University entrance exams
Japanese police warn of sexual harassment on crowded subways
Sexual harassment in the form of groping is a common problem on Japan’s crowded subways
© Hiro Komae / Picture Alliance
Hundreds of thousands of students take the nationwide university entrance exams in Japan. The police took this as an opportunity to warn against grabbing men who take advantage of the overcrowded subways.
Japan’s police warn schoolgirls against subway gropers as they take national university entrance exams. At Tokyo’s Shinjuku central station, with its millions of passengers every day, the police called for an end to the “chikan” (grabs) problem before the start of the two-day tests, in which hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across the country take part at the same time, as the newspaper “Nikkan Sports” reported on Wednesday reported. In Japan’s chronically overcrowded subways, women can easily become victims of gropers. “Chikan” is such a serious problem that at certain times there are compartments for women only.
The two days of the exam decide on the future of the university and thus also on the career of the young Japanese. The stress for the young people is correspondingly high. Traffic reports and weather forecasts are closely monitored in order to be sure of being able to show up at the national examination centers on the day the examination begins. Hotels in the area are fully booked. Exceptions are only made in the case of illness with a doctor’s certificate.
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Crackdown on Japan’s subway gropers
Japan’s subway gropers know that young people are doing everything they can to appear for the test: According to the newspaper, there are always malicious posts on the Internet, like last year’s one in which someone wrote: “The examinees don’t report it, you can grope them as much as you want”. The police crack down on perpetrators on trains, and those convicted face imprisonment. In order not to be suspected, some men always keep their arms up in the full lanes.