Woman awoken by naked intruder in her apartment

Bet the suspect will plead .... the drunk and can't remember defense.

People should in the very least, lock their doors and windows when they sleep, safe place or otherwise. Japan should really monitor those who commit crimes while under the influence of alcohol and ban them from buying booze if they commit enough offenses. Alcohol should never be a reason for people to justify things that they do

Woman awoken by naked intruder in her apartment

What is with this title? Should say sexual predators breaks into women's apartment and attempts to rape her in her sleep.

I'm glad she was able to fight him off. Also, I don't know how it was possible, but I'm glad the police were able to arrive in time and still catch him on the premises.

Yep! Japan is a safe place if you are a middle aged man. However, if you are a child, female or elderly the dangers are no different to anywhere else in the world.

So glad this young lady was not hurt. Hopefully, this loon will receive counselling for his perverted delusions while in jail.

The woman told police she was awoken by a naked man who was top of her.

That's one hell of an alarm clock.

Japan is very safe for everyone comparable to other parts of the world. Random acts occur all over the world and can't be stopped 100% so it will happen. Cut out the Japan bashing unless you have credible numbers to back your posts up. Also this is Japan and it has much deep roots that are extremely traditional and should not be lost but protected. Will this eliminate this type of crime, no of course not will it at other countries NO.

However, if you are a child, female or elderly the dangers are no different to anywhere else in the world.

That statement is not supported by crime statistics.

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Rape-rate

Rape reports vary from country to country, but there's no reason to believe Japan is particularly unsafe for women.

Please remember to lock also the sliding glass doors to your balcony.

Paul

Are you really trying to offer your excerpts from Japan Times as evidence that Japan doesn't have a ridiculously low crime rate?  Especially violent crime?  And very especially random crime not involving friends or family?

Woman awoken by naked intruder in her apartment

what the ... o.o

Weird that he just stayed there waiting for the cops...

but there's no reason to believe Japan is particularly unsafe for women.

Groping on trains is a big problem in Japan so do Japanese women feel safe on trains?

Groping on trains is a big problem in Japan so do Japanese women feel safe on trains dude.

That happens everywhere. First time I was groped in broad daylight I was was thirteen. And I was too shocked to kick him in the nuts. Ditto when a guy waggled his junk at me when I was twelve. That was in Canada, where I was sometimes literally afraid for my life when walking home from work at night and turning to random women or couples entering their home to pretend they knew me as some creep was following me as I zigzagged blocks. I gut punched a groper on a long distance bus once in Canada and had him arrested. Lots of witnesses who took a bloody long time to say anything but after I hit him they all piped up.

yeah. I’ve had a creep on a train here get a grope in just before jumping the train ー not giving me time to twist his arm off his wrist. I haven’t felt scared for my life or been prevented from going where I want when I want because of inherent danger though. It is always more dangerous to be female than men imagine.

Police in Tokyo have arrested a 39-year-old man on suspicion of attempted rape after he broke into the apartment of a woman in her 20s

What a creep!

Disillusioned:

Yep! Japan is a safe place if you are a middle aged man. However, if you are a child, female or elderly the dangers are no different to anywhere else in the world.

No, there are vastly different places around the world and most of them are far more dangerous for children, females and elderly than Japan. I dont know what is up with the kneejerk Japan bashing every time a crime is reported.

,Big difference in reported crime and actual crime, just like with that 99% conviction rate. Remember that they also sometimes fudge statistics like in Osaka to make it seem like there is less crime.

What a creep!

Sneaking around like that.

That would definitely wake me up too.

Yep! Japan is a safe place if you are a middle aged man. However, if you are a child, female or elderly the dangers are no different to anywhere else in the world.

Um, that's entirely incorrect. Women, children, female AND the elderly are safer in Japan than almost every other country on this planet.

People keep repeating this malarkey as if repetition will somehow make it true.

I dont know what is up with the kneejerk Japan bashing every time a crime is reported.

It's a mild form of hysteria. They read an article of an incident in a country of 130,000 million people, and without actually using any logic or research, they just assume that Japan is now the worst country on the planet.

I hope these people aren't the ones making the important decisions in their lives.

The headline should say 'Woman fights off rapist'.

I see he's already brought up the 'I was drunk' defence. How many times will I have to point out that Japan needs a sex offenders register.

I see he's already brought up the 'I was drunk' defence.

Um that’s not a defence. That line of thought would not reduce his culpability or punishment in japan at all.

