Man arrested for assaulting woman at apartment building entrance

This happened to a friend and colleague of mine. When she saw the workplace counselor, (a woman) she was told that it because of what she was wearing and that the attacker was probably a foreigner. Even though the counselor hasn’t seen the guy.

In Japan, many crimes usually include “Excuse A, B, or C”: - “Police quoted Tanaka as saying he groped the woman …”

Today’s ‘remorseless admission’ includes Excuse B: “… to ease his stress from work.”

Hopefully @NewgirlIntown 6:38am you walked your friend to the police yourself and supported her while she reported the sexual assault and also saw to it she pursued and received appropriate mental health counseling. Seems your workplace ‘counselor’ should also be reported to your company’s Human Resources division for a discreet and thorough followup/inquiry before other victim’s are dismissed and further traumatized.

@Newgirlintown 6:38am: “This happened to a friend and colleague of mine. When she saw the workplace counselor, (a woman) she was told that it because of what she was wearing and that the attacker was probably a foreigner. Even though the counselor hasn’t seen the guy.

The irst edition story reads simply: “…for assaulting”. - Why isn’t it aptly headlined “for sexually assaulting” since that was the most grievous of the reported & admitted crimes,…

- “[Tanaka] followed the woman to her apt, grabbed her from behind and groped her breasts. [She] resisted and suffered a broken finger on her left hand in the scuffle.” -

…after stalking and injury to another during a criminal act?

I don't see how this kind of action help relieve stress. Having the police go after you is gonna increase the stress. But i guess jail time might help him clear his mind better.

@Strangerland

Its always important to read beyond the headline, mate.

Domestic indicators focus on both the amount of violence and crime in addition to incarceration rates.

ok. Still not a ranking of safety mate.

It clearly is.

Just take the L, and admit you were mistaken, mate.

Your recent experience @Alex 1:07pm and those of others here, were traumatic and the incidents shouldn’t be tolerated. Always advocated for victims before alleged perpetrators; there is ‘due process’ for them. Now, go and re-read my comments on today’s “teen” abduction Crime story:

No one here was advocating for the abductor nor especially the assailant. If you haven’t noted by now, these JT articles are often ‘translated’ and written(constructed) in such a manner that stirs speculation, commentary and debate.

Please continue to advocate for all victims, regardless of gender, as @Newgirlintown has done above.

- @Newgirlintown 1:36pm: “Alex. So sorry to hear of your terrible experience. Luckily the vast majority of men aren’t like this and are the horrible except to the rule.”

Alex. So sorry to hear of your terrible experience. Luckily the vast majority of men aren’t like this and are the horrible except to the rule.

Snowymountainhell. After the incident, I went with her husband and another person to her apartment to try and console her and offer moral support. There wasn’t much else we could do as any decision to take it further was ultimately down to her. We weren’t about to pester her telling her what she should or shouldn’t do.

On a different note, a different female associate witnessed a middle aged man expose himself to some young girls on the train. My point being that it’s certainly not rare here.

People think Japan is the safest country in the world, but according to most official rankings, e.g. the global peace index, it's not even in the top ten; sex crimes and violence against women being some of the main reasons.

@Strangerland

From the introduction:

Domestic factors

Domestic indicators focus on both the amount of violence and crime in addition to incarceration rates. 

Why don't you actually read it, instead of just refusing to accept that Japan isn't number one at something?

Nearly had a similar occurrence yesterday on the train home from work. Dude was staring the entire time. I knew he was going to be a problem. I moved to pretend I was going to get off at one stop - he quickly got up to follow me. So I stayed on the train. He decided to move closer and closer so he was standing on top of me for the rest of the ride, and since it was crowded, I had nowhere to go.

Stayed with me all the way to the last stop, and since I was by the door and he was behind me, I knew he had every intention of following me wherever I went. So as soon as the door opened, I got out, and stood with my back to the nearest wall in the station, and proceeded to watch as this stalker no longer knew what to do. While everyone else moved for their connecting trains, he just stopped in front of me, pretending to look around at different signs, before finally looking directly at me again and meeting my eye. Gave him the dirtiest look, and at last, after another moment's pause, he finally took off (running) in the opposite direction.

This is a near-daily occurrence in recent months. Women worldwide are used to this BS. But I do wonder if the social effects of the pandemic have made it infinitely worse...

@Strangerland

Here you go: https://www.statista.com/statistics/273159/most-peaceful-countries-in-the-global-peace-index/

I am also very sorry to hear such reports from women. One of my young Japanese daughter just moved to live in Japan and starting high school there tomorrow.

