38-year-old man admits to groping 100 girls

“I’m especially fond of girls from elementary to high school age.”

Yep! There it is folks. The lament of the average Japanese salary man. Nothing unusual about this.

The lament of the average Japanese salary man. Nothing unusual about this

Of course not. The average salaryman spends half his time being arrested for molestation.

Hang on, no he doesn't. Not so much disillusioned, more like wishful thinking.

And if found guilty what kind of sentence should he receive?

Must be terrifying to have a daughter in this country.

ronaldk -Must be terrifying to have a daughter in this country.

You have that right!

Cleo, I don't expect you to know anything about the male subculture here, but you would be both surprised and disappointed to find out the truth.

When will the Japanese government wake up and enforce laws to stop all of this mess!!!

And of course disillusioned has got first-hand experience?

If he knows that much about the groping preferences why hasn't he told the police about all the males he knows that are into it.

Sad to say but there are sick individuals in all societies.

The problem is deeper than the gropers. The problem is the overt sexualization of young girls in Japan. Media here supports and encourages everyone to see very young girls as sexual objects. It is in magazines, on billboards, in shops, on TV, in manga and just about everywhere.

If society is sending such a strong message about the sexuality and desirablity of young girls, is it any wonder that then people act upon that?

Take enjo kosai and other modes that young girls sell themselves. Take the high number of young girls photographed in seductive poses before they are old enough to think about dating. And then think about all the services that offer school girl outfits or girls wearing them for sexual purposes.

I am honestly surprised that the problem with groping is not much, much worst.

Japan needs to stop pushing young girls as sexual objects. Or this will never go away.

Everyone needs to stop saying it's about Japanese salary men, it most definitely says he is unemployed. I'm not saying its not true about salary men, but in this case it isn't.

The lament of the average Japanese salary man.

An unemployed man can also be a salary man? What a country!

Last time I checked, the sarariman is a man who is secure in a full-time job in a corporation for which he has worked for years and plans to work there for years to come, or maybe even to retirement. This guy in particular is unemployed, which is in pretty stark contradiction with the definition of what a sarariman is.

It's clear though that it is important to enforce laws and to tell women who might be the victim of such perverts that they are not to be ashamed of what is done to them, the only one who should be ashamed is the man in question, and that they should fight back, yell, draw attention to what he is doing. The groper is the nail that stands out and must be hammered in, not the victim.

Zenny11 "Sad to say but there are sick individuals in all societies" True, but at a higher per capita rate in Japan!

"And if found guilty what kind of sentence should he receive?"

I guess I'll answer my own question. If this amount of abuse by one man happened in a western country Mr. Arai would go to jail for a very long time.

He's been reading too much hentai and its world has become a reality to him. It seems to me if you start viewing school uniforms as a form of lingerie, then its time to get some professional help

Totally unsurprised. Of course, a guilty verdict and sentence are still up in the air. Now all they need to do is scour the rest of Japan...

well thanked god they stopped him before he could grope 101 of them!

I was groped on my bike while riding in the dark. Scared the living daylights out of me. Why didn't any of those 100 girls SAY something. I was all alone. People here literally live surrounded by people.

Seriously, I would like to see some scholarly research on this subject - namely, the Japanese male problem with sexual-mental-issues. This "groping" phenomenon seems to exist here on a larger scale than anywhere else on Earth. (Note I didn't say it doesn't exist elsewhere.) If anyone has read up on this, or can point me to a website seriously discussing the issue, please post.

How is an unemployed guy a salaryman? seems bizarre he gets in a traffic accident and suddenly fesses up to all these gropings......

seems bizarre he gets in a traffic accident and suddenly fesses up to all these gropings......

That's because there had been many grouping incidents in the same area recently and the police had pictures (drawn) of the man based on the victims' testimonies.. and this guy looked just like the man described by the victims.

Kaptain, deciding to answer my own question, a quick google search reveals that a 2001 survey (outdated of course) found that 70% of Japanese high school girls had been groped, and a recent survey of Japanese companies found that at least 17% of Japanese women have been groped in public. Those are HUGE numbers!! While of course rapes and such happen elsewhere, Japan seems to have a unique "groping in public" problem.

