Friday, 26 October 2007

Anti-groping phone tool a big hit in Japan

As you're probably aware, sexual harassment is a massive problem in Japan. Personally I've had my arse grabbed 3 times (by middle aged women!) and the length of my arm licked once (in one traumatic experience by one elderly man).

1,853 were arrested for groping on trains in 2005 though in reality due to Japanese men and women's paranoia of causing a scene and victim mentality the actual number of assaults could very realistically be 10 times (of not more) than that number.

While of course the perpetrators are at fault, a lot of blame should also be placed on Japanese society and it's people who almost encourage people to act this way. In almost any situation a Japanese person won't defend themselves when being harassed and even worse, noone will come to their aid.

A friend of mine unfortunately fell between the train and the platform early last year and as he held on to the platform and asked for people to help him up before the train pulled out (noone was stopping the train) not one person of the 30 or so who were standing within feet of him did a thing to pull him to safety. A woman standing right above him simply pulled out her mobile phone and muttered to herself in Japanese "Oh, what a bad situation! What should I do?"

Luckily he managed to pull himself up onto the platform.

The scary thing is this kind of thing happens a lot and it scares the Hell out of me as I know that if I'm ever attacked or in trouble in this country I'll be most likely be on my own. It really is scary!

But what's even scarier is that Japanese society isn't growing out of this but instead are becoming more removed and isolated from each other.

Because Japanese women don't like to defend themselves when they're being groped the put up with it and when they get off the train they go and complain to the station master at the next station.

Now instead of campaigns to promote self confidence and standing up for yourself and those around you, what do several train companies do? Why create women only train carriages that run certain times of the day so they can feel safe away from those nasty men (all of whom are apparently perverts). Not only does this not solve the problem but it's offensive and really just helps the gropers improve their time management.

This plan is also PR bullshit as it makes the train companies look like they're doing something but in reality they're not.

There are no video cameras on most Japanese trains.

Instead of installing security cameras they just decorate several carriages with pink flowers and kick all the men out of them for about 4 hours every afternoon.

And Japanese women actually think this is helping.

Now as if they couldn't get more retarded instead of just defending themselves Japanese women are now using a phone application that flashes text messages at the person who is groping them.

This must be a joke, right?

Basically, if your being touched by someone, instead of telling them to fuck off you load up your mobile phone application and secretly show the screen to the man (or woman!) which says "Are you groping me?" or "Shall we go to the police?".

That'll teach him a lesson! In all seriousness, if he's not drunk or mentally unstable, he may stop but if he does he will just go and grope someone else! Moving a fox to a different side of the paddock won't stop him from eating sheep. You have to get rid of the fox!

"I first downloaded this as a joke," said Spicy Soft official Michika Izumi. "But I think it could be a lifesaver if I get groped."

Riiiiiight... I can't think of any female or male friend back home in Sydney who has been groped or grabbed on a train. Why? Because most non Japanese women would raise Hell if anyone grabbed them!

If only people would defend themselves and each other.

Me and some friends of mine used to joke that we could get away with murder on the Japanese trains here. Of course we never would but last year a woman was raped on one of the famous bullet trains here in Japan. She was dragged from her seat into the toilet at the rear of the carriage where she was raped. What's just horrifying is the fact that the whole train was full of passengers and not one person tried to save her, call for help or even press the emergency button!!! Not one person! What's sad is that I'm honestly not surprised. Here's a woman's perspective on this same issue.

And now to end on a positive not, though still relevant, here's a hillarious video of another Aussie in Japan showing you how much you can get away with on the trains here. Just look at that mother defend her children and that other woman defend her dignity!