Why does Japan seem to have this problem and is this solution ethical?

[Fire]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C624B9D1-7435-4EF5-A611-FF2B39A04B4F.htm

Japan women get own subway cars

Police said 2201 cases of groping took place last year on trains

Tokyo has began its first women-only subway car during the morning rush hour in a bid to crack down on groping, which is rampant on the Japanese capital's crowded trains.
(snip)

I'll leave you to make your own anime death tenticle rape jokes.

Anyways is segregation a just solution to the problem. Why does the culture seem to have this problem where old men want to feel up school girls? Add to this the bizzare and perverse cultural things that seem to come out of that country like animated simulated rape featuring penis shaped tenticles, soiled young women's underwear sold illegally, or bukake. It seems like the country is in the stone age when it comes to women's issues.

[applegrove]

1. That sounds like a good idea. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Ig uess as long as the women have the option, it is legal.

[applegrove]

4. I was groped by a mob of 'boys' once. Quite upsetting. And you cannot

really explain it. I was in a bar going to a bathroom so I just looked the ringleader in the face and screamed fuck off. Went back to my table and didn't say anything to my friends.. was too weird.

Not that anyone in Japan will have a hard time believing women getting attacked or much worse on a Subway car. I think it is a good idea.

[Fire]

11. What bothers me

is that women only have two options, segregate yourself or risk being groped. The root cause of the problem is still there and it is almost an admission of defeat. If a woman doesn't want to be segregated, would she be blamed as asking for it if she is sexually assaulted? Women should be able to ride the regular cars and expect people not to touch them like that by default.

[applegrove]

14. The problem comes with how packed the cars are I believe. Nobody

will see anyone doing anything on a Japanese Subway. It is just jammed full of people. So multiply the number of people we see on a single car in a subway by about 10.. and there you have it. People getting pushed in so the doors can close.

And there is also a problem with alcoholism there. A tradition that you go out with the boss and drink your ass off. Not that way in North America really as much.

I think the system broke down when the subway were over populated. One place in the world that could have benefited from massive emigration but never had the means (and got kicked the hell out of other parts of Asia for Human Rights abuses). Now that problem has passed. The number of elderly in Japan will far, far exceed the trouble America faces. So it is doubtful anyone will invest in more subways..when the need will pass in this generation.

If I was in Japan, I would be happy to be in a car for women.

[Warpy]

3. My solution in Boston during rush hour

was a stage voice that could be heard very clearly all over the car, "Get hour hands off me, you filthy pervert!"

They couldn't get off that car fast enough and were generally given a few discreet knees and elbows on their way.

[applegrove]

7. Good for you. Subways in my town are not so bad so far. There was

one little pipsqueak sitting across from me and testosterone filled stance.. sitting - a hand in his pocket like he was holding a gun. I don't know what reform school the guy had been let out of. He was wired like someone who had done lots of time.

I used all the body language to stand my ground, and act very, very relaxed and try and get him to take a deep breath (for once). He kept up with the awkward holding of probably nothing in his pocket. And when others on the train, who were worried by him too, started to move away - towards the other end.. I moved too.

He got off at the next stop. I wish cell phones worked on the subways. Easier to coral the idiots & freaks into good behavior - I would imagine.

Don't know how I would have acted had I not been heavily medicated for PTSD because I was stalked by a real sociopath for years (he set himself & his friends up in my life and the life of my friends). I would imagine the cell phone advantage (if I were off meds) would not be for calling for help..the cell phone would be to knock someone on conscious.

[IronLionZion]

5. Indian Railways has had this for decades

nothing new here. Women-only cars are normal in Asia where the cars get kind of crowded. I've seen dumbass gropers get the shit beat out of them by a gang of angry women before. It's funny as hell. :P

[oregonjen]

6. Because they are a sexually repressed society

Acts of violence and sex in anime and even on tv are commonplace. However, couples and families in general, do not show affection. Hugs between couples are a rare thing. Maybe the younger generation is changing, but my husband (who is Japanese) just last night said that not once did he ever see his parents hug or kiss. I think they are a repressed society. Even parents have a hard time hugging their children.