KakiOko: It seems to me if you start viewing school uniforms as a form of lingerie, then its time to get some professional help.

If ever JT releases a book of quotations, I'd like that one to go in.

What's with all the confusion over a salary man Vs unemployed. There was no reference made to this pervert being a salary man, only the connection between the perverted laments of the Japanese men. I've taught English to hundreds of salary men in Japan and am yet to meet one that didn't have some sort of perverted comment about young girls, hence my comment. Gees!

Let me see, a man in police custody, who looks likes a another Japanese guy, has confessed to over 100 crimes that he may or may not of committed in my book.

For each groped girl, a parent gets to swing a baseball bat into his groin. Justice served.

There was no reference made to this pervert being a salary man, only the connection between the perverted laments of the Japanese men.

So you are saying now that your first comment was a non sequitur? Bit of a cop-out, don't you think?

some girls dress like they want to be gropped here in Japan...I have seen many high school girls crank their skirt way up high and walk around...it doesn't justify gropping whatsoever but if you hang the bait out there someone will bite it!

So the J-cops caught him literally "by accident". I dare say that this guy probably has been casing the same parks and streets for quite some time. Wonder where the cops were all the time he was molesting the other 99 girls? Oh, that's right!..stopping white people for their home phone numbers out at Narita!

@meloveulongtime: I dont think an 11 year old girl tries to be bait.

Just thinking about a old perverted bastid groping an 11 year old makes my blood boil.

It is true that this is a problem in the society. And things will only be changed when the daughter of a influential person will be groped. But until then the people who have to power to change it are also in this sort of stuff. So I think its a lost cause.

@meloveulongtime: I dont think an 11 year old girl tries to be bait.

High school girls, meloveulongtime was talking about, are not 11 years old.

Arai gave the statement after being detained for touching the breasts of a fifth grade schoolgirl as she was cycling home through a public park in Yokohama on May 13 this year. The girl was not injured in the attack.

Maybe not physically, but you failed to determine if not mentally. This could cause a permanent scar mentally for life on an 11 year old.

a week ago i saw a man at Sobu Line who keeps pressing his body to women around him. this guy gets a lot of space since the ladies tries to keep away from him...he's wearing eyeglasses and has a suitcase, maybe 40~50y.o. he's tall maybe 5'8" to 5'10".....

paulanisa: "I guess I'll answer my own question. If this amount of abuse by one man happened in a western country Mr. Arai would go to jail for a very long time."

My guess is he won't get very much time at all, if any. While he WOULD get a whole lot more time in a Western nation (if a guy could actually get away with groping that many people!), this is Japan we are talking about, where groping is a rampant problem that is not enforced very well as of yet. My guess is if he gets ANY time, it'll be about 18 months.

I agree with tkoind 100%, Japan has GOT to stop pushing little girls as sexual objects in Japan and get stiff, so to speak, on companies that do so, not to mention perverts like this guy. The problem will always exist, but no reason it can't exist to a much lesser extent than it does now.

This guy is responsible for his actions, not the girls.

If he admitted to groping 100 girls then the real number is probably 200-300 because sex criminals rarely tell the full truth.

smithinjapan and tkoind - you are right on. Say what you want about the cause of these kinds of crimes, but this can't be repeated enough: "Japan has GOT to stop pushing little girls as sexual objects..."!

Was he keeping track? How did he arrive at "about 100"?

I think the rampant groping is more an indication of a woman's place in Japanese male dominated society. These guys think they'll get away with these crimes because of intimidation and lack of enforcement/punishment. As smithinjapan states he probably will get a comparatively light sentence( more than likely given by a male judge) Why is that? I'd like to hear what some female JT posters think.

@ Disillusioned

I've taught English to hundreds of salary men in Japan and am yet to meet one that didn't have some sort of perverted comment about young girls, hence my comment.

Yet to meet one? I taught English in Japan for years too and never came across any.

