Victims of Japan’s ‘chikan’ train gropers feel ‘shame for speaking out’. Is society to blame?

More than 10 per cent of young Japanese have experienced sexual groping on trains and other public settings, according to a study by the Cabinet Office, with around 3.4 per cent of 36,000 people interviewed saying they had been molested more than 11 times.

Just as shocking was the revelation that 80 per cent of the people who have been the victim of chikan, the Japanese term for gropers, did not report it to police or transport officials.

Released on Thursday, the first-ever Japanese study on groping, determined most attacks take place on weekdays between 6am and 9am, when public transport is typically packed.

Congested trains make it more difficult for other commuters to see inappropriate touching, while some victims say that because passengers are tightly pressed together, they cannot be certain contact is deliberate and sexual.

Questioned why they did not report the attacks, 40 per cent said they “did not want to cause trouble” while a similar number replied that they did not believe the incidents needed to be reported.

The Japanese government and transport companies have been trying to stamp out chikan through a series of initiatives, including, installing cameras in all carriages to detect perpetrators, offering all-women cars at peak times, and campaigns aimed at girls and young women calling on them to speak out when they are touched.

Those efforts do not appear to have been effective, however.

“And many of them do not report it because they know an investigation will take time and that the questions they will be asked will be embarrassing.”

Izumi Tsuji, a professor of the sociology of culture at Tokyo’s Chuo University and a member of the Japan Youth Study Group, adds that many young women are reluctant to speak out