Japan hopes anti-groping Digi Police app will deter return of train molesters as crowds back after lifting of Covid-19 restrictions

Cases have declined from 3,440 arrests nationwide in 2014 to 1,920 in 2020, likely as the Covid-19 pandemic kept people at home

Groping is likely to remain a major problem, as perpetrators become more organised to feed their ‘addiction’ to groping, says professor

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Groping cases have declined from 3,440 arrests nationwide in 2014 to 1,920 in 2020. But numbers are likely to rise as commuters and crowds return. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 12:00pm, 5 Jul 2022Updated: 12:57pm, 5 Jul 2022

Tokyo’s streets and transport system are filling up again as Japan slowly embraces a post-pandemic norm, with workers returning to offices and students back in the classroom. But the resurgence of crowds on the commuter network has also meant the return of chikan, train gropers who typically target females.

In a new attempt to combat this problem, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on June 1 launched the Chikan Eradication Campaign in collaboration with train operators in and around Tokyo.

This involves a stronger police presence to deter gropers, a poster campaign instructing victims how they should respond to an attack and the promotion of the Digi Police app.

First released in 2016, the app has been downloaded more than 470,000 times.

But Japanese women are typically reluctant to report themselves as a victim of a chikan. One recent report suggested that just 10 per cent of women report an attack, mostly because they are embarrassed.

Japan hopes anti-groping Digi Police app will deter return of train molesters as crowds back after lifting of Covid-19 restrictions

Cases have declined from 3,440 arrests nationwide in 2014 to 1,920 in 2020, likely as the Covid-19 pandemic kept people at home Groping is likely to remain a major problem, as perpetrators become more organised to feed their ‘addiction’ to groping, says professor

Cases have declined from 3,440 arrests nationwide in 2014 to 1,920 in 2020, likely as the Covid-19 pandemic kept people at home

Groping is likely to remain a major problem, as perpetrators become more organised to feed their ‘addiction’ to groping, says professor