Groped on Trains from Age 12 to 18, Japanese Woman Adds Voice to Global Movement by Penning Book about Experience Tresha Barrett (Kyoto))
In an age when phrases like “Time’s Up” and “#MeToo” resonate across social media platforms, podiums, and intimate conversations, women, not only in the U.S. but around the world, have been stepping forward to lend a voice to the fact that they are tired of being taken advantage of by men. In Italy, the phrase #QuellaVoltaChe, which translates to “That time when,” has been used by some. Women in Spanish-speaking countries across the world use #YoTambien to highlight their experiences. Arabic speakers in the Middle East and Africa echoed a direct translation of the words "Me Too." And in France, #BalanceTonPorc, which roughly translates to "snitch out your pig," became a rallying cry against sexual harassment. (1)
paraphernalia such as stickers and badges have been circulating. There is even an anti-groping function in the Metropolitan Police’s crime-prevention app, “Digi Police.” With the app, the words “Grope – please help me” appears when it’s opened, and when it’s tapped on, a voice saying “Please stop!” is repeatedly played. (2) Nonetheless, despite the efforts to curb chikan (a Japanese term for both men who grope women and the act of touching someone without their consent on crowded trains), it is still quite prevalent.
Sasaki, who currently lives in Paris, published her book, titled chikan, last November. In it, she recounts her arduous experience of dealing with chikan from middle school to high school on an almost daily basis It was while living in France that Kumi Sasaki decided on her commute from home to school and back. to chronicle her ordeal of being continuously groped over the span of six years while riding trains in Japan. Recalling her first chikan experience while on Tokyo’s This form of harassment, which started when she JR Yamanote Line, Sasaki recounts feeling a man’s was just 12 years old, is not an uncommon practice hand rub against her – a hand that she thought would in Japan. In fact, several strategies have been put have stopped touching her when the train stopped in place in order to try and restrict such abhorrent jerking, but it remained. behavior. “The fingers of this unfamiliar hand went inside the Railway companies have created women-only cars, collar of my blouse. Then he touched my back, he anti-groping posters are placed in some stations, touched my legs, my waist, even my butt. He placed lectures have been held at schools to inform pupils his hand directly under the cheeks, quietly raising up on how they can protect themselves, and anti-groping my skirt by just moving his fingers, and he touched my
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