Not to mention, the older generation dominated the women. Thus, weird old guys thinking it's okay to feel up younger women.

Am I off base?

Edited to add: When I was pregnant with my first baby in Japan, my mother-in-law said that her husband never felt her pregnant belly when the baby was kicking. Never. How sad is that?

[Cats Against Frist]

8. Move a few hundred/few thousand miles southwest

to the countries of India and Thailand, where the Asian men sell little girls -- and I mean LITTLE, like 4-5 years old, to fat, white Republican perverts from the states.

And I've always heard that Japanese culture was very masculine based and chauvanistic.

That's what Asiaphiles tell themselves, anyway -- the Japanese/Thai/Filipino/Chinese men were too "domineering" -- so they want a fat, white Republican for his sensitivity (cash).

[Charon]

17. Move a few

Of course you have concrete documentation to the fact that they are Republican?

[formernaderite]

18. I would disagree that they're sexually repressed....

they are a private society, with a public face and a private face. Sexuality is neither condoned or promoted. They do not have the same religious tenents that we have been constricted by, in that sense morality is not a public sphere issue. Homosexuality, adultery etc. are all handled much differently than in the west. The separate trains are there for those who "choose" to use them.

[lenidog]

9. When it comes to sex and women the Japanese are

repressed and well damn perverted. I know some might say that is a racist statement but the groping on the trains, the sex tours for businessmen, the whole bandage deal and schoolgirl fetish is just some of the milder things I have seen and heard over the years. I know that all of that can be found in American but in Japan among men it is far more acceptable that it is here. They are probably one of the few Western nations that are more sexually repressed than ours. But when they let loose watch out!

[htuttle]

10. Actually, I did some, ehem, research on this

I don't know about the rest of it, but regarding the phenomena of tentacle rape and 'bukkake' (if you don't know what it is, I ain't explaining it), both seem to have developed as ways to get around the rather strict censorship laws Japan has, believe it or not.

I think it was MacArthur, in fact, who instituted strict anti-pornography laws in post-WWII Japan, barring the graphic depiction of genitals. If you've ever 'accidentally run across' a Japanese porn picture, odds are good that the interesting parts were pixelated or otherwise obscured.

However, they never mentioned anything about tentacles being prohibited, so 'pornographers' (what an odd job title that would be) substituted tentacles for the male genitals (I can't believe that I typed that with a straight face...).

Regarding 'bukkake', it was essentially the same reason. Since they couldn't show the male genitals, they just showed the 'product' of the male genitals. At times, this becomes quite comical, as the quantities involved makes one imagines an off-camera stage hand throwing buckets of 'something' at model...


So anyway, there it is.

[leftofthedial]

12. too much sushi

it's the octopus

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Relations between men and women are awkward in Japan

A lot of boys are raised to do nothing but study and are pampered by their mothers. As a result, Japanese men often come across as shy and uncomfortable around women. As a student, I was astonished to hear young Japanese graduate student men ask an American man what one did on a date and what kinds of things one should say to flirt.

The fantasy figures are easier to deal with.

This awkwardness is superimposed on a culture that long had a tradition of legal prostitution and exuberant pornography.

It's a strange combination of repressed individuals living in a society that has a free-wheeling semi-underground sex industry.

By the way, I don't think that subway groping is a new phenomenon. It's just that women are now complaining about what they once endured silently. Thirty years ago, women were told not to make a scene if they groped, because they would embarrass the groper!

The status of women is a strange combination of powerlessness and power. There's job discrimination in a big way, and nasty pornographic representations of women and a lot of sex-role stereotyping. However, women have complete control of family finances, including major purchases such as houses and cars, and have much more freedom than the men do to be individuals. While the middle-aged men are slaving away for the corporations, their wives are off traveling in groups or taking classes for fun. With better job opportunities, more women are choosing to stay unmarried, which would have been highly unusual just a few years ago.

[MollyStark]

15. Give the women tazers n/t

[Bridget Burke]

16. When US culture has become perfect....

I'll be in a position to sit in judgement on Japan.

In the short run, the segregated subway cars seem useful. I don't see why women should continue to feel abused until their culture is perfected.