"John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> I was wondering what the teeth are in these rules.

*Rules* ?Japan is not yet Iran. It's a marketing operation. They only count
on people's goodwill to use such or such car.
There is no law telling you are not allowed to board those cars, that your
presence is a danger foir health (like tabacco), etc. As long as you pay
your ticket.

> It doesn't look to be enforced that strictly

How could it be enforced ? Can any Japanese company afford losing their male
customers by calling them "chikans" ? I think they have already taken a big
risk by inventing the girls-only cars. In other countries, they'd have got a
trial on the first day.
The thing is in Japan, there are as many men that wish to stay away from
women than women that want to stay away from men. I teach many "women-only
classes" and "men-only classes", because the students request it. Not so
many accept to be
 in  mixed groups. Such requests already exist at the kindergarten level !!!
To indicate the male students it's *safe for them*,
schools say they do classes of "business" language.  I'd be a train company,
next to the kitty-chan car, I'd put a *business car* with a pile of dirty
mangas at the entrance. Nihonjins also like to be sorted in age groups, so
there are other possibilities. Maybe the best would be a choice of different
themes, so they'd chose what color of seats and wall posters they want like
at the love hotel.

> if all you have to do is say you're with your
> girlfriend/wife

??? You'd feel the need to look for an excuse if a train company staff would
come to tell you that your presence is "hokano kyakusama no meiwaku" so
please put your stinky self out of that car ?
You know what they did with telephones. First, they said using them was
forbidden, and now they put posters with rabbits (why rabbits BTW ?) to say
you should use them on "manner mode". The reason is they could never enforce
the telephone ban. Idem for tatoos, they first banned them, but now they say
you can go to the pool if you don't exhibit your tatoo (=
put a tape on it), so I see covered tatoos each time I go swimming.
For the women-only cars, that will probably end up the same way, that will
become a "ladies and gentlemen" car and they will say in the loudspeaker  :
"If you board this car, please refrain from doing the chikan. ".

Kuri