Question for someone IN or FROM or has VISITED Japan

it is. i don't know in the west but here in asia it happens. after all, it won't spawn any fictious scene if it did not happen in RL at first to give those mangakas idea. there's even a weird kink in japan (i don't know about other countries) with gays having pleasure of the thrill of groping each other in the train trying not to get caught. very rare case but still happens

Thank you so very much for answering. You have sated my curiosity. Here in the US if you tried that you would end up swallowing a few teeth. Now, a new question arises... why would anyone put up with that sh*t? It seems in manga (I do understand that manga is NOT the best way to understand a culture) everyone just "takes it" and doesn't raise a fuss. If this is true, I would not do well in the east. Although, I doubt very much anyone would want to touch me with a barge-pole.

train groping in Japan is very real and a very serious problem. I watched a documentary once about it. It's said at least 1 woman in 4 who ride those train in Japan had experienced being groped at one time or another. It doesn't mention men being groped but there's always a possibility. And most won't report it because it's considered embarrassing to be a victim.

well, several (not all) asian girls are kind of reserved, especially the teenagers that they'd just tear up and act uncomfortably. of course no one wants to put up with that and it's better to report it. some women retaliate themselves or escape to avoid the fuss. when caught, some perpetrators escape to the next stop from pressure of nearby threatening glares from other men. but in some (satisfying) times, men on the same train just beat the shit out of the guy.

Thank you for your answer to both of my questions. The east is so very different from the west. There is not a woman alive in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago or Baltimore who would dare allow anyone to touch her on the train / subway without immediate and fierce retaliation. I've been on the trains / subway in all those places and can vouch that there isn't a man that would allow it either. To himself or a female passenger. But we in the US are so much less reserved (and polite).

So glad to hear that, at least sometimes, the "groper" gets his come-uppance. Perhaps, we in the US are too bold or unreserved, but I guess we are more averse to being a victim than to being embarrassed.

I live in Canada and we don't have any train groping going on because we down ride trains very much. We usually use buses if we are traveling.

Where I live in the U.S, it's not complete bullshit. I haven't heard them as much since I moved. But when I loved around my grandma's area I would hear gunshots every other night.

*lived

I've lived in major cities and small towns all up and down the east coast. I've traveled extensively through the east coast as well. Due to the nature of my former job, I did not stay in "high class" neighborhoods nor did I live in them. I've lived in and near "projects" in New York, Atlantic City, Baltimore, Orlando, Miami and New Orleans. In each of those places, though gunfire was heard - it was not without consequences. Police and SWAT were as common as the gunfire. The point I was making is this... you CANNOT "willy-nilly"' fire a weapon in the US without the police or SWAT showing up. It's not the stereotypical "wild west" that movies and TV portray.
Thank you for your reply. You helped me clear up my rather random thoughts.

I've traveled all over the world, including the US. The difference between the US and Japan, it seems, is that in North America, it's called sexual assault, not train-groping. But it happens in every culture and every place and, although not to everyone, to far too many people. And the reactions depend on how fearful the victim is, how threatened they feel, how isolated and alone they are, and whether they can access help.

Thot... you have the very best way of keeping my attitude in check. I love you for that. LOL Of course, you are correct. Not everyone is as short tempered or as indignant as I am. I can say that, from experience with victim's advocacy support groups for rape and sexual assault, most women I've encountered never want to see themselves or others as victims - past, present or future. Our group's motto was, "You're not a victim, you're a survivor." Maybe that is where my righteous indignation for "groping" comes from. LOL I've also personally witnessed individuals, from old ladies to teen boys, standing up to bullies for others and themselves on subways and buses. So, I know it happens. Maybe it's wishful thinking to believe it happens more often than not.

It's surprising how Japanese manga have no qualms about expressing everything that floats through the imagination, including Train Chikkan. I guess I'm reluctant to say that more train molestation actually occurs in one region of the world than the other, because (1) I don't think there are any reliable stats kept on these crimes (which are grossly under-reported everywhere), (2) sexual assaults are crimes of opportunism, so setting up a cultural link with a specific kind of sexual assault is misleading, in that if molesters think they can get away with it, regional boundaries are not going to stop them, and (3) art, even as expressed in porn or romance, takes a story and transforms it into something else. So Train Chikkan would be more about erotic release through pressing past the boundaries of public humiliation and fear of exposure — something like that. Correlating it to a literal interpretation is barking up the wrong tree (unless it is a literal story, in which case it would belong to the crime or horror genre, not porn.)

Random gunfire in the US may be a myth (although would it be fair to use your own personal experience and extrapolate it to the rest of the country?), but it seems that rumours of extreme police militarization and hair-trigger reactions are not. What a terrifying experience! I'm glad you came out safely.

I hoped I had cleared this up in another post, but apparently I still haven't made the distinction clear. Hearing random gunfire is NOT a myth... to be able to randomly fire a gun without police intervention IS a myth. The police call for "shots fired" is never dismissed as "no big deal" by the police and is always thoroughly investigated. Even in the worst "crime infested" areas... in fact those areas tend to get priority.

Is Train Chikkan treated any better than male-on-male rape in manga? No, I realize that attempting to correlate manga to real life situations is an exercise in stupidity. As a matter of fact, in manga I think Train Groping is awfully hot. In Real Life, I'd be kicking some groper's ass if I saw it or it happened to me. Unless it was a super-hot guy doing it to me... just kidding...maybe. LOL

I live in Canada too and in the major metropolis where subways and sky trains are used daily it does happen from time to time but I haven't personally experienced it. (Been assaulted by a cabbie on the other hand..)

OMG I'm sorry to hear you were assaulted.

Where you are from, when "train groping" does occur, what is the outcome? Do victims fight back? Do witnesses stand up for victims?

It's not something I hear of hardly ever, maybe there are things that go unreported too so who knows the real numbers but I've heard of a case where a guy was caught for groping on a sky train. Fighting back is probably a person to person outcome depending on their personality, but most people I know would fight for sure! Don't worry about my previous assault, it was years ago now! But thanks! Oh and the people around here seem to be great for sticking up for others, even strangers

If you read any of my comments above, it's obvious I'm a fighter too. Taking advantage of someone weaker is a behavior that sets my teeth on edge. I don't mind seeing it in fiction like manga, since it is fetish content, but RL is a totally different subject.

I was curious because it is such a common plot device, particularly in yaoi. I wanted to know if it was equally common in RL.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I enjoyed our conversation.