Tokyo
Several of my readers have shown
interest in the subject of women-only cars on commute trains in
Tokyo.
Last night, my partner and I had dinner with two experts on the general subject of gender in Japan. Okada, Yasuko and her close friend Reiko (the photo has Reiko on the left). Okada san runs a successful consulting firm on gender and power harassment (she coined the term power harassment), has most top Japanese corporations as her clients and runs an 800 number phone service for reports of sexual harassment. She also deals with workplace alcoholism. Reiko is a therapist and works with Yasuko.
On the subject of the women-only cars
on commute trains they both agreed that the reason the women-only
cars were created was because women don't like the general treatment
they get from men. Nothing specific about groping. (When I helped
them both put on their shoes when we left the elegant traditional
style restaurant, they commented that no Japanese man would do that.)
Neither Yasuko nor Reiko ride commute trains (Yasuko walks to work and Reiko starts work after commute hours), but they said their female employees did occasionally ride in the women-only cars mainly because they are less crowded.
On Monday morning, I will go directly observe the roughly twenty trains on the Odakyu line that have women-only cars during commute hours. I'll report back.