Puzzled women rue man ban on trains

Women Only train carriages introduced last month to combat molesters on most lines servicing Tokyo have generally been welcomed by female commuters sick of being felt up on the way to work, but not everybody is entirely happy with them, according to Josei Seven (6/9).

"Just shoving women away in a carriage of their own really irks me," a 34-year-old woman tells Josei Seven. "To get rid of chikan molesters, what should be done is posting police officers or security guards at train stations or on trains. Women's Only carriages aren't solving the fundamental problem facing women commuters."

Older women in particular are finding fault with the carriages enforcing a man ban.

"It's made it much harder to ride in an ordinary carriage. If you do so, it sort of sends this message to others around you that this woman doesn't mind if she's molested and may make you an even easier target for gropers," a 42-year-old housewife says. "I think the Women's Only carriages show too much attention is being paid to the matter."

A 39-year-old OL, or office lady, finds the female sanctuaries stressful.

"While I was lining up to get onto a Women's Only train, a group of schoolgirls were pointing at me and laughing and one of them said, 'that old biddy doesn't need to ride on a Women's Only carriage.' What they were trying to say is that some old woman like me has nothing to fear from a lust-filled molester. The carriages have created ill feeling among different groups of women. There's this weird prejudice that seems to make it OK for young and pretty women to use the carriages but not others. It kind of defeats the purpose."

A 44-year-old woman also vents her spleen.

"It seems a bit weird having a public place set aside exclusively for women. Get off the train and men and women are together everywhere. Does it mean they're going to segregate buses now, too," she tells Josei Seven.

A pregnant woman is also peeved at the gender-biased trains.

"In ordinary carriages, people would normally give up their seat for a pregnant woman," the 30-year-old obviously expectant mother says. "But in the Women's Only carriages, all of the other passengers pretended they didn't notice me. It was really bizarre."

Advocates have already formed a group dedicating to eradicating Women's Only carriages on commuter trains.

"We don't dispute that something needs to be done about train molesters," Munehito Yamao, spokesmen for the Opponents of Women's Only Carriages, tells Josei Seven. "However, banning only men from the carriages is discriminatory and touches on human rights issues. If they want to push the problem, if there're Women's Only carriages, why aren't there Men's Only carriages, too? Women and Men have got to work together to end crimes like commuter molestation. There's a problem by issuing a blanket ban on all men without having taking steps to combat the overcrowding that creates the breeding grounds for gropers in the first place."

Masako Atsumi, a lawyer specializing in women's issues, concedes the carriages are reverse sexist. But she argues that they're necessary.

"I've dealt with a lot of women who've been molested on trains. The trauma they suffer is tremendous and some are unable to ride a train again. Others have anxiety attacks simply by standing on the station. Commuter molestation is that serious a problem," she says. "We need these carriages to send out the message that society regards groping as a serious crime and is prepared to do something about it."

Social commentator Ryoko Ozawa, however, disagrees.

"The idea of Women's Only carriages being used to fight molestation is utter nonsense," she tells Josei Seven. "There needs to be concrete steps taken to find out why groping is so rampant and what can be done to eliminate it.

mainichi news 2005

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