Should Japanese men have the right to molest women on the train? A close friend of the Prime Minister writes, "Yes!"––the magazine goes out business
"The deepest suffering belongs to the men who are plagued with the symptoms of train groper syndrome (痴漢症候群) in which his hand automatically moves when he steps on a packed train and catches a whiff of a woman. Shouldn't society protect the rights of them [train molesters]?–Eitaro Ogawa, close associate of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Shincho 45, on the rights of chikan
In this month's issue of the monthly magazine Shincho 45 (新潮45), Eitaro Ogawa, author of many works praising the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe–and his advisor–published an essay apparently asserting that men (痴漢) should have their right to grope women be protected. Understandably, that is drawing the ire of the on-line community and the real world. UPDATE: In fact, on September 25, Shinchosha (新潮社) announced the publication was being shelved (休刊) for the time being.
The author of this book, which had sales subsidised by Prime Minister Abe, has asserted Japanese men should have a right to grope women on the train. Yes, according to Eitaro Ogawa, if you're a woman in Japan and you get groped on the train–it's because you're giving off pheromones. The scent of a woman is the culprit and the victim is the chikan (train pervert).
Ogawa's rant was one of many articles in their special October issue about whether it was acceptable to discriminate against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT).
It was a follow up to the August edition of the same magazine which published a piece by lawmaker Mio Sugita bashing the LGBT community as dead weight on society and a waste of any public funding. In the magazine's October feature section, ""Is Sugita's article that outrageous?", Ogawa and others sounded off on the topic. Prime Minister Abe has refused to admonish Sugita, claiming that she was "young and should be given slack".
Ms. Sugita is 51 years old which makes the "crazy teenagers having fun" aka Brett Kavanaugh defense even more ridiculous.
She was recruited by the Prime Minister to join the Liberal Democratic Party. She's also blamed rape victims for being raped in other past statements.
The October issue in the special feature, has a rambling nearly incoherent essay by Ogawa on LGBT issues. He seems to classify homosexuality as a fetish, like an ass fetish, or a fondness for BDSM. However, his crowning moment comes in the following passage.
"The deepest suffering belongs to the men who are plagued with the symptoms of train groper syndrome (痴漢症候群) in which his hand automatically moves when he steps on a packed train and catches a whiff of a woman. Repeated offenses show that it is an uncontrollable urge stemming from the brain. Shouldn't society protect and reserve their rights to grope [women]? Oh, you'll probably say we should think of the the shock it causes for a woman. If you want to talk about shock, well, the sight of the honorable LGBT walking in the streets in mainstream media is shocking to me. Shocking to the point of a being deadly threat to me. I must ask of them to speak only after they have paid me a insurmountable amount for damages."
〈満員電車に乗った時に女の匂いを嗅いだら手が自動的に動いてしまう、そういう痴漢症候群の男の困苦こそ極めて根深かろう。再犯を重ねるのはそれが制御不可能な脳由来の症状だという事を意味する。彼らの触る権利を社会は保証すべきではないのか。触られる女のショックを思えというのか。それならLGBT様が論壇の大通りを歩いている風景は私には死ぬほどショックだ、精神的苦痛の巨額の賠償金を払ってから口を利いてくれと言っておく。〉
Yes, according to Ogawa, if you're a woman in Japan and you get groped on the train–it's because you're giving off pheromones. The scent of a woman is the culprit and the victim is the chikan (train pervert). Ogawa attempted to walk back his statement on television programs this weekend by saying the meaning of his essay got lost to the reader. A professor at Meiji University who appeared on a television program with Ogawa responded by saying, "If you write this kind of crap, so that the meaning gets lost, you should just stop writing. Seriously." Perhaps Ogawa only meant to be rhetorical but the text of his words, on their own, offend most sensible people. He may have been attempting to say that since in his mind, groping people on trains and being homosexual are just two different kinds of sexual perversion, that offering to protect the rights of one (homosexuality) over the other (men groping women on trains) was ridiculous. Of course, he appears to be the most ridiculous of them all.
Ogawa has written many works lavishly praising Prime Minister Abe.
