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Illustration by Marco Mancini

The headline from The Japan Times of Feb 23 read "Keio to Fight Groping By Introducing Women-Only Rail Cars," but I question if these cars are fighting anything at all. According to a 199-person survey conducted by The Japan Times, 82 percent of the female respondents supported the segregated cars. In my own mini-survey, I found that many (although certainly not all) gaijin men have also offered their wholehearted advocacy of this policy while relaying empathetic stories of how their girlfriends and wives have been harassed. I myself have been the victim of outrageously lewd conduct on the trains, and I could not be more against a female-only rail car.

In removing women from the train, this new policy is implying the removal of the actual problem. If only those women were not so tempting to the drunk business men who just can't control themselves in such close quarters. Moreover, those women who come racing to the train to avoid missing it and just manage to sneak into a coed train car are obviously not bothered by a little harmless groping, right? I mean, they could have, or even should have, easily waited for the next train to be hoarded into their own cars and transported safely to the shelters of their own homes.

It enrages me that this policy toward women is being seen as progress in political policy toward women, when clearly such acts are doing nothing to reprimand the offenders of train harassment. Yes, I accede, the new policy offers recognition of a very severe problem, but this solution evades the problem rather than confronting it. Consequences of offensive actions will not be heightened. If anything, the men have triumphed; they are left on the train to watch the women walk shamefully past into their own cars. The women are defeated and they are retreating. Meanwhile, the rest of the train has become an enter-at-your-own-risk atmosphere.

The policy seems backward to me. On the playground when one child pushes another, it is the first child (the aggressor) that is sent to the corner for a time-out. In a sports game when one player fouls another, again it is the aggressor who gets called to the sideline. Why in this case is it the women who are forced to modify their behavior? While I would not be so audacious as to berate women who chose to ride on this segregated car, I sincerely hope that people stop viewing the policy as progressive and see it for what it really is.

I beseech thee, the reader, to recognize the segregated car policy as nothing more than a symptomatic suppressor. It is an allergy pill. While you may be able to breathe easy while you are in that single-sex car, you know full well that the pollen and bacteria are lurking closely behind just waiting to remind you that they are not gone and will surely return for the morning commute.

Many thanks to Alexis Silver for this Rave.