) are groping men on trains. I myself was groped by a schoolgirl of all passengers!
sdasdasd says
youre sick. damn groper, your just like arnold scharwzenegger (sp?)
Amy says
I cannot believe that the man above has just openly admitted that he gropes women on trains, as if it were normal and acceptable. You are a disgusting, reprehensible individual. You do realise that this is secondary sexual assault, and you are therefore committing a crime, let alone the fact that groping is morally wrong? My God, I can’t believe what I’ve just read. Get therapy, you absolute imbecile.
andres says
”innocent”?Have you ever taken in consideration those woman feeling?for you it may feel exciting and erotic,but for them its humilliating.I think the kind of guys that do these stuff aren’t man enough to get thereself a girlfriend or someone else to do the favor.
The problem probably wont dissapear until woman get rid of their shame and give the groper a good bitch slap
los agelino says
the problem is that there is a multi-billion dollar or yen industry in asia, (as well as the United States) and despite countries in the region, especially Japan praising their other economic achievements, they don’t want to admit that sexploitation is part of the economy. As a result, “women only” trains are a band aid for the bigger cancer which stems from japan’s objectification of women which is rooted in the culture. This deep seeded resentment of women by japanese working class men, mostly, but not limited to causes them to lash out against women who are under represented in law enforcement as well as socio-economically, and politically. Therefore, these men because of generations after generations of economic impotency, being made to feel subservient to more successful men have projected their hatred of their own social standing onto young 20 – 30 age women who will ultimately surpass them economically. The same culture that is represented by industrial ahievement as well as education and the arts conversely has its demons just like any other country. ‘So stop denying it…the whole world knows.’ These vulnerable women are made third class citizens from birth as society conditions them to not utter one word while they are being violated, assaulted, and even raped in broad daylight in the middle of public transpotation; where other male and FEMALE bystanders know what’s going on but choose to do nothing about it. The victims themselves rarely report such violations because of the stigma attached to being VICTIMIZED which in japan is loosely translated as WHORE. Then there are those who say ‘you don’t understand because you’re not japanese.’ Well wherever you are in the world, whatever your class, which ever god or not you believe or don’t believe in, the degredation of another human being is the same where ever you go. And those who choose to defend their criminal and evil behaviour by using their culture degrades their own identity as well as that same culture they use to defend their evil actions. I hope they feel the same way when their mother, sister, wife, or girlfriend has this happen to them; which by the time you read this will probably already have happened; maybe by someone you know. It’s like using your culture like toilet paper to wipe away the filth that is you…Ultimately, any woman who tries to deflect this situation as an abberation is only doing what she was trained to do…DENY. The more one denies the truth the easier it is to believe the lie. Any man who tries to compare flirtation with sexual assault is MOST UNDENIABLY someone who ‘can’t get it up, without thinkig of their mommy.’ This is the classic tie between most sexual deviants, serial killlers, and boys pretending to be men, and men going through a mid-life crisis, but too poor to buy a red sportscar. I hope one day these men have the opportunity to come to the United States and forget where they are. They start to grope a Japanese-American woman and find that the bystanders including other women, don’t stand idly by…unless it is while the groper is getting his ass kicked by me and everyone else on the train.
Mr K says
Well, well well…
It’s a two ways problem in the end…
Because those people won’t open up to each other, they end up hurting each other. Men not manly enough to try to get what they want the frank way (and eventually get turned down). Women who will not get to complain from suffering men misbehaviour…
A culture that prone people to keep as much distance as possible from each other…
NICE SUM that you can call: FRUSTRATION.
Male urges are known over the world to be strong and hardly constrained. Frustration is know over the world to be origin of many human psychosis and mischieves. The non satifaction may very easily engender the second which will for sure engender something later on if no satisfied and silenced quick enough?
Nothing surprising so far.
Now, it is not by slapping each other or punishing one while (over? – )protecting the other that they may solve this problem. They are just building up more pressure. They first they got to do is to educate themselves:
A man who is making a sexual proposal is neither a pervert or harasing: he is just horny. Shake him off and go. However do not hesitate to complain if he is insisting too much.
A woman is not a toy: you are allowed to propose her in polite way but any attempt without her consent is a crime morally and legally.
In the end : we can just summarize that way: What about consider each other like human being? Hence stopping pointing a finger at anyone standing out by more than a hair? That’s definitely a cultural problem. Therefore they will solve it only if they are really willing to. Only if they work together. And that means stopping being so…
Distant?
asd says
What are you guys, stupid? The guy admitted to groping to get a rise out of you. Hes probably laughing his ass off at your shocked comments. And you fell for it…….
Mycheal says
🙁 an economy partly boosted by one of its sectors (pornogragphy) and corrupted by its own culture. Its a sad story. When I was younger it was always a thrill to accidentally touch the woman next to me. But to be a working man O.o. These men need to grow up, get a girl-friend and get more intouch with there “feminine-side”.
These men fail to realize the harm they cause to the women. Then again they wouldn’t care. As previously stated…its a culture that silences women ( a strong partriarch system). Also previously stated..the only way this can be solved is for a reform in the basic fondation of Japanese culture.