False mass groping accusations over the years, have led to official methods of how to avoid it further, but also a women only carriage has been made available.
This of course didn’t go so well with gender equality rights, and thus so an formal submission by a group of shareholders of a major rail operator, Seibu Holdings, was made to demand for a male only carriage.
“On Seibu operated railways, numerous groping (chikan) incidents have been reported, as well as numerous false accusations of such. Countermeasures are required to curb this.
One such countermeasure has been the implementation of woman only carriages, and it seems this has borne some fruit, however it has no effect whatsoever on the incidence of false accusations. In Kansai, there have been very many such false accusations, and the danger of being falsely accused is exceedingly high.
The implementation of men only carriages would be less costly than operating cameras, and would not endanger the privacy of passengers; its effectiveness is also assured. Additionally, the equality of men and women is guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution, so establishing these carriages for men is necessary.”
However, Seibu Holdings, rejected the demand, claiming there weren’t enough request from the customers to make it happen. That is the third time Seibu has been requested to fulfill a demand of a men’s only carriage, and the third time it’s been rejected.
The shareholders whom requested owns 47% of the shares, and a two fifth is required to force any major change. Unfortionately, 32% of the company is owned by a giant American fund Cerberus Capital Management, whom most likely would distant the question “what befalls Japanese commuters”.
