Record number of women groped on Tokyo's subway

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/09/wgrope09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/09/ixportal.html

A record number of women are being groped on Tokyo's overcrowded subway, tripling over the last eight years.

Despite a campaign to stamp out the problem by introducing women-only carriages, last year saw 2,201 women molested. Japanese police confirmed that the Saikyo and Chuo lines are the most hostile for women to travel on.

Both suffer from such extreme overcrowding during rush hours that women cannot escape gropers' attentions. Stations on the two lines are several minutes apart, providing ample time for the predators to strike.

High school girls are the main targets and the lines they use are the ones favoured by molesters.

[sniffa]

1. and this is news?

i couLd have toLd you that. :P

[BiggJawn]

2. Where's AHH-Nuld?

Shooting some more commercials for Japanese energy drink again?

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

14. I couldn't help it "I was thinking the same thing" LOL

[JNelson6563]

3. Help me understand

What is the thrill of a quick grab of a woman's body?

Julie

[booksenkatz]

5. Power? Intimidation? Beats me. NT

[SpiralHawk]

8. Control and domination

It's not really about sex.


"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- Governor George W. Bush

[Redstone]

6. I like a quick grab of my wife occasionally

and she enjoys it, too (wouldn't do it if she didn't!), but I'm afraid I can't help you as to the pleasure of groping a strange woman...I don't understand what they get out of it either.

I think it's one of those cultural things; I remember reading about this quite some time ago. I believe a lot of Japanese men do some other things that wouldn't pass polite muster in the US.

Maybe someone here has lived in Japan, and can explain it.

Redstone

[kayell]

16. I can attest that it happens in the US also, having been groped

on the NY subway system several times when a teenager and visiting relatives. Also once on the DC subway (not usually that overcrowded) on the 4th of July when in my 30s. No question of what was occurring.

I agree that it is about power and domination.

[makhno]

18. How is it about power and domination?

If nothing else, it strikes me as a pretty impotent act to engage in - a furtive grope at an elusive female body that one would be unable to reach otherwise. An admission of one's powerlessness in any but the most contrived social situation, somewhat similar to paying for sex.

I've never groped anyone I didn't know, so I've no idea.

[kayell]

20. I didn't say that it was a logical demonstration of power.

Typically, IMO, the kind of people who resort to this have serious problems and issues where they may feel relatively powerless, or may feel hostility to women. They may feel incapable of dealing with women in an adult fashion. I think that for them just putting a women in a position where she is more powerless than they are is a statement of their (relative) power. The groper certainly does not (conciously) seem to see their actions as a statement about their own ability.

IMO the groping is far more similar to rape in it's motivation than to buying sex.

Perhaps you have to have been groped to appreciate this. The groper usually continues to grope for prolonged periods, often quite aggressively, and despite the victims determined attempts to remove herself (almost impossible in a packed car) or twist out of range.

[Mizmoon]

4. Buy hatpins

nice, long, sharp ones.

Place them strategically about your body.
Tell your friends to do the same.

Soon - no problem.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. We're talking Tokyo subways at rush hour here

People are often pressed up tight against each other. Very tight. I've seen Tokyo subway (and above-ground) trains that have so many people wanting to get in, the station master has to push people in to get the doors closed. Even if you think the subway/train car is packed, three or four or five more people might try to cram themselves in. They are literally rubbing against each other for much if not all of the ride.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. I think that the problem is not so much increased groping as

increased complaints about it.

When I was a student in Japan over 25 years ago, my fellow students, most particularly the Asian ones, complained bitterly about being groped on the subways. However, the women's magazines of the time advised against complaining, saying that it would "cause a scene" and "embarrass the groper." :eyes: I was groped a couple of times, but nearly as much as the Asian women. The difference was that I and other Western women usually took revenge in some form, e.g. by stomping on the guy's foot or grabbing his hand and twisting his wrist suddenly. Word evidently got around.

Around the mid 1980s, I began seeing opinion pieces asking why women should put up with this, but people began talking about it openly in the mass media only a few years ago.

Having ridden those rush hour trains, I can attest to the fact that people are jammed up against one another, but there's a real difference between just being packed against some guy into a crowded, swaying train and having him deliberately running his hands over you.

[rodeodance]

10. women's issues are important news items-simple as that

[Art_from_Ark]

11. I was referring to the suggestion about the hat pins

It wouldn't be a good idea to dress as a porcupine for the morning commute

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. True enough--you wouldn't want to stab innocent

people who just happened to be jammed in their with you.

[Book Lover]

25. Exactly

It's not happening more often; people just aren't keeping their mouths shut any longer. Same thing happened in terms of reporting of sexual assault in this country (at the federal level) about 10 or so years ago; a huge jump in reports, not a large increase of assaults.

[Bonobo]

28. Lydia is right. This is acrually a good thing.

Japanese women tolerate that behavior a lot less than they used to. Therefore more reported incidents. So in fact, it is quite the opposite of a worsening situation. It is improving I think.

[Andrushka]

31. Correct

It's not the number of incidents so much as Japanese women are finally getting the 'balls' (if I can use a crass expression!) to do something about it. Good for them!

