"John Yamamoto-Wilson" <john@rarebooksinjapan.com> wrote in message news:<bedbcf$3un5n$2@ID-169501.news.dfncis.de>...
> Ernest Schaal wrote:
> 
> > What I find odd is that you can't see that the presence of the posters
> > implys that there is a problem those posters are trying to solve.
> 
> Ah, now if you'd put it like that I wouldn't have had any problem with it.
> It's when you start saying "in Japan for men chikan is the norm [or the
> rule] rather than the exception" that you go over the top. One simply
> doesn't get onto a train in Japan, glance around and say, "Ah, yes! At least
> half the men in this compartment are groping the womenfolk, as per normal!"
> Make your observations accurate or else obvious jokes (like the rumour about
> the guy in Nagano who's not a chikan). Don't make apparently serious
> statements that are in fact nothing more than a form of prejudiced
> stereotyping. Otherwise, expect people to take issue with you.

Actually, what I said was "In japan, chikan is the rule for men, not
the exception." To the degree that I overstated my case, you
overstated your case by pretending that the chikan problem is not a
problem more severe in Japan than in other countries.

> > In Japan, the habit that the posters are trying to change is the
> > shyness of the Japanese women in not standing up to the chikan and
> > reporting their gross behavior.
> 
> The only time I really witnessed a clear incidence of chikan (as opposed to
> other forms of sekuhara) the woman "outed" the perp in no uncertain manner
> (as I've already said) - and good for her!

You admit that you saw a clear incidence of chikan in Japan? WOW! That
contradicts your earlier remarks about how it isn't a problem!

Even if you saw only one incident, that doesn't mean that there isn't
a problem. I have never seen a homicide, but unlike you I am not
willing to pretend that homicides don't exist.

Judging from the stories in the press, and the frequent warning
posters, I must assume that the chikan problem in Japan is a serious
problem, more serious than in other developed countries. After all, do
you see signs warning of that behavior in BART in San Francisco? I
lived in that area for twenty years and never saw any such signs, but
seeing those signs here in Japan is a common occurance.