That is the only thing I might be afraid of.

I still wonder how one can be so closely harassed because : first you are not alone in a crowded train. Just shout, ask help...if not showing to be in need, how to know there is a incident ongoing ? Second, either you endure it or you react, please learn self-defense. I propose Aikido. Last and sadly, there will always be Japanese pervs in the street because of cultural habits (sex segregation, idols as sex objects, etc. as mentioned alreqdy above).

I discussed with my daughter about that. And she will shout if needed. It is learning how to adapt to your environment. Environment will not change. Some men just going back to being beasts and following their instincts. I wish girls at school in Japan would be educated to apprehend those crimes. In France, women would easily go to the first normal looking guy to ask help if in real need and the perv would be cooled down (physically if needed). Not saying in does not happen alas.

@girl_in_tokyo

Your points are all well taken. Sorry I didn't mean to make you feel worse

Somebody should break his fingers. And he should still go to jail.

Stress? My a*s!! He's a coward who can't get a girlfriend. Simple as that. A puke.

For certain women cannot relax their guard in Japan, no matter what the "safety index" says.

Not that long ago when I was on my bike on my way home, a middle-aged man suddenly leapt at me as if he wanted to push me off my bike. I was going pretty fast so it seemed more of an attempt to scare me than anything else, but I couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if I'd been going slower, or if I'd been walking.

I've been pushed, had my foot stomped on, groped, lewd things whispered in my ear, my skirt lifted and tucked into its waistband, flashed, followed, and goddess only knows how many times I've been creeped on in ways that didn't just feel obnoxious, but downright dangerous. One guy followed my friend and I from train car to train car, even as we were telling him in Japanese to leave us alone. We had to suddenly jump out as the train doors were closing to escape him.

And I'm not alone in my experiences. Every woman I know has had them.

Japan probably feels quite safe when you're a man, but it is by no means safe for women.

Alex. I am sorry to hear that and especially it is near-daily occurrence. If you do not mind, could you please tell

which line it is? If it occurs to you or other female passengers so often, perhaps it might be an idea you speak to station staffs when you have time. Also, next time such guy(s) gives you another trouble, perhaps you might try to ask people around you for help quietly to behave your acquaintance. Yes there are lots of weirdos these days.

The guy will walk with zero criminal or social consequences.

Japan only have good "reported" safety. You have to be delusional to think that Japan is safe for women. It would be extremely rare for a women in Japan not to experience a sexual assault crime before she even get to college. Many perverts especially targets middle school girls knowing that they would be too ashamed or lack the knowledge to report them. Even when reported, the police rarely do anything, and usually send the girls to mental institutions instead.

kennyGToday 03:19 am JST

Hope not all polices are like that. depending on where you live, especially residential area where many families reside with kids, you must have municipality's staffs who would listen to your experience , probably better than police you described, which put up all those suspicious persons info on it's web site to protect kids and women. And you can ask your municipality to officially complain to the police officers in question. Depends on your connection, you can also ask members of municipal assembly to complain about the police for such lazy attitudes.

That said, it wouldn't help you at all on the very danger spot. If you are courageous enough, you might want to use your smartphone to video capture his behavior, and then face such incorporative police officers. However, please try not to take any risk, try to avoid same route, same timing in a day/run away/shout/ask for help. Hope someone around you give you their hands. It would probably be impossible to eradicate such weirdos these days from big city like Tokyo.

KennyG, I know you have only good intentions, so I'm going to be as kind as possible. I'd like to ask men to stop trying to give women advice when we talk about our experiences with harassment and the lack of police action. Your job isn't to solve the problem by giving us advice. Your job to speak up when you see other men harassing women, let them know it's not acceptable, and to teach your sons to respect women. I'm quite sure, that as a good man, you are already doing these things - I'm just reiterating that your job is not to advise women on how to handle situations that we are well used to handling, and which you personally have no experience with. We would vastly prefer if you just listened, took our stories to heart, and showed us you're on our side.

You see, we have been dealing with harassment our entire lives, and you can be assured that we have already thought of and done everything you might think of to suggest, or you do not understand the full implications of what you suggest. For example:

"Ask your municipality to officially complain" - have done. Same reaction as the police. The problem is not just the police. It's much larger than that - society at large is not yet willing to take any real action to protect women. We will of course continue to fight; but there is no magic bullet.

