If a native Japanese boy, (15ish) applied the chikan ways of his home country here in the US, would he be labeled a pervert?

I believe so .

Yes.

By the way, doctors and government officials can be low-lives too.

I’m pretty sure he’d be labeled a pervert in his own country, too. The article you linked to mentions that it’s a problem there, and that the police are cracking down on it. It’s not like it’s acceptable there, either.

People are expected to respect the laws and customs of the country they are in, just like they would expect someone to respect thier laws and customs when in their country.

Of course he would…

In the US even three and four year olds can be treated as sex-offenders.

Silly as it may be, but if that’s the case for toddlers, then a 15 year old boy that should have the brains to realize he’s not in Japan will definitely get no leeway, either

Second @augustlan too. japan isn’t a country that would encourage people to sexually harass others.

Besides, the fact that you will not be caught (due to the crowded subway cars) is not a justification, nor does it make such an act less wrong. Not from an objective view and neither from the view of the Japanese people that I know. But I k ow your view on that differs from mine.

A pervert is a pervert and a male chauvinist is just that no matter what language they speak or what culture they come from, just ask any woman from that culture.

Yes.

God, I hope so! I hope he can get himself labelled as the sexual predator that he is.

I went to high school in Japan and one was always aware of the potential to be groped by “drunken” men on trains. Being 5’8” and a teenager, the first time it happened to me, I wrenched the man’s ubiquitous umbrella from his grasp and hit him over the head with it.

Yes, yes, and yes.

unless he was groping me. i’m a don’t ask, don’t tell kinda guy.

Isn’t the answer obvious?

“Just the way things are” has never been an excuse for reprehensible behavior. That’s sexual assault. Period.

Yes. And they should be called The Despicably Desperate Short Dicked Pervert Demented A-Hole Brotherhood instead.

Wouldn’t he be ejected from the train if he was dressed as a chicken?
I’ve read this wrong haven’t I?

Sounds like a variant of Frottereusism, yes, perverts doing their thing in public is not acceptable.

Just because that behavior is seen as acceptable or expected in Japan doesn’t make it right. In some places it is acceptable for men to be married to very young girls and rape them. That certainly isn’t right either.

So yes, anyone from any part of the world who comes to the US and attempts to grope women without their consent or look up their skirts or otherwise use the “boys will be boys” excuse to harass people should be subjected to the harshest punishment allowed by law.

That’s a big 10–4. This is not Japan, this is America. Learn the laws or leave.

Oh! Is this one of those times when we say that since sexism is so the way ‘that culture is’ that it’s like omg totally okay to respect that way of being? ‘Cause, fuck no, it’s not okay in general, I don’t care where you come from.

Part of the rules of travel are to do your research on the laws and rules of the places you are traveling to. “I didn’t know” rarely holds up. It can on a occasion but in a situation where the boy was groping and peeping up skirts of women, I highly doubt it will.

Wow… not alright

“How do women allow this in Japan (or anywhere for that matter)?” should be the question!

@rOs It seems like women ‘allow’ a lot of things throughout the world so it’s not just about whether or not they just ‘lie down and take it’, exactly.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, I didn’t realize that was the norm anywhere. Shame on the low-life “doctors, government officials, and the likes”- not the women they grope.

@augustlan I’m pretty sure he’d be labeled a pervert in his own country, too. It seem the tide is slowly changing that many see the chikan as perverted, and some give into them because they seem to expect that they are going to be around for a time. For the most part if there is any stigma attached it is cultural, but not with everyone, and certainly no official Megan’s Law like registry for gropers. Most usually just pay a fine and off they go.

@janbb Isn’t the answer obvious? When it comes to the US keeping his cronies happy I take nothing as a given. Be it someone here or a US citizen there When embassies or government consulates get involved, foreign relations will trump a law they could bury with no one watching.

I would say just keep it up and hopefully one of these times you’ll grope the wrong woman and she will beat the shit out of you! Or her boyfriend/husband standing beside her will!

A person doing that in the USA would not just be labeled a pervert, he would be committing a serious crime and would eventually get caught, arrested, prosecuted and put on a permanent registry as a sex offender. Following such a custom in this country is a VERY bad idea.