You are either exaggerating, if you actually met somebody, or lying. How about some names? Surely you remember the odd one or two?

Moderator: Back on topic please. And don't ever imply that another reader is lying.

tkoind2 hits the bulls-eye as usual.

I agree with Tkoind1 - as usual. Stop sexualisation of young girls and that will go a long way to stopping this behaviour. And yes to the person who said it must be scary having a daughter in Japan - it is scary as hell and I have had to CHASE guys away from my daughter before when they were taking photos. She was 5 YEARS OLD. What 50 year old male creep takes a picture of a 5 year old girl unknown to him on the street?

This is a real problem in Japan, if you look at the fans of AKB48 or similar groups the entire front row are middle age balding men, this type of soft porn leads to this type of stuff, Japan needs to improve it's soft porn image of young girls and punish heavily creeps like this.

Just be careful when you decide to make your laws regarding things like this because in the US ,,,it has been overexagerated to the point that if you compliment a full grown woman ,and / or ask a full grown woman out on a date ,,,she can have you charged with sexual harrassment if you don't watch.That said ,a grown man needs to leave children alone ,and NOT be gropeing them .

@chocoglide that describes a fair share of salrymen on any train.

he does sound pretty nonchalant in the way he says he is especiallyfond of elementary and high school girls.id like to see more of that interview script...and openly admitting to over 100 offences at the same time..he sounds like he couldnt give a crap.chemical castration is the answer.

. There is more smut printed, color smut with elementary/jr. sr. high school girls in gradually more compromising poses on most any train we ride here in Tokyo. WHY?! Start there, pass a law. No more smutty photo'd magazines with compromising poses on the trains. Go on the the Kiosks. Then the convenient stores. Its so xxx xxx obvious what steps to take, but NO ONE TAKES THEM. NOT Kan, NOt Hatoyama, NOt Ozawa, none of them. WhY? Tell me that. Don't they have daughters or female children in their extended families? Its down right embarrassing, don't you think?

Yeah, ban it all and than slap your forehead as the groping, etc continues.

Another day, another perv.

tkoind2 said: The problem is deeper than the gropers. The problem is the overt sexualization of young girls in Japan... Japan needs to stop pushing young girls as sexual objects. Or this will never go away.

You have posted a lot of intelligent and insightful posts. That was not one of them.

Sexualizing old ladies, dogs or trees won't make them targets. Some men are going to notice girls whether media sexualizes them or not, they have been doing so throughout history, and the places that bust derriere to crack down on such media have just as much or more of this and worse.

Further, your idea suggests that cracking down on media sexualizing twenty year olds would reduce groping and molestation for that age group too, and I find that idea absolutely ridiculous and contrary to anything I have seen on the effect of porn on crime.

In fact, I think Japan has a better record on this sort of thing than any place cracking down, and better than Japan would if they had been cracking down as you suggest.

"for allegedly molesting a 11-year-old girl" Shouldn't it read "an 11..."

it's the school uniforms..............

Further, your idea suggests that cracking down on media sexualizing twenty year olds would reduce groping and molestation for that age gro

You obviously dont live in japan where anything 15+ is shown in softporn swimsuits magazines.

I won't say that objectifying and sexualizing young women isn't a contributing factor, but that's been happening in other countries as well. I just think that Japan's culture of relegating women in general to second class status has given these molesters license to act on their impulses. This stuff has been going on for decades without much help by authorities. Only in recent years has there been a push for things like women only train cars. Japan must stop shrugging it's shoulders and start making examples of pervert/criminals like this guy.

kirakira25 - CHASE guys away from my daughter before when they were taking photos. What 50 year old male creep takes a picture of a 5 year old girl unknown to him on the street?

Yep, been through this one a few times myself. It would nice to think they were just taking photos of pretty little girls, but sadly there are too many sickos within the society to believe it.

This incident strengthens the previous article about the criminal tendency of the age around 30s.

