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• #GOP STANDS FOR GROPERS OR PERVERTS FULL#

He just stared at my reflected face with no expression at all. I could see the guy’s face in the reflection of the window. I’m taller than all my female Japanese buddies, so never felt threatened or at risk. I had to take the subway, and I never bothered with the ladies carriage. I was living in Osaka and I was working an admin job for a recruitment company at the time. Jo, 37, Australian, 11.5 years living in Japan

I learned that it wasn’t right when I was older, but by the time I was 15, I already had a wrong idea of how girls should be treated. I had no experience or knowledge about men at the time, so it made me think that’s what guys want and it’s normal. Looking back, I think it has affected me emotionally and relationship-wise. I never felt like I could stand up to it, I always felt so empty after these situations happened, so tried to avoid thinking about it. When I realized that it might be chikan, I’d get off the carriage, wait for the next train and was, as a result, late for school. When the train would shake, the hands holding the book would touch my breasts.Īt first, I thought it was an accident, but as I turned my body, the hands would follow me. There were subtle incidents - like being stuck next to a person who was reading a book, holding it at the same height as my breasts. It (chikan) happened to me almost every day. When I was a junior high school student, it took me an hour on the packed train to get to school every morning. Y the time I was 15, I already had a wrong idea of how girls should be treated. I got off eight stops early and walked because I couldn’t bear it any longer.

The way he started touching me was so casual. The second, I was a freshman, a student, a senior in high school who was standing right next to me just started touching my hips. We were surrounded by adults, I wondered why none of them stepped in to say anything. The first time it happened, I was frustrated and felt hopeless. Once when I was in 9th grade, five boys on the train started to take pictures of my legs and were trying to look into my skirt, laughing about it.

#GOP STANDS FOR GROPERS OR PERVERTS FULL#

In the name of full transparency, all the women in this article are personal acquaintances and these experiences have been shared as a response to social media call outs and conversations we’ve had in person. We spoke to seven women, both foreign and Japanese, who were eager to share their stories in hope that speaking out about the issue would help others find some solidarity in their collective experiences. Given the insidiousness nature of the behavior and the difficulty in prosecuting cases, chances are that statistic is far higher. The report also states that 51.3 percent of all chikan cases occurred on trains, while another 20 percent happened in train stations. As the Metropolitan Police Department’s recent reports shows, 2017 saw 1,750 cases of groping or molestation reported, 30 percent of which occurred during the peak rush hour times of 7 a.m.

More recently, a number of other anti-chikan initiatives have been put into place, including pervert branding stickers put into place by the Saitama Prefecture Police department, and popular warning badges, which were created by a 17-year-old high school student.īut chikan eradication is still a work in progress. Some solutions have included the introduction of women-only train carriages, and signs encouraging commuters to speak up if they witness an assault take place, playing on the group mentality that often keeps people quiet ‘together we can stop chikan.’ In 2010, the Saikyo Line, a line notorious for groping, had cameras installed in an attempt to deter future assaults. Over the years, Japan has continued to try and find ways to fight the issue. Known as ‘chikan’ (痴漢) in Japanese, gropers typically take advantage of their surroundings, knowing that the victims’ fear of causing a scene, and the anonymous nature packed public transport (where personal space perimeters are challenged) makes it difficult for victims to call out or report the incidents. Although the angered responses and open discussions were a positive sign of the public attitude to sexual assault, in reality, this is an occurrence that’s still all too common. In early April, a video of a foreign man groping a woman on a Tokyo train was shared around various online Japan communities and networks, inciting outrage and disbelief. They shared their stories hoping that it will help destigmatize the issue and bring it to the forefront of public discourse. In light of the #metoo movement making traction in Japan, we reached out to seven women who shared their first-hand accounts of dealing with assaults and harassment on Japan's rail system.