Sounds like my kind of place.
Posted on 01/25/2005 5:25:02 PM PST by wagglebee
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officials are pushing for the introduction of more women-only carriages in Tokyo trains to crack down on molesters, but railway companies are digging their heels in, saying such a system would cause delays and be difficult to introduce.
In recent years the number of groping incidents in trains has continued to climb.
Last year the MPD made apprehensions over 2,234 molestation-related incidents. Many of these incidents occurred on trains.
Police approached several Tokyo-based railway companies at the end of last year and submitted documents to railway executives, asking them to introduce women-only carriages, albeit on a trial basis.
However, officials have hesitated to implement such a system, giving such reasons as that it would make it harder to evenly disperse crowds in different carriages.
Women-only carriages were first introduced in 1947, under the Japan National Railways. In a bid to protect women and children from crowding on trains on the Chuo Line, "women and children only" carriages were introduced on the line, but they were abolished in 1973 because they did not "suit the times."
However, a recent rise in the number of molestation incidents on trains revived talk on the introduction of the carriages, and from December 2000, the Keio Electric Railway Co. began to gradually increase them after installing them on a test basis.
Nationwide, 13 companies now operate women-only carriages on 31 lines, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The majority of women-only carriages are used in the Kansai area, with 23 lines operated by eight firms. However, in the Kanto area they are used only on Keio lines and the JR Saikyo Line.
On Keio lines and the JR Saikyo Line, women-only carriages operate only at night, and only in one direction on the lines, but they are generally supported by women. Some men also favor the implementation of women-only carriages, saying it saves them from being mistaken for gropers.
In July last year, the MPD and Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a meeting with the East Japan Railway Co. and Tokyo subway officials discussing measures to prevent unsociable activities in trains and stations. Since surveys showed overwhelming support for women-only carriages, an MPD official met with executives from three railway companies in December and handed them a written request asking for women-only carriages to be introduced, albeit on a trial basis.
However police said the firms showed little enthusiasm for the idea, saying there was a difference between Tokyo and Osaka when it came to crowding of trains, and that it would be difficult to introduce such a system in Tokyo.
Tokyo Metro Co. officials said evening out crowding would be difficult if such carriages were introduced, and would possibly lead to train delays. Tobu Railway Co. officials, meanwhile, said the size of trains varied, and that guiding passengers into trains would be difficult. They added that few requests for such carriages had been received.
Another cited difficultly was that some lines connected to others run by separate companies, and it was impossible to implement changes only on one railway company's line.
"All police are thinking about is controlling crime," one official said. "It's not as simple as that."
An MPD official said that even if introducing women-only carriages was impossible, there should be other ways to counter the problem of women being molested.
"Even if it is impossible in terms of whole carriages, they should be able to do something like create women's zones in the same way they have seats reserved for senior citizens," the official said. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Jan. 25, 2005)
IMHO, Japanese RR execs are reluctant to est. this not out of scheduling/timetable concerns as they are in the fact that by est. these special carriage they are admitting they can not insure the safely and comfort of their female passengers.
The frotteurists of Japan live for morning rush hour.
LOL!!!! That's my fav Clinton pic.
A frotteurist is someone who rubs their genitals against people in public. I learned that in abnormal psychology one semester and haven't been the same since *lol*
I've always wondered about people who take abnormal psychology. :)
That's what my professor said hehehe. I used to want to be a sex therapist.. you know one those 'if you can't do, you teach!' ;-)
So, what did you become instead?
This ought to give you an idea of just how closely you get crowded on a rush-hour train in Tokyo. I used to dread these trips - as a gaijin people expect you to be somewhat of a pervert anyway and when you're crushed nut-to-butt with some young lady you've yet to be introduced to it can get kind of interesting.
Of course the real pervs take advantage of it. I got my butt pinched by a guy one time and couldn't even raise my hands to counsel him properly. The drunks are the worst.
A professional student... I'm getting too old for that crap so I decided to become a nurse since I'm too old to be a doctor.
Hmmm....I don't think so:
It's probably more like now more women feel free to REPORT the incident. Traditionally, there was an informal but still fairly strong expectation for a woman to more or less zip her lip and put up with it.
Not any more.
Of course, the flip side of this is that there has come to light a number of really eggregious cases where young women just fabricate "chikan" incidents; they do this because they know that the mere allegation that she has suffered groping at the hand of some businessman might cut short his career. For this reason, businessmen will pay to informally settle against such threats.
And that's even if they've done nothing AT ALL. Ahhh...the joys of westernization!
What, these ladies haven't heard of taking the palm of their hand and breaking the guy's nose?
Or yelling and screaming and embarrassing the guy to death?
My brother-in-law is a professional student, I would be bored to death.
There was a Charles Bronson movie made about this topic, about groping on the subway by a Japanese perp. Can't remember the name of it.
My sister didn't believe it till she saw it for herself, those used underwear machines *lol*
The incidence of tasers to the groin area needs to climb.
The incidence of tasers to the groin area needs to climb.
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