I ride the Tokyo trains every day and it is unavoidable to be pressed against some lovely lass on occasion, but you always should have the ol' hands up above the chest (yours, not hers). Get's quite painful when all the blood has gone from them up there...

[Skittles]

12. these guys would be close enough to take a hard knee to the nuts

that's EXACTLY what they would get from SKITTLES

[smirkymonkey]

17. The one time it happened to me, that's what I did....

actually, I turned around and grabbed his balls as hard as I could. You should have seen the look on his face. It was priceless and it did the trick.

[lovuian]

13. What they need is a maze spray!!!

and zap them!!!

[mudderfudder77]

15. Well I know

where I'm going for vacation...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

19. Yeegads....

:eyes:

[LiberallyInclined]

24. do you mean "mace"??

I don't think that spraying someone with mace in a very crowded subway car would be a good idea...it could easily end up affecting A LOT of innocent people....possibly even causing a stampede out of the car at the next stop.

[Art_from_Ark]

27. One would probably get arrested for using mace in a crowded train

A lot of these trains are jam-packed during morning commute-- sardine cans on wheels. Not just standing room only, sometimes there is literally no place to move. Spraying mace would remind people of the sarin gas attack of a decade ago (12 people killed, hundreds injured). So yes, it would in all likelihood cause a stampede at the next stop, and people could-- would-- get seriously injured. And the mace sprayer would probably be deported, if not worse.

[underpants]

21. WHERE'S BERNIE KERIK?????

Apparently Jeff Gannon isn't a likely suspect.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

23. I wasn't there, I swear it!

[musette_sf]

26. zzzz... when I was a teen and taking the NYC subway

to school every day, this was just SOP.

I did get sweet revenge one day... the Lex Ave Express was super crowded between 14th & 42nd. I'm hanging on to a pole and smashed in. Some guy puts his hand on my (British usage) fanny, and squeezes. I check out the faces around me. All business types and no one is letting on. So I do a quick analysis from the hand to the jacket to the pants, match feet to pants. Took my old-fashioned super-pointy-top umbrella and SLAMMED the point as hard as I can into the offender's foot, at which point the hand abruptly dropped.

I can only hope that pain is a good teacher and that this sleazebag thought twice before pulling that shit on a 16 year old again.

[derby378]

29. If Jimmy Fallon were still with SNL...

...he'd read that story during Weekend Update, wink at the camera, and say "You're welcome."

[VirginiaDem]

30. I lived in and around Tokyo for close to five years...

it was a growing problem then. I don't think it had been going on forever--this is spreading because people know about it. I used to take the Chuo line all the time. Americans are weird with roads (road rage, for example)because so much of our time and resources are devoted to roads. Same in Japan. The whole train deal is weird--this is just one tiny aspect of it (not to diminish the importance of this). People get groped on trains; homeless ride on the loops all day long, effectively clearing out cars because of their smell--they can't get baths because nobody will let them in to the bathhouses and there are no shelters; yakuza (mafia) guys also clear out trains--anybody in a loud suit with sunglasses and/or permed hair and/or tattoos is automatically given extra space; train doors are often sprayed with vomit at night; teennage boys read pornographic comic books next to octogenarian ladies; 45-year-old businessmen elbow pregnant women out of their way to get the last seat; men will flatten themselves against a closing door in a quixotic attempt to squeeze onto a train when another is coming in two minutes; and perfectly quaffed, shy young ladies fall asleep, splay their legs and lean on their neighbors with drool running down their mouths; sometimes there are 150 people in a train car and you can hear a pin drop.

[smirkymonkey]

32. Sounds horrifying.

I will never complain about the NYC subways again.

[Art_from_Ark]

34. You have to remember, the Tokyo Metro Area is HUGE

Thirty million people live within an hour's ride or so from the 23 boroughs that make up what is referred to as the city of Tokyo. With that many people, you are bound to run into some lulus.

[VirginiaDem]

36. Actually, I didn't mean to make it out

to be some kind of madhouse. All of the above are relatively rare. If you can avoid having to take the trains at rushhour (which of course most Japanese can't but many foreigners can), then the trains are great. But sometimes weird...

[Art_from_Ark]

33. Sounds like the Chuo Line around Shinjuku

Of course, Shinjuku is home to Japan's most notorious red-light district, Kabuki-cho, so some weird stuff goes on around there, for sure. But things are better on other lines. And JR (Japan Railways) is making an effort to have able-bodied riders offer their seats to pregnant women, mothers with small children, the disabled and the elderly during crowded times, even announcing the fact that there are "priority seats" over the intercom system.

[VirginiaDem]

35. I haven't been there in about five years

so it's good to hear that they're making those adjustments and you're exactly right about the proportion of it all. I reread my post from earlier--I didn't mean to make it sound so crazy. For the most part the subway is remarkably convenient and easy to use and even on last train on a Saturday night you're much more likely than not to get a vomit-free car. But...since the Japanese spend so much of their time on the train, that's where the weirdness happens.