This Just in!

Women-only train cars irritate some Japanese men

Reuters article reprinted here in case link dies:

TOKYO (Reuters) - A stepped-up campaign by Tokyo train operators to protect women from gropers by increasing the number of women-only carriages is angering some male commuters.

Several of the Japanese capital's railway companies introduced the single-sex carriages on Monday as part of a city effort to tackle the problem of men who take advantage of overcrowding to grope female passengers.

In a Tokyo survey last year, almost two thirds of women aged between 20 and 40 said they had been groped on a train.

"We can't do all that much about the crowding and this kind of crime is hard to prevent, even in cooperation with the police," said a spokesman for Odakyu Electric Railway.

"Passengers have also been asking for women-only carriages."

Some men support the restrictions, which apply mostly during rush hour, but others have complained that reserving one carriage for women worsens overcrowding in the rest of the train.

"Women-only carriages are a form of discrimination against men," one opponent told the Asahi Shimbun daily.

"I cannot agree to their introduction."

The number of reported incidents of groping and sexual assault leaped to 2,201 in 2004, the worst figure on record and three times the number in 1996.

"On the one hand it could be the number of men engaging in such acts is increasing, but it could also be that women who once felt they had to suffer in silence now have to courage to speak out and complain," said a Tokyo city government official.

Some women had other reasons for preferring to travel separately from men.

"I didn't like the smell of alcohol and cigarettes on the men," one satisfied female passenger told the Asahi Shimbun.

End Article

I take the train often, and I also stand in crowded rush hour subway cars and have yet to grope any unsuspecting women. I find it offensive, and I am not even a sensitive girlie-man. I am a pig.
My take on this article is from another angle. The Japanese business men do not know how good they have it. Call me a misogynist, but if the LIRR corraled all the women into separate train cars during the commute times you would NOT HEAR A PEEP OF PROTEST FROM ME. My reasoning is two-fold:

1. I do not want to hear them yapping away. In small pods, they talk incessantly in inane Oprah-like diatribes, manically inventing more subject matter as they go to keep the conversation going in a staccato chirpy fashion, tangents after tangent, fearing that if there is a moment of contemplative silence they will dissolve into a quiet oblivion, never again being able to share their philosophies, gardening tips, shopping adventures, dinner menus, husband's shortcomings and children's antics with the weary quiet ones hoping for a possible half hour's rest from the workday grind. The solitary ones with the cell phones usually go into a subdued frenzy of pecking away on their hand-held devices in order to call another loquacious yenta and share their one-sided conversations with everyone that should, by rights, be out of earshot. I will add that plenty of men are guilty of this heinous crime as well! Perhaps one day after too many late night sessions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the edges of reality and fantasy will blur and I will start slapping, smacking, kicking, flailing punching and using a bazooka to silence the ungodly din, inadvertently giving conservative congressional schmucks everywhere the fuel they need to ban violent video games once and for all.


2. In the warmer months, regardless of the fact the the train's air conditioner maintains the temperature of a walk-in refrigerator, half-decent men like myself find themselves becoming leering pervs, unable to control the allure of eye candy presented by the fairer ones...
   
   Hot outside + train car interior temperature 60° F = nipples.
   
   In rereading the above I sound like I am leaning toward Ashcroft covering nude statues as not to offend his "Christian" sensibilities - mind you, that is not what I am getting at. I am making an admission that after a long day in New York City [home of the highest concentration per sq. yard of the most beautiful women in the universe] I am unaware that sometimes I don't even bother to conceal that I am staring at tits, legs, ass, feet, shoulders, neck, face... Ok, maybe this sounds more like Bin Laden than Ashcroft. Make them wear a burka! Yeah, that's it! They offend Allah!
   Someone help me please? I want to be a better man, unlike one that should be whistling from a construction site. No, it's not gay. If women were in their own train car, away from my line of site I could finish the crossword undisturbed. I can't concentrate! It is not an issue of groping. I can actually control my urges! Those Japanese... I love sushi.

There is my argument as to why gender segregation on commuter trains is a good idea.
Now for my disclaimer: I am not a sexist pig. I grew up in a house full of women and maintain platonic friendships with women and fully acknowledge that my life would be an empty, bleak dirge without them all around me. My repeated (and expected) experiences on the Long Island Railroad are the broad stroke that is used to paint this complicated picture.
I welcome any comments from the fairer sex to admonish me but I stand by my statements and observations.