Another week, another chikan story.
As regular readers to this blog will know, groping on public transport is a serious problem in Japan, so much so that it has its own name (chikan) and tactics to deal with it -- primarily women-only carriages.
This doesn't seem to stop the perpetrators, though, but we also seem to spot an increasingly number of reports now about them being caught or having to escape in outlandish ways.
On the morning of Wednesday, December 15, an alleged male groper tried to evade justice by jumping from the tracks at Minami-Senju Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line ...
We recently reported on the alleged assault on a Japanese porn star on the streets of Shibuya during the Halloween cosplay party. While we don't have any further details on the groping that was witnessed and filmed, we do know now why the porn star was there in the first place -- and why she was so keen to announce to her followers on social media that she was going.
It turns out that Kanon Kanade (奏音かのん) was actually promoting an adult video release that she filmed guerrilla-style partly on the streets of Shibuya.
Whether or not the groping was a staged part of this, or just an ...
The growing popularity of Halloween in Japan has resulted in massive street cosplay parties, particularly in areas like Shibuya in Tokyo.
That have been adverse effects, too, which is almost inevitable when so many thousands of (mostly young) people come together. Last year, in particular, seemed like a turning point when a truck was turned over in Shibuya by drunken revellers. Some used the street parties as a mere excuse to grope women or take panchira underskirt photos.
This year's Halloween in Shibuya was crazily crowded but a little more subdued, with tighter police controls back again ...
The latest gimmick in the ongoing campaign against chikan, or groping, on trains involves a stamp.
The idea here is that the chikan stamp, made by a Nagoya-based stationery company known for personal seals and stamps, can be used by the victim to mark the perpetrator.
When and after they are groped, victims -- who are often young and vulnerable -- may feel too shocked or scared to speak out, or physically unable to hold onto the perpetrator to prevent him (or her) from getting away. This stamp is a solution, since it lets the victim "brand" the criminal easily and clandestinely.
Known ...
If you're a young woman in Japan, especially in a big city like Tokyo, and you ride the train regularly, the chances are you have encountered the problem of chikan, or groping. Schoolgirls are frequent targets, probably because of their obvious sexual appeal to certain men but also because their youth means they are more likely to be too scared to do anything when groped in public.
Train carriages carry plenty of warnings about chikan, usually in the form of stickers or posters, ostensibly aimed at the perpetrators and witnesses. But what about publicity for victims or potential victims?
It ...
If you thought that old guys upskirting girls in Shibuya during Halloween was bad, wait till you've seen this!
A short video uploaded to Twitter on November 3rd shows a man masturbating in public on a train while seated opposite at least one schoolgirl who was filming.
The as-yet unnamed man, who would seem to be in his sixties, can be seen using his manpurse-style bag to half-hide his crotch as he begins rigorously jerking off.
The 13-second clip is unconfirmed and unverified, but appears to be genuine. The camera at one point pans up to reveal his face. Details regarding the ...
There are many ways to get a girl's attention.
Just being a gaijin in Japan can be helpful... sometimes -- though sometimes decidedly unhelpful in this regard.
But a select few people rather choose to adopt more unusual means in order to get closer to their target.
That being said, we reckon this guy takes the prize for most brazen.
Back in February, a 26-year-old woman was working as normal at a cosmetics section of a department store in central Tokyo. Now, as anyone who has ever gone to one knows, these sections tend to be on the ground floors of department store and overwhelm ...
No sooner than we have posted one article about a Japanese man exposed as a serial molester of women on trains near Tokyo, then along comes another case.
A video has appeared online allegedly showing a foreign man in the act of molesting a Japanese woman from behind while riding a train in central Tokyo.
The unidentified foreign male, who seem to be in his forties or fifties, is shown seemingly pushing himself up against the buttocks of the woman on a relatively crowded JR Yamanote train.
If we understand the context right, the person shooting the video apparently had already ...
Chikan (groping) remains a big problem in Japan, especially major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, where women have to ride crowded commuter trains daily. Gropers can get away with coping a feel of a woman who is unable to move or sometimes tell outright if it's chikan or just an accident of contact such as will inevitably occur with so many people squeezed into a train. And even if she knows it's chikan, it is then hard to say with certainty who is the perpetrator, much less apprehend them after the fact. Women-only carriages have not solved the issue, since there are far too many women riding ...
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say.
Late last year there was some controversy about a Japanese schoolgirl YouTuber who offered "free oppai" breast gropes to men in Shibuya.
Well, another Japanese schoolgirl went and did the same thing.
A 16-year-old schoolgirl wearing a bunny girl costume and carrying a sketchbook that said "Free Oppai" invited passersby in Hachiko in Shibuya to touch her breasts.
This time, though, it's more serious, and police are cracking down in order to set an example. The anonymous schoolgirl's case was sent to the prosecutors on March ...
