Jun 13 (salon.com) - Last month, a man died running from police after a female passenger at the Aobadai station in Yokohama, Japan, accused him of touching her inappropriately.
The woman reported that she "felt something strange on the right side of her waist" from the man behind her, but when a nearby upstanding citizen tried to hold him down until the police arrived, the man shook him off, ran onto the track, and was hit by an oncoming train.
This isn't the first time this has happened. A few days before the incident in Yokohama, another man in Tokyo died running from police after being accused of molesting a woman. While the police were questioning him at Ueno Station, he tried to run away and suffered a fatal fall from a nearby building. Six other instances of men running from molestation accusations have occurred in the last three months, though none have resulted in death.
According to a 2014 White Paper released by Japan's Ministry of Justice, there were 3,439 arrests on claims of molestation under the Anti-Nuisance Ordinance and 283 arrests on claims of other sex crimes. 99% indictments of sexual assault result in conviction.
In response to the recent extreme accidents, some men took to the internet, calling for men-only cars as well. Tweets claimed "fear of false accusations for men is reaching its peak" and defended the "innocent men" and "working dads" against "women who make false charges." One Twitter user even tweeted a manga clip from an adult fanzine about a teenage girl receiving fatal retribution for making false claims against innocent men. It was retweeted 24,000 times.
Trolls aside, there is a "groping insurance plan" available to men fearing false accusations in Japan from the Small Amount and Short Term Insurance company. Until recently, about twelve men purchased it per month. In May, the purchase rates saw a sharp increase, numbering in the hundreds.
Japanese railways have been offering women-only cars in Tokyo since 2001 and other cities, like Osaka, have followed suit. This is in an effort to curb the nation's longstanding groping problem.
