“High school girls are really into this ‘kawaii’ culture so they had to be cute,” she says. Matsunaga decided that Tonooka should not have to fight on her own, so she came up with an idea to involve others by crowdsourcing ideas for anti-groping badges. It worked.īut the label made Tonooka self-conscious, and Matsunaga says boys teased her.

I’m not going to give up” and features a picture of policemen catching perpetrators. Eventually, she and her mother created a label to attach to her bag, which says, “Groping is a crime. She began to confront offenders, who would then angrily deny touching her. Tonooka started practising saying “Stop it” and “No” at home. Matsunaga says trains display posters telling groping victims to be brave and to speak up. Tonooka even wore her school skirt shorter and found that she was harassed less. They spoke to the police and the railway authorities, who said they would act if it was the same perpetrator – but it never was. They bought a stuffed toy which says “Don’t do it” when pulled. Takako Tonooka, the pseudonym she has used in interviews with the Japan Times, confided in her mother, and the two tried various solutions to stop the attacks. Matsunaga began her Osaka-based organisation, Groping Prevention Activities Centre, in 2015 after her friend’s daughter was regularly molested while taking the train to school. Each comes with a leaflet instructing the wearer to clearly display the badges on their bags, to stand confidently and to be vigilant. The round badges, designed to deter gropers, feature illustrations such as a schoolgirl peering angrily from between her legs, or a crowd of stern-looking rabbits and include the messages, “Groping is a crime” and “Don’t do it”. One morning in late January, the 51-year-old arrived at a coffee shop in the bustling neighbourhood of Shibuya with a suitcase of badges. Many victims stay silent, unable to talk about their experiences in a society which, by many accounts, trivialises this phenomenon.īut, in the past two years, that has begun to change as more people speak up against it. In 2015, she began writing about the country’s long-standing problem with groping – or chikan, in Japanese – often experienced by schoolgirls on public transportation. Today, Ogawa, a writer and cofounder of Press Labo, a small digital content production company in Shimokitazawa, an inner-city Tokyo neighbourhood, often writes about Japan’s gender inequality and sexual violence issues. “ didn’t think we could do anything about it.” “When I was in high school, every was a victim,” says Ogawa. “He seems to have thought that I was pleased with his act,” the now 36-year-old reflects.

She felt ashamed and complicit, she says. She believes that people saw what was going on, but nobody helped. But he grabbed her hand and told her: “Follow me.” Ogawa ran away. He was aggressive and it hurt, she remembers. A man began to touch her, putting his hand inside her underwear. She was about 15 and on her way to school. She recalls one incident particularly clearly. Besides, her parents had never spoken to her about such things and how she ought to handle them. It would be improper to express anger towards an adult, she thought, and she worried about attracting attention. “I could not understand that adults were excited by touching me.” “I thought of myself as a child,” she reflects. Each time, she would run away, unsure of what to do. After that, the groping and sexual assaults – men would often stick their hands inside her underwear – became a regular occurrence as she made her way to or from school in her uniform. Some years later, on her first day of senior high school, she was groped on the commute home. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 In search of the eagle huntresses of western Mongolia list 2 of 4 Indian gov’t presents bill to reserve a third of parliament seats for women list 3 of 4 Ibtihaj Muhammad: Hijab and triumph at the Olympics list 4 of 4 ‘Woman, life, freedom’: Iran one year after Mahsa Amini’s death end of list

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