Chikan is a chronic problem on public transport in Japan that doesn't seem to be getting better any time soon. Despite the introduction of women-only carriages during rush hour and the display of posters and "shame stickers" warning offenders that groping is a crime, the number of men who do it never seems to decrease. If #MeToo was just about chikan, the number of tweets would likely break Twitter's servers.
Kumi Sasaki says she was groped "nearly daily" on her commute to and from school in Japan. She was aged between 12 and 18.
Her first experience of chikan was on the crowded JR ...
Being of that kind of mind, the Japan Suspicious Person Information Centre (JASPIC) conducted a seven-month study on "perverts" based on reports from police and municipalities. The Japanese term here is fushinsha, a "suspicious person." This, though, does not refer to spies or would-be thieves, but voyeurs, flashers and chikan (gropers).
JASPIC reports that 11,607 incidents were officially recorded from March to October this year, and of these 4,487 -- around 40% -- were in the vicinity of train stations.
Naturally, there are a lot of stations in Japan and most of the 4,487 are spread ...
We all know free hugs. But what about free oppai?
A Japanese female YouTuber, Pepsi Lu, was offering lucky men in Hachiko at Shibuya Station that chance to grope her breasts in public. She kept her clothes on, but naturally this caused quite a fuss after some 60 people -- including women and foreigners (we love how the Japanese press feels the need to mention this point) -- copped a feel of her bust.
Sadly the videos are no longer online (apparently deleted for breaching some rule) but, while there's been no Weinstein-esque fallout in Japan, it's nonetheless causing plenty of ...
Imagine you are riding the train home. You feel a little sleepy. Perhaps you drop off. This is common in Japan. Public transport is full of dozing passengers, young and old. You feel safe.
But what you don't expect is for an old man next to you to unzip himself, reach into his groin, pluck or otherwise extract a pubic hair or two, and then casually flick his "gift" onto your head.
It sounds too disgusting to be true, but sadly this is what happened.
After performing his deed on the unsuspecting junior high school girl beside him, the man tried to pretend he was merely adjusting ...
To, er, celebrate International Women's Day, Al Jazeera ran this long and detailed story about sexual assault in Japan, claiming "every girl was a victim" but now more schoolgirls are speaking out about groping on public transportation.
Tamaka Ogawa was about 10 years old when she was sexually assaulted for the first time. It was a public holiday and she was on the subway. A man standing behind her pulled down the band of her culottes and underwear, touched her bare bottom, then pressed himself against her. She recalls feeling shocked and physically sickened. When she reached home, she ...
We continue our reports about Tokyo Game Show 2016.
We are a little late on these reports but we were too busy to post.
TGS always walks that fine line between the exciting big releases of the gaming industry and veering off into creepy (but to us, intriguing) world of virtual dating and sex.
Here is certainly one example.
Virtual reality was the big theme at the show, as expected, though it wasn't all mainstream uses of the technology. As we know, the adult implications for VR are huge and a major thing in the industry in Japan, too.
The developers M2 Co. Ltd have created ...
A woman who fell asleep on a train woke up to find herself abducted and trapped in the home of a man she did not know.
The 28-year-old company employee from Adachi ward in east Tokyo was allegedly confined between June 4th and June 5th after she fell asleep on a train.
The suspect is 33-year-old Yoshifumi Kurita, a temp from Sagamihara, who was arrested by Kanagawa police on June 18th.
According to police, Kurita is maintaining silence, though there have been five similar cases in the area around where there crime took place.
The victim had been out drinking and was riding on a JR ...
Art imitates life, as the aphorism goes, but life also imitates art.
Visitors to Japan are sometimes disappointed that the country doesn't live up to the stereotypes: Where are the geisha? Where are the robots? Where are the hordes of anime girls?
Where are all the molesters on the trains? Wait, what? Yes, some people are actually expecting to see this.
Japan may be paying the price for being the empire of porn.
Its overseas reputation is not quite as "cool" as the government might like. Instead, foreigners are seemingly coming to Japan expecting the nation to be like they have ...
Sometimes you just can't resist that hottie on the train.
And combine cute girls on public transport in Japan with fiery Italian blood -- and you have a recipe for trouble.
On March 4th, Wakayama police arrested an unemployed 40-year-old Italian man for kissing a 21-year-old Japanese girl sitting on a train in the prefecture.
There is no indication that the two knew each other.
The Italian stallion admits the kiss but claims there was no malice. "The kiss was intended as a greeting. I didn't think it would break Japanese laws," pleaded the European.
It's true that in Europe ...
If you're going to be a train groper and run the risk of getting arrested, go the whole hog. That's the lesson from this story, it seems. Choose a young, hot victim and don't give up without a fight!
Monday is never a fun day. The weekend is over and people are not in the best of moods in the morning trek to the office. But Tokyo morning rush-hour trains were delayed this Monday for 19 minutes -- a lifetime in Tokyo. Why? Because a man had groped a high school student.
That's a daily occurrence on Tokyo trains, so much so the train companies have introduced women-only carriages on many ...
