Can Japan prevent crimes from happening on trains?

12 comments

1. [deleted]

2. Can Japan stop ignoring the importance of mental health?

3. I guess the short answer is “No” unless you have a dystopian system of surveillance and profiling. Crime on public transportation is already quite low compared to other countries and no amount of additional focus on mental health is going to result in a drastic decrease.
   The only thing that can be done is to have security personnel on the trains to provide rapid response

4. Not really. Much like any other public place.

   There are already signs at the train station entrance saying that dangerous articles are not allowed.

5. One thing I wish Japan would do is reward people for saving other people.

   If someone does something heroic here it’s never shown on TV, they’re never acknowledged.

   If there was a culture where people knew they would be treated special for stopping these kinds of things maybe more people would do something? Obviously that doesn’t fix the root cause, but maybe people would be less willing to do stuff like this if they expected more resistance?

   I remember when that African guy in France climbed that building to save a kid. He ended up meeting the president and was given French citizenship and seen as a national hero afterwards.

   I’m also aware that the concept of making someone a hero in a situation like this is a very American way of viewing things.

6. There are a lot of people that could fight back. And I think they will start doing that.

   Pummel these people.

7. No. Unless people are ready to step up… and I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon. Just the way it is here.

8. Considering how many people ride trains, criminality is very very very very rare.

   Except groping. And groping is astonishingly common. How many Japanese women and girls have never been groped? It’s got to be a pretty small percentage.

9. The whole world needs therapy

10. The train systems here aren’t above improvement, especially resolving issues with chikan, **but** what country has a safer train commute than Japan?

11. The rapes that happen to Japanese women on trains is disgusting

12. Between stops not really much you can do, like when it comes to sexual assault or something encouraging people to step in when they see it is probably the most helpful thing to do but that’s on the public to react instead of ignoring stuff.