In Japan, do women get molested on subways and trains often?

Question

I hear about this often and I wonder why those women don't say/do anything about it. If someone molested me on the subway here, I'd take off my shoe and beat them in the face with my heels. I'd make a huge fuss about it. Don't Japanese women defend themselves when this happens?

Answer 1

It does happen sometimes, and when it does, the train is usually so crowded that a) you may not be sure who among the few standing behind you is the offender, and b) there's not enough room for you to pick up your shoes.

Some Japanese women react and try to defend themselves but others - especially young girls - may find it too embarrassing to let people know they are being sexually harassed.

Answer 2

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RE:
In Japan, do women get molested on subways and trains often?
I hear about this often and I wonder why those women don't say/do anything about it. If someone molested me on the subway here, I'd take off my shoe and beat them in the face with my heels. I'd make a huge fuss about it. Don't Japanese women defend themselves when this happens?

Answer 3

To the credit of the police and the transit operators, they actually are trying to do something about the chikan situation. There are the ladies only coaches and the cops now have police ladies who specialize in taking statements from the victims in a sensitive way. By doing that, the cops hope to increase the reporting of such incidents. It has happened that chikan have bothered ladies who happen to be judoka or whatever and subsequently been frog-marched to the nearest police box. Just making a big fuss about it won't necessarily result in any assistance from bystanders. Japanese people don't like to get involved.

There's a certain "guerrilla" film director in Japan who films his street scenes with hidden cameras and no permits, etc. The fact that bystanders studiously ignore people apparently being beaten, abducted or shot is part of the entertainment.

Answer 4

Does it happen, yes, does it happen often, hard to tell, not enough data. Do Japanese women defend themselves, some do some don't. Sometimes the reasoning is, because the train is sooo crowded especially on large busy lines (if you never been I can't explain it to you) that sometimes it is hard to tell if someone did it by accident or not by accident depending on the situation. Japanese tend to be non confrontational.

"Did he bump into me by accident because the train is up to 200% capacity or did he do it on purpose?"

However, with more recent media exposure, more and more of these guys are getting caught when it does happen.

There have also been cases where men have been falsely accused of groping, and had to fight for years to clear their names.

Japanese trains however, in whole are still a lot safer to ride then some other systems.

Answer 5

Yes, it used to be so bad that now they do in fact have a separate train for women only during rush hour.

Japanese women are not likely to do anything about it, especially on a crowded train where no one can move. It's just how they grew up. My friend's wife is Japanese, and she said she used to yell at men for doing it. But that was it.

Answer 6

Sorry, I didn't do anything about it because I didn't want to make a scene. But if I made a scene and took the guy to the police, I would be late to go to my prep-school.

*happened 14 years ago in a train going to Tokyo from Chiba.

Answer 7

When I was 10 years old, I was sitting in an empty train with my short-pants. I was viewing a landscape from the window and thinking nobody around me.
Then I noticed one Japanese woman (probably about 20-22 yrs old) stood in front of me, and she started to clip my right knee between her legs (at her thighs). I was embarrassed and couldn't watch her face. I couldn't move for 10 min. And after I got off the train, I said "I was lucky!".

You know these kind of woman called Chijo (Chikan is male, Chijo is female)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chijo

Answer 8

Japanese Molested

Answer 9

The authorities did take steps to curb the frequency of this happening. There are now women-only boarding points for the trains/subway.
Many incidents occur when the molester is intoxicated.

Answer 10

Sorry to say this is quite common on the trains. These men are called "chikan". (look it up) They also have women only trains at times. Japanese women tend not to fight back in these situations. But a shoe in the face would do the trick !