What Japanese women think about chikan

About a year ago, we wrote about SwipeMart, the convenience store set up by dating app Tinder in Shibuya. We included a nice video by Asagi, a dating consultant who specializes in intercultural and interracial relationships.

Asagi is herself now married and has a young family with a non-Japanese partner, so you could say that she knows what she’s talking about.

But she doesn’t just give guys advice about how to date Japanese ladies. She also posts other kinds of content, such as this video about an issue that we have frequently covered here on Tokyo Kinky: chikan, or public groping.

Though the foreign mainstream media has an annoying habit of framing chikan in the usual “wacky Japan” narrative, it is a serious societal problem that deserves careful attention. While Japan is generally a safe place to live, those women-only carriages on trains aren’t going away any time soon.

The rise of “public arrests” by YouTubers and the ability to publicly shame someone instantly on social media may have some impact in the end — fear of getting caught is a great deterrent — but molesters can still get away with touching women (and it’s almost always men touching women) on crowded trains.

In her video, Asagi weighs in on what she calls “Japan’s never-ending issue.” She includes personal stories such as her own experience of being groped and being asked to sell her used underwear.

We’ve called this post “What Japanese women think about chikan” for reasons of expedience, though Asagi obviously brings a very international perspective to the issue. That editorial caveat aside, her short video is full of insights and well worth a watch.

Asagi also made another video some time ago about being harassed in public (and even caught someone in the act of doing it).