"Use your smatphone to video" - and what do we do when the man knocks the phone out of our hand and then begins to shove and push us? Any overt act on our part could possibly trigger a violent reaction on his part. We know this though bitter experience.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure some women have had luck in dealing with the police. And personally, I'm too feisty for my own good and am willing to respond in kind if a man reacts aggressively to my resistance. But I also recognize that most women are too afraid to fight back, so that advice is never going to be of any help to them.

Thanks for your kind words; but do keep in mind that we have lived in our bodies our entire lives and know better than you what we are capable of.

Watching Online porn, the portrayal of teenagers in manga and girl bands as sex objects, combined with women’s desire to pair with a good-looking successful guy with money and a real future, means there are many of these loser guys wandering around alone in dark alleyways. Sad.

Although Japan is a safety country: He did this to the innocent girl to ease his stress from work.

I hear these safe stories in Japan every day now.

As usual with stories of sexual misconduct on JT, the up/down voting and even some of the comments infer that a good portion of readers seem to be sympathetic and supportive of the perpetrators, and antagonistic towards the victims and their supporters.

Maybe the systemic male dominance is one of the things that attracted those people to Japan in the first place.

Jonathan Prin Today 02:49 pm JST

I still wonder how one can be so closely harassed because : first you are not alone in a crowded train. Just shout, ask help...if not showing to be in need, how to know there is a incident ongoing ? Second, either you endure it or you react, please learn self-defense. I propose Aikido. Last and sadly, there will always be Japanese pervs in the street because of cultural habits (sex segregation, idols as sex objects, etc. as mentioned alreqdy above).

You might find it interesting to know that I have reported stalking and harassment to the police multiple times in my 30 years in Japan. The usual reaction is for them to say "You should be more careful." However, one officer actually threw his pen onto the table and then called me a liar. I guess he thought that womens' idea of a good time out on a Sunday afternoon is to head to the police box and give a false report of stalking.

In another incident, a friend of mine was chased by a man with a knife, and when she went to the koban the officers just flat out refused to investigate.

In other words, women have learned we are on our own, so it should not surprise you in any way when we do not report every single incident of harassment.

Besides, if we reported every single incident of harassment, the police would know us all by first name because we'd be in the police box every other week or more.

Also? Lindsey Hawker knew Aikido, it's just that so did Tatsuya Ichihashi. And as you know, Hawker was raped and brutally murdered by Ichihashi.

So much for that advice, eh?

girl_in_tokyo

Hope not all polices are like that. depending on where you live, especially residential area where many families reside with kids, you must have municipality's staffs who would listen to your experience , probably better than police you described, which put up all those suspicious persons info on it's web site to protect kids and women. And you can ask your municipality to officially complain to the police officers in question. Depends on your connection, you can also ask members of municipal assembly to complain about the police for such lazy attitudes. That said, it wouldn't help you at all on the very danger spot. If you are courageous enough, you might want to use your smartphone to video capture his behavior, and then face such incorporative police officers. However, please try not to take any risk, try to avoid same route, same timing in a day/run away/shout/ask for help. Hope someone around you give you their hands. It would probably be impossible to eradicate such weirdos these days from big city like Tokyo.

I mean.... stalking is defined as illegal by anti-nuisance ordinance 迷惑防止条例

this anti-nuisance ordinance is set by each municipality. So please consider to utilize your municipality more

to educate your police to lessen your stress.

Silvia trulyToday  10:34 am JST People think Japan is the safest country in the world, but according to most official rankings, e.g. the global peace index, it's not even in the top ten; sex crimes and violence against women being some of the main reasons.

Here you go: https://www.statista.com/statistics/273159/most-peaceful-countries-in-the-global-peace-index/

“ Safety “... “ Peace “... Doesn’t matter...

What I know is that I’m not gonna compare a country with 130 million people ( Tokyo being 37 million ) to Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Canada or Singapore. I’d Japan is “ pretty safe “.

I’d Japan is “ pretty safe “.

I’d say Japan is “ pretty safe “.

People think Japan is the safest country in the world, but according to most official rankings, e.g. the global peace index, it's not even in the top ten; sex crimes and violence against women being some of the main reasons.

Eh? Which ranking is this? Every time I've ever looked, Japan is always ranked in the top 5 safest nations. Color me skeptical - I notice you didn't bother posting a link.

Um, that’s not a safety index. It’s a peace index. Not the same thing mate.

ok. Still not a ranking of safety mate.