One in 10 young people in Japan say they have been groped in public, survey finds

Tokyo CNN —

One in 10 young people in Japan – the vast majority women – have been groped on trains and in other public places, a government survey has found, highlighting an often unreported crime that has long plagued the country despite official efforts to fight it.

“Chikan” — touching or groping without consent in public places, typically on crowded trains — is a widespread problem in Japan, where extensive rail networks transport millions of passengers each day, often in packed carriages during hectic rush hours.

In a nationwide poll of more than 36,000 people aged 16 to 29 by the Cabinet Office in February, 10.5% of respondents said they had been groped or experienced other indecent acts in public.

Women accounted for nearly 90% of those who said they were assaulted, according to the survey released this month. About two-thirds of those respondents said the offense took place aboard a train, with a similar amount saying it occurred during the morning or evening rush hour.

Many of those respondents also said they had been groped on multiple occasions, with one person saying they were assaulted “almost daily” while still in high school.

“For some reason, I cry more now when I remember it than when it happened,” they told the survey.

A Japan Railways employee stands next to a shinkansen bullet train at the Karuizawa station in the resort town of Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture on May 21, 2022.

Efforts to tackle chikan picked up at the turn of the century, when major cities like Tokyo began rolling out women-only carriages on trains.

In recent years, more surveillance cameras have been installed on trains and in stations and transit police – both in uniform and plain clothes – have stepped up patrols.

Wider efforts