I Did Not Do That

(Picture from Japan Experience)

           Sexual harassment has been a problem in the world. In Japan, some trains have a woman-only passenger car in trains to protect women from sexual harassment. This type of trains can be seen especially in bigger cities, such as Tokyo or Osaka where population density is high, and many people take trains on a daily basis.  In the history, women-only cars started in 1912 in Tokyo, which aimed to protect female students from rush hour.

            In Osaka, which is the second largest city in Japan, during rush hour, the percentage of passengers can be 160% of its capacity at certain times. When it comes to Tokyo, it gets even worse. Therefore, the extreme crowd inside of train provides opportunities for chikan, a Japanese term referring to sexual harassment or a person who commits sexual harassment. Unfortunately, some certain subways in Osaka are known as the worst for the chikan problems. In order to provide protection for female passengers from chikan problems, since 2002, the Midousuji subway line started cars for women. Since then, the number of sexual harassments in train has declined, and it established the longer operation for during the day. Also, most of lines in Tokyo have women-only wagons since 2005.

            In Japan, if anyone is found guilty of chikan grouping, the person will be either put into jail or required to pay up to &4,500. Yet there are some difficulties associated with chikan problems. Some women who are victims of chikan cannot act against chikan, for example, shouting “chikan” to let people know. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to catch these criminals. Also, since these incidences happen in very crowded train where you can hardly move or see someone’s hands, it is hard to protect yourself from the criminal or find out who is harassing. Since this type of sexual harassment in very limited space to escape makes victims to feel helpless, the women-only cars relieved women from concerns of getting sexual harassment.

            Unfortunately, some women take advantage of this chikan problem and, in order to get some money, accuse innocent men of sexual harassing them (Japan Experience). Sometimes, some innocent men are caught as criminal by mistake. Yet since chikan problem is taken seriously by railway companies, if the innocent man is taken to the court, almost always the person will be regarded as guilty. Sivakumaran (2010) argues on UN's ignorance on sexual violence against men during armed conflict and tells us that we should not ignore the fact that some men can be a victim in some situations. Although there are many more incidence that women are harassed, we should not also forget about minority of men who are victimized. 
            In 2007, the movie “I Did Not Do That” based on the true story of innocent man who was accused to be chikan was released. Making movie means that there were quite many incidents in real life similar to this story. This movie gained the public view on the complication of chikan problems in Japanese society, and it has been debated if there should be men-only cars in train. Are women only the ones who need protections? Is a women-only train discrimination against men? While women-only cars are strong protections against chikan, it could be discriminate against men.

Sankei West  

https://www.sankei.com/west/news/170824/wst1708240003-n1.html

Japan Experience

https://www.japan-experience.com/to-know/visiting-japan/women-only-cars-in-trains