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This year, January 13 and 14 were stressful days for many Japanese teens. That’s because those were this year’s exam dates for the Center Test, a rigorous examination that many Japanese colleges require a high score on as part of their admission criteria.
Adding another layer of anxiety is the fact that examinees don’t take the Center Test on their respective high school campuses. Instead, they have to travel to a regional test venue on the consecutive mornings in time for a 9:30 a.m. start.
And as if all that wasn’t enough to worry about, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports that when the time for the Center Test rolls around, would-be predators boast online about their plans to grope female high school students on the train on the morning of the exam.
In a recent segment, NHK program News Watch 9 presented a collection of social media posts about the writers’ planned chikan (train groping) activities, which included:
“Tomorrow’s the Center Test, and the forecast for chikan is great.”
“The number-one chance for chikan is on the days of the Center Test.”
“Since the Center Test takes place tomorrow, the conditions are perfect for chikan. All right, gonna hop on the train tomorrow and have a little nice communication with the girls.”
“You can feel up girls headed to the Center Test all you want and get off scot-free!!!”
“The Center Test is tomorrow? It’s a chikan carnival!”
“I just realized something amazing. If you grope a girl on the day of the Center Test, you won’t get caught, right?”
The reason for all this deplorable confidence? The Center Test is offered only once a year, and all examinees, nationwide, are required to take it at the same time. Show up late, and you run the risk of being told “Sorry, you can’t sit for the test. Come on time next year.” While not an insurmountable black mark, a gap year on your academic resume carries a stigma in Japan that can make job-hunting more difficult, and so arriving late to the Center Test site can have lasting repercussions for a person’s education and career.
Reporting a chikan incident, though, is a time-consuming process. The victim has to wait for the train to reach the next station, then somehow summon the authorities, who aren’t likely to be standing right there on the platform when she gets off. Then she has to give a statement, and that’s assuming there isn’t an altercation when she and/or any good Samaritans try to drag the chikan off the train so that he can face justice.
All of that takes more time than any buffer teens are likely to build into their schedule when heading to the Center Test venue, and so the logic of the boastful chikan is that when forced to choose between letting their assailant get away with his transgression or being late to the test, many girls will choose the former.
It should be noted that while the Center Test administrators are sticklers for punctuality, this does seem like a scenario where an exception would be made. It’s also worth pointing out that there haven’t been any publicized incidences of a girl who arrived late because she was groped on the train being told that she would be unable to take the test and would have to wait until next year to try again.
In addition, police reports make no mention of a spike in chikan activity on the days of the Center Test. That, however, may simply mean that chikans’ schemes are working exactly as planned, with teens who’ve been groped not taking the time to immediately inform police or Center Test administrators, and then, once the exam is over, being resigned to it now being too late to do anything about it and thus remaining silent.
Considering that how harried and strapped for time teens are on the days of the test is common knowledge in Japan, perhaps the best course of action would be for the Center Test’s governing body to make clear that while showing up on time is generally a must, being a victim of a crime, and reporting it to the authorities, is a valid excuse.
Source: Jin
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese schoolgirl seeking crowdfunding, art submissions to produce anti-train groper pins
-- “Women who attract chikan, and women who don’t”: The illustrated guide that’s provoking debate
-- Japanese company offers insurance plan to protect against false train groping accusations
© SoraNews24
39 Comments
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since1981
Why not allow the girls to wear regular street clothes instead of their mini skirt school uniform? And to the females, I've taught my daughters to break a finger first and ask questions later.
pacint
I knew school uniforms from programs that featured Britain, next was after I started working in South Africa and Japan.
Can see the pros and cons for either.
Back home me we could wear anything but shoe-wear was regulated(no sneakers, etc).
Girl in the foto wears one way too short, most local schools it has to be either below or just above the knee. Seen many girls enter toilet and come out with loose socks, skirt wound up into a mini and wearing makeup.
Personal opinion public schools you should be able to wear anything unless too revealing/indecent(hot pants, etc).
Private schools can set their own rules.
Luddite
Sorry, are saying victim's clothes were to blame? No, it's the pervert choosing to touch them that is to blame. it doesn't matter what they are wearing, perverts still assault women on trains and elsewhere.
PTownsend
More power to #MeToo !
Stop and shame the perverts.
timeon
They dont have to wear uniform at the Center Exam.
dcog9065
Here we go again with blaming the girls and their clothes. Disturbing to see these types here
quercetum
Everyone is hung up on the “everyday” bit. The groping happened on a regular basis. See the forest. Why dismiss what she has to offer to this problem?
since1981
Luddite, I see your point and agree however most of those targeted are the ones wearing short skirts.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
@LudditeToday 08:17 am JST
I don't think it was phrased as a matter of shifting blame but more as a matter of biology. The truth is that people find some outfits more stimulating to their primitive sense of eros than others.