Do what you can. You means J-people in position to do it. There's NO reason to be standing (yes standing, anyone sitting these days?) on the train, holding onto a strap for dear life, and having one of those smutty magazines with 15 plus/minus girls staring the elementary school/jr.high/school boys in the face for the duration of the daily rides, while the girls sit there like ducks in a pond. It won't cure the problem, but anybody for standing up to maybe think about a way to stop perpetuating it? Like it doesn't exist? Like so many other things.

gogogo said: You obviously dont live in japan where anything 15+ is shown in softporn swimsuits magazines.

What is obvious is that you have never lived outside of Japan if you think molestors and gropers only exist here or especially here or that the situation is somehow worse here. Either you never lived overseas or you lived in a bubble. It is amazing to me the way so many of you hold on to your crazy Comstockian ideas about porn proven time and time again to be totally fallicious. Next you lot will be saying that porn makes the rape rates go up because it is the logical extention of the ridiculous premise that manga and pictures of girls in swimsuits make child sexual abuse rates go up. Face it. You cannot "trick" someone into having certain sexual tastes, whether its to give them the ones you want, or steer them away from the ones you don't want. The idea is nutty as a fruitcake.

tkoind2 is right. AKB48, is a prime example. http://www.asianbite.com/screenshot.asp?path=/photos/akb48_23669.jpg Some of these sex idols are as young as 13 years old.

MistWizard: You cannot "trick" someone into having certain sexual tastes-- You are sadly mistaken.

You cannot "trick" someone into having certain sexual tastes,

No you cant, but you can make having certain sexual tastes socially acceptable. The amount of kiddie porn available in socially acceptable situations here (combinis, bookshops etc) makes it appear socially acceptable to these people to behave the way they do.

There is a disproportionately large amount of material here available in "normal" places sexualising young girls compared to the west. And a disproportionately large number of leery Japanese men reading it/watching it/clamouring to take pictures of it in full public view compared to the west. That is not just pure coincidence.

Imagine the reaction overseas among the general public if we had an AKB-style band dressed in school uniform with a huge following of middle-aged balding men at their every appearance. Now look at the reaction here - oh wait, there isn`t one.

It is socially acceptable here for grown men to idolise schoolgirls. That needs to change. They can start by banning the sexualisation of schoolgirls.

... police offered him the opportunity to give a voluntary statement.

Makes me wonder how the 'interview' was conducted.

Disillusioned said: Yep, been through this one a few times myself. It would nice to think they were just taking photos of pretty little girls, but sadly there are too many sickos within the society to believe it.

Did you ever think that if society worked over-time to stop their picture taking, they would move on to new hobbies like the hobby of the guy in the article? Just because you chase a guy with a camera away from your daughter and out of your sight does not mean he disappeared. I think people like you make the situation more dangerous for everybody. But hey, no need to cower in fear. There are lots of place you can go where your ideas are already in full swing, and if you think your kids will be so much safer there, what in blazes are you doing here?

kirakira25 said: No you cant, but you can make having certain sexual tastes socially acceptable.

To what end? It seems that end is to please you if you agree that you can't change people's tastes. My whole issue is to keep this sort of crime to a minimum. That is the whole point. Denying guys the outlet of pictures only means they will seek other outlets. Is that what you want?

If some of you are digging for root causes, try laying blame on poor parenting skills in relation to treating females properly. Poor parenting, or in many cases no parenting... since apparently the children are supposed to learn stuff like this from school? LOL at that. Another FAIL for Japan.

I actually tend to agree with both sides of the argument here, although I think you are almost arguing separate topics. The attraction to young girls is a 'sickness', for want of a better word, that is often the result of some kind of psycho-sexual trauma people experience in childhood/adolescence. It manifests itself into an attraction and desire to be involved with younger people, and it is obviously dangerous and destructive. The availability of porn probably doesn't have much to do with the condition or urge these people have. The sexualization of young females in Japan makes things blurry and at times pretty uncomfortable. Most men who have been there, I am sure, have opened some of those magazines and seen the manga, or the pictures of adolescents in bathing suits and felt slightly uneasy/uncomfortable. There is no question that it sexualizes younger women and makes them vulnerable to older men.