molestation

I met up with a Canadian friend yesterday and we happened to talk about 痴漢(chikan=molestation).  It's pretty common in Japan (more than 2000 cases are reported every year) and they usually happen on the trains.

So when my friend witnessed a girl being molested right in front of him, he was on the last train heading for Shinagawa.  The girl was obviously drunk and had fallen asleep.  Soon, a guy (probably in his thirties) got on and decided to sit right next to the girl despite the fact that the compartment was almost empty.  My friend thought it was strange but still kept looking down at his kanji book.

"And this is where things go bizzare."  The guy put his hand on the girl's knee, and then up her leg and inside her skirt.  At this point, my friend raised his head and stared at the guy.  The guy looked back with his hand still inside the girl's skirt.  He looked at my friend as if to ask "Can I do this?  Is this okay?"

So my friend gestured him that it was NOT okay.  And the guy decided to pull his hand out from the skirt but kept sitting next to the girl.  When neither of them got off at Shinagawa, my friend decided to stay until one of them got off.

When I was asked what I thought about the story, I said it was half the girl's fault.  She should've known better than to get completely drunk and get on the train alone past midnight wearing a skirt.

My friend said his other Japanese female friends commented similarly, and he thought that kind of attitude - blaming the girl - was making Japanese men think it was okay to molest girls.  "All girls should be able to wear a skirt and get drunk as much as she wants to and get on the last train alone without being molested.  Just like any guy.  I don't get molested if I get drunk.  Or if I wore a skirt.  If people have to change their ways to protect themselves, that shows a huge problem of the society."

Right, but any society has problems; we have to live it.  You have to learn to protect yourself from all the risks.  It's called responsibility.

I think that was what I said, but my friend is actually right.  We can't do anything about natural disaster but molestation is what people cause - it's not impossible to abolish the "custom".  Our tolerance may in fact be encouraging people to commit crimes.