On of his books lauding Abe,「約束の日」(The Promised Day) was published in 2012, right before the Liberal Democratic Party General Director elections which put Abe back in power for his second term as Prime Minister. The book was purchased in bulk by Abe's political fund, 「晋和会」(Shinwakai). They reportedly spent 7,000,000 yen (70,000 dollars) buying copies of the book, briefly elevating it to best-seller status.
Ogawa is one of several Abe literati profiting from their connection to the politician. Others include his unofficial biographer, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington correspondent for TBS. In 2015, Yamaguchi was under investigation for the alleged sexual assault of journalist Shiori Ito and an arrest warrant was issued on rape charges against him. The arrest was stopped by Itaru Nakamura, a career bureaucrat from the National Police Agency, who also served as personal secretary to Abe's cabinet spokesman. The investigation was then scuttled. Yamaguchi has denied all allegations. Ito is suing him in civil court for damages.
Ogawa was one of several members attending a party supporting Yamaguchi's efforts to reinsert himself into the media after a period of being shunned.
Takanobu Sato, the president of Shinchosha Publishing Co. made a statement last week that the magazine's special section contained expressions full of prejudice and was objectively offensive. There was little clarification of what exactly was unacceptable.
Ironically, Weekly Shincho (週刊新潮), in the last year has distinguished itself with outstanding investigative journalism and was the first publication to take up the case of Shiori Ito. It documented how a police investigation into her rape case was hijacked by political forces and how it was derailed by a close friend of the Abe cabinet, abusing his authority as a high-ranking police official.
Unfortunately, Shincho 45, has taken the approach of pandering to right-wing readers in order to boost sales. Or perhaps they are hoping that the Prime Minister's political fund will buy $70,000 worth of an issue–now and then. Even within Shincho Publishing, there has been concern over the direction Shincho 45 has taken. In the company announcement of suspending the publication, they admitted that in their trial and errors to boost sagging sales their had been insufficient oversight of the contents.
Ogawa has not walked back his essay. So while conservatives may lament the loss of another right wing publication, on the other side, Japan's train perverts can rest a little easier now that they know they have someone on their side whispering into the ear of the Prime Minister.
While Abe has deftly avoided making racist or misogynist statements, his propensity to surround himself with accused sex offenders, misogynists, gay-bashers and appointing rabid racists and sexists to cabinet positions, suggests that maybe he shares their view. One wonders. Under his reign, Japan's gender equality ranking has sunk to a new low of 114 out of 144 countries.
Mari Yamamoto contributed to this article.
Posted on September 23, 2018 September 26, 2018 Author jakeadelsteinCategories Books on Japan, Contemporary Culture, Featured, Jake Adelstein, Politics, Racism, Work CultureTags abe, chikan, gropers, sexism, subway, train molesters
5 thoughts on "Should Japanese men have the right to molest women on the train? A close friend of the Prime Minister writes, "Yes!"––the magazine goes out business"
While it doesn't change the fact that what he is saying is rather abhorrent, it seems pretty clear he is trying to -in his mind I would imagine cleverly -equate sexual minorities with chikan, and thus argue that to protect either is a foolish idea. He is also, through that analogy implying that sexual minorities are deviants and predators.,That in itself is quite ridiculous and worthy of scorn.
subcultureist says:
We would agree with you. It's just not clear what he meant to say–but it's quite an analogy. Offensive as hell both ways.
Panino Manino says:
He is comparing an act (molesting) with simple fact of existing (the LGBT).
It simply doesn't work as an analogy.
Norm_l says:
Maybe Mr. Ogawa does not have a daughter or wife. Or maybe he thinks it's OK for his daughter or wife to be groped, fondled or even worse – raped? Or maybe Mr. Ogawa should experience the humiliation of being sexually exploited by a man himself?
thatguyoverthere says:
I think that's exactly what he fears, actually. Being groped/sexually assaulted by a man, hence his hatred of the LGBT+ community (naturally, idiot that he is, perceiving the community to be as f*cked up as chikan) and his need to reassert dominance over women.
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