Kobe White Bar Owner
If i ever see this happen to a girl/young woman or a grown woman for that matter, ill be getting in trouble for accidentally slipping and my head connecting with the guys noes. One of the worst aspects of living in Japan.
lostrune2
At least gotta give it to them for being resourceful
Ex_Res
I fail to see why any school should have tell it's students not to wear their uniform, or change the uniform because a handful of degenerates are out there on the rail system.
Students - wear your uniform with pride, and good luck with your exams.
Legal Authorities - start doing your jobs.
katsu78
Yeah, no, that's not it at all. There are loads of straight men who find a woman in a short skirt attractive, but then don't feel an impulse to molest a school girl against her will. It is not biology that compels gropers, molesters, and people who commit sexual assault, it is the desire to exercise destructive power over someone they perceive to be weaker. No change in the victim's clothing will ever make that desire of the chikan go away.
I suspect though that since there have been no reported incidents, the people in these comments didn't actually intend to follow through on their comments. This is probably less an active attempt to molest and more the pathetic murmurings of online communities filled with maladjusted losers who have no concept of how to interact with other human beings if they happen to be women. What we're seeing is an attempt to normalize sexual assault, not an attempt to actually commit it. Equally contemptible, but not exactly the same.
Luddite
So what if a person finds an outfit 'stimulating' It doesn't mean they have the right to sexually assault the person wearing the clothing. Perverts choose to assault, they are actively making the decision to do it. Or, are you saying feeling stimulated automatcally makes you assault someone and the perpetrator is therefore blameless? I dunno, what I'm reading here is people desperately looking to absolve those who commit sexual assault.
Disillusioned
This is because 90% of cases go unreported. I travel on busy trains every day and have seen some really disturbing incidents that go unreported. I've seen a lot of violence against women too. The other day I saw a man push and abuse a woman because she was in his space. It was assault, but she just moved away. I saw another man slap a woman in the same scenario. I'm not saying all Japanese men are like this, but there is a measurable percentage of Japanese men who are violent and deviated towards women.
Ex_Res
Educator60
Sharp oberservation.
Goodlucktoyou
asked an (english) high school leader about why skirts are so short. he told me every year him and two japaese heads have a meeting to decide the years length. all 3 are male and he said it makes their job more fun to set short lengths.
i personally believe track pants on the way to school, or stockings. they can be taken off at school.
Haaa Nemui
I'm on trains for nearly 3 hours every day on my daily commute... In 5 years I haven't seen a single case of violence against another person... I have seen a man screaming and shouting at a door, kids spitting and throwing trash, woman yelling at another man who was apparently her partner, a man urinating... never a single hand raised against another person. Not saying it doesn't happen because we all know it does but if 90% of cases go unreported then in my area at least it's still a very low number.
Haaa Nemui
Never seen anybody call out "chikan" either. Not once.
AustPaul
Thanks to social media then this is a perfect opportunity then for plain-clothes police to target train lines heading to the station where the test is.
GW
This is all messed up on so many levels, the sick sick chikan, the awful school testing systems & all of this amounts to what in the end, not much of anything good, so glad I didn't grow up here
Disillusioned
My commute is about the same although, I've been doing it a lot longer than 5 years. This is also area specific. My commute is on trains that go into Saitama, a well known prefecture for violence. I saw two guys punching on at Nishi-Funabashi station the other evening. One was a Yak-wannabe with tatts on his hands. The other was just a stupid salaryman with delusions of grander. Needless to say, the salaryman, who started the fight, got a serious smack down. This was only because a bit of push and shove getting onto a peak hour escalator. It is quite possible you haven't seen any similar incidents, but this is most likely because you are not looking for them. If you search through the archives, you will find an article from three or four years ago stating that 27% of Japanese adults have some kind of mental illness. If you add the fact that possibly 50-60% of Japanese men have an unhealthy fascination with young girls, you can conclude that, you are living on the world's largest island asylum.
Trapped
You have options.
Haaa Nemui
Nope. I'm reasonably observant and when people get vocal or violent it's almost impossible not to notice. I don't fill my ears with music or anything either.
This isn't true. It's true that there are articles that state 24% of Japanese people suffer from some form of mental illness at some point in their lives. Very different.
