Despicable Cowardice of 40 Silent Passengers Turning Blind Eye to Train Rape (translation)

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1. TRANSLATION:

   >**Despicable Cowardice of 40 Silent Passengers Turning Blind Eye to Train Rape**

   >A woman was raped on an express train. At the time, there were 40 passengers on the train, but no one tried to stop the crime. Not even a single person reported the crime to the conductor or the outside authorities. This is unbelievable and despicable. Japanese morals have fallen to the ground.

   >The “Densha Otoko” (Train Man) romance story, which began with a man saving a woman from a drunk on a train, became a smash hit, but in this case, there was no “Densha Otoko” anywhere.

   >**Some passengers noticed the woman being taken away crying.**

   >On April 21, 2007, the Yodogawa Police Station of the Osaka Prefectural Police re-arrested Takamitsu Uesono, 36, a defendant who runs a demolition business, on suspicion of rape and roughing up a then 21-year-old woman in August 2006 on board the “Thunderbird” limited express train on the JR Hokuriku Line. Uezono was arrested and charged with two assaults on women in December 2006, one on a JR Kosai Line train and the other in a station restroom, and is currently on trial.

   >According to the investigation by the prefectural police, Ueno is suspected of sitting next to a female passenger on the “Thunderbird” train departing from Fukui Station on August 3, 2006, threatening to kill her if she raised her voice, and then physically fondling her and taking her into the restroom where he assaulted her. At the time, some customers noticed something wrong with the crying woman as she was being taken away, but they were unable to do anything because Ueno yelled at them, saying, “What the hell are you looking at?”. The woman filed a damage report with the prefectural police, and since the manner of the assault was similar to a previous assault by Ueno, the police were investigating the case as possibly being related. DNA analysis of the remains matched Ueno, and the defendant also admitted to the crime, saying that he targeted the woman who was sitting away from other customers.

   >According to JR West’s public relations department, there were around 60 to 70 seats on each “Thunderbird” train car, and at the time of the crime, there were about 40 passengers on board, and the train must have been quite crowded. But then, why?

   >**Blogs erupted with questions and indignation**

   >”Of course I can’t forgive the man who committed the crime, but I’m so disappointed in the passengers who turned a blind eye to the crime. If he didn’t have the courage to stop himself, there must have been a way to appeal to the conductor.”

   >”I wonder why someone didn’t help him. It would have taken a lot of courage to help him face to face, it would have been very dangerous, and in fact, he would have been embarrassed by it himself. But couldn’t he have done something about it, like secretly calling the conductor?”

   >”I think it’s unbelievable. Of course it takes courage to stand up to someone, but if you are aware that someone is in trouble right in front of you, there are many ways you can go about it. You could at least call the conductor to report it to the police, even anonymously.”

   >Many blogs on the Internet have also expressed their doubts and indignation that the passenger was unable to do anything to help the woman.

2. I think it may have things related to the law, if you step up and be a hero, then you may suffer worse consequences than the criminals.

   Japan’s laws concerning self-defense would be better if they didn’t exist, the principle of weapons equivalency even considers your height and weight, and any martial arts training you’ve had. And, self-defense does not include protecting someone else, even your family or friends. And not to mention a stranger.

   In that case, you can only choose to persuade. But if you do persuade, they can choose not only not to listen, they can also choose to attack you.

   Getting drawn into violence has a high probability of causing a normal person to lose his job, but it makes little difference to the criminal who does it, they either don’t have a job anyway or they work for the gangs, and some experience of going to jail will make his job easier instead.

   And sometimes the law just favors those kinds of people, still remember the dude who stopped someone from smoking on the subway?

   Two serious injuries, a broken nose, and the end result was that the person who hurt him was released without charge for 3 million yen.

   And he didn’t get a cent of compensation.

3. Are you getting paid to spread news reports about sexual impropriety in Japan? This one is 17 years old… wouldn’t exactly call it news at this point

4. A story from 2007? Man you’re pretty desperate to smear Japan huh? Really scraping the barrel with this one.