But hey, people keep saying it on JT so it must be true right?

This is quite scary. Nearly same thing happened to a girl I know - she woke up to find a man in her room, staring at her while she slept. But she was luckier than this woman, as when she screamed he jumped up and ran away. She was never quite sure how he had got into her room, since her windows were closed and her door was auto-lock. She suspected that the son of her landlord had pilfered the key, but he was never arrested.

Since I live in Japan and not in any other country, I am concerned with the sex crime rate here, where I live, and it just doesn't make sense to me to compare Japan with other places. But I have to say that it's not the thought of the sex crime rate that frightens me. It's that prosecutions are so rare, convictions are even rarer, and even if the person is convicted, they almost always get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

In addition, women are often disbelieved entirely and accused of lying, or else they are told their reaction is out of proportion to the crime and the crime is minimized.

Then on top of that, women are shamed, blamed, and castigated by the police as well as the public for what they did not do to prevent the crime from happening to them. When the onus is put on women to prevent sex crimes, it allows the perpetrators to shirk their own responsibility.

Thus it is far scarier to be a woman in Japan.

Since I live in Japan and not in any other country, I am concerned with the sex crime rate here, where I live, and it just doesn't make sense to me to compare Japan with other places. 

....

Thus it is far scarier to be a woman in Japan.

Do you see what you did there? You said it doesn’t make sense to compare and then concluded with a comparison.

I agree with everything you said in between, but will add that none of that is unique to Japan.

Then on top of that, women are shamed, blamed, and castigated by the police as well as the public for what they did not do to prevent the crime from happening to them. When the onus is put on women to prevent sex crimes, it allows the perpetrators to shirk their own responsibility.

It’s best not conflate a victim’s responsibility to take care of his or her self, and the perpetrator’s responsibility for what he or she has done. They are not necessarily connected.

For example, if a victim doesn’t lock their door, that would be the victim’s fault, if the perpetrator were to have simply walk through the door. Obviously, this crime could have been prevented had the door been locked.

Still, in many and probably most cases, the victims did nothing particularly wrong, and they are simply that - a victim.

I can imagine that advice given after the fact could appear as if it were a victim blaming, but I honestly can’t imagine the police placing the blame of an attack on the victim.

Advice after the fact is victim blaming, because much of the time the victim actually do anything wrong or anything that could be considered careless. Such as in this case, she didn’t leave the door unlocked or the window open - he broke in. And in other cases where women are attacked outside their home, it can’t be considered careless to do everyday routine things like walk home after work or to go on a date, yet it’s inevitable that someone will suggest that it is.

And regardless of the circumstances, every time a crime like this happens everyone who hears the story immediately jumps to advice after the fact, even when they don’t personally know the circumstances.

Such as in this particular story - in fact it says he “broke in” yet there is plenty of advice in the comments about what she should have done.

This attitude, that women who have been attacked must somehow have done something wrong that caused the crime to happen, is pervasive. Japan is quite bad in this regard, and I know from personal experience that the police outright accuse victims of lying and routinely blame them for having brought the attack on themselves. That’s the assumption they start with, in fact.

This case is one of the rare ones where the woman will be believed, since she was in her own home, alone and the man broke in. But we all know the “I was drunk” excuse pretty much always results in a suspended sentence, which means he’ll be out of jail in a month. But the trauma this woman experienced will last far, far longer - and it certainly won’t help her recovery to know that the man who sexually assaulted her is walking around free.

if I were her, I’d move. I’d move into an apartment with bars on the windows and I’d install a lock on the inside.

The police need better training on dealing with sex crime victims, there need to be more female investigators, the law should not consider drunkenness as an excuse, and above all, sex crimes need to be taken more seriously and prosecute vigorously.

Advice after the fact is victim blaming,

Actually, it’s advice. Blaming is blaming. Advice is advice.

People forget statistics get skewed when alot if crimes in japan go unreported due to shame. I remember sitting on the train when an old man grabbed a lady's ass with full on hand and just walked away nothing happened and not reported. Everyone in shock but no one did anything as he just walked right off and the train started moving.

A man broke into her home. Advising someone who did lock their doors, to lock their doors, isn’t giving advice. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, and unhelpful.

Its also unhelpful to point out what someone did wrong after the fact - at that point it’s not advice - it’s just criticism. And criticising a crime victim at a time when they’re most vulnerable is inevitably going to be experienced as shaming, even if it’s not meant as such.

Have a think on that.