I know these incidents happen though... but as you say it could be area specific. I have to admit that my morning commute is often only a full train at one end of the journey... My evening commute however is always a packed train.
Haaa Nemui
Not me downvoting, but something else I disagree with is the 50-60% figure you gave. I'm disgusted with the behavior of those mentioned in another article today but saying "possibly 50-60%" is no different to me saying possibly 0-5%. No evidence of such a high number or low number.
Kazuaki Shimazaki
@katsu78 Today 10:21 am JST
You do realize that "straight men" find woman in a short skirt attractive because the short skirt reveals the legs, which in turn stimulates the sexual reproductive instinct.
There is certainly an element of desire to dominate in the sexual predator, but to deny the sexual component of all this is frankly silly. If they just want to "exercise destructive power" over women, they would have punched them.
@LudditeToday 10:21 am JST
As I said, I don't think the point of the advice was to shift blame more than it is a bit of pragmatism. It's like being recommended to avoid walking right next a robber's den. Are they still wrong if they come out and rob you? Sure. Is it just smart for you to avoid them? At least it is arguable and no one arguing such would be accused of making robbers blameless.
Brian Wheway
The simple thing here to do is back track the tweeted message (Through the phones ESN) or computer number, trace them, follow them, arrest them, if there is a incident. also J cops could put more under cover cops on the trains to keep an eye out for any perv perps. I find it amazing that one or two people comment on the length of the girls skirts, long or short, girls or woman should not be groped, touched inappropriately, full stop!
SaikoPhysco
My wife is studying for a Real Estate exam that only is given once a year too... while I'm not particularly worried about her being groped it does bother me that the exam is only given once a year. I think those people that were talking about it being a special date for Chikans were possibly more ticked off that too many tests in Japan only happen once a year. They have highlighted the Testing problem using Chikans. Or they're just total dirtbags.
Eunice EY Yap
Why not let the students take the exams at their own schools? Their teachers can be dispatched to other schools as invigilators.
Takeshi Hasegawa
The above pic of this article is misleading. Almost no Japanese male/female high school students don't take the Center test and university entrance exams with a school uniform.
smithinjapan
Did NHK provide the info on the people who posted these comments? Hope they did if they could.
Anyway, this is sickening. More needs to be done to help the victims of sexual assault. And people blaming the clothes and styles are just as sick. And help can start by the people holding the tests allowing for any and all people who were late due to a crime (reporting it, or as a result) or other disaster to not only sit for the test if they are late, but take it another time if need be. I understand logistically it can pose problems if it is the same test, but perhaps a back up, alternative test can be made for such cases. You can't allow these chikan to pull such crap off because the nation is not willing to shift the time frame for people who need it. If they are not allowed to sit because they reported an incident and were late, or missed it, they should be allowed to sue... and sue big.
englisc aspyrgend
Disgraceful illegal action! (wholly agree with you:)
Ko
Japanese citizens need to rise up and protect these young ladies. If such an assault on these school girls is observed everyone who becomes aware must immediately attack the perpetrator and pummel him with fists and kicks. After exacting a satisfactory punishment on the evil perpetrator--those who observed the crime must restrain the perpetrator and turn him or her over to the authorities.
arrestpaul
This year, January 13 and 14 were stressful days for many Japanese teens. That’s because those were this year’s exam dates for the Center Test.
Why are we hearing about this on January 28? If we wanted to warn our daughters, it's too late. If we wanted to accompany our daughters, it's too late.
arrestpaul
Maybe I don't understand your position. If you see a groping crime, you expect someone else to commit a crime by kicking and punching a stranger?
And you want anyone who observes both of these crime-S to forcefully hold the perpetrator-S against their will. Hopefully your initial assessment of the situation is correct.
Miguel Lozano
good for them, ha
Brian Wheway
I am surprised that no one has thought about an after school self defence class for girls, a trained and qualified instructor who can show the girls how to stand up and defend them selfs and give them the confidence to do so, IE grabbing little fingers and bending them back wards, scrapping there shoes down the perps shins, using the school bag to jam into the perps groin, these girls need the confidence to stand up and fight back.
Rubén Darío Franco
Women are free beings, no one has to mark the dress guidelines, they can even go completely naked to the subway and no one can handle it without their consent, stop wanting to defend the criminals, it is a pure evil to blame the victims of abuse for having been fingered.
As for the ladies, my advice is to stop being afraid, do not give power to these criminals, if you feel that they are touching you without your permission, grab it from the balls and crush it until it is half dead or if possible dead, do not let yourselves be manipulated, you have to be strong! Women are much stronger than you imagine, it's just a question of willing to defend yourself.