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‘See, no touch’ but it could still be molestation in Japan
Potential violations without physical contact included actions like blowing on a victim’s neck, sniffing hair, and intense staring. PHOTO: AFP
Lok Jian Wen
UPDATED
NOV 26, 2024, 06:20 PM
It is not all about the touch when it comes to criminal molestation offences in Japan. Cases involving men getting too close to their victims sans physical contact are in the spotlight again after Kyoto police fined a man for sniffing a schoolgirl’s hair.
In October, a 48-year-old man was arrested by police for following a high school girl to a train and persistently smelling her hair while standing behind her. Despite initial warnings, he repeated his offences.
He was charged with “molestation without touching” and fined 400,000 yen (S$3,500), reported local media.
“Smells excite me more,” he told police in Kyoto when asked why he had sniffed his victim instead of touching her.
The man reportedly told investigators that he did not expect his actions to constitute a crime. He was nabbed after police verified camera footage, following an anonymous tip-off.
The man was apologetic to the schoolgirl over his actions, and expressed remorse for “giving in to this desires”.
Prosecuting difficulties
The incident has drawn attention to the difficulties of prosecuting “touchless molestation”, with Kyoto police admitting there are “hurdles” to prosecuting offenders.“There are no specific provisions, so each case must be proven to be an indecent act,” said Inspector Ito Tsuyoshi of the Kyoto Prefectural Police.
In a survey among university students by Japanese market researcher CircleApp, one in five women respondents reported they had been victims of “touchless molestation”.
Some examples identified as potential violations without physical contact included actions like blowing on a victim’s neck, sniffing hair, intense staring, sharing inappropriate images over wireless file transfer services like Apple’s Airdrop, deliberately sitting next to someone on an empty train as well as verbal abuse such as uttering obscenities at someone.
“If (offenders) don’t admit, it is difficult to arrest them unless there is evidence such as security camera footage,” Mr Tsuyoshi said. “Typically we can only offer guidance and a warning to stop the offending behaviour.”
Over the past two years, Kyoto police have received four complaints about touchless molestation, but only one led to a prosecution.
A female office worker in her 20s was the daily victim of a “non-touching molester” for several months in Japan’s Kanto region that includes Tokyo, local daily The Sankei Shimbun reported.
But upon reporting the incident to the Japanese police, her complaints were dismissed as she had not been touched. She was told by the authorities as well as her parents that she might have misunderstood or was worrying excessively.
The continued victimisation led to her eventually developing a panic disorder when needing to take a train to commute to work, and she had to take time off work to recover in hospital.
“It’s so unpleasant, but no one understands what I’m saying. Does that mean the man hasn’t done anything wrong? Is it right to run away? Should I just put up with it?” she said.
Touchless molesters may exploit the psychology of victims not reporting the crime, legal practitioners said.
If prosecuted as a violation of the anti-nuisance law in Tokyo prefecture, touchless molesters may face a six-month jail term or a fine of up to 500,000 yen, lawyer Tomohiko Ono told Japan’s Newspost Seven.
Lawyer Yukio Kikuchi said victims may need to have some ingenuity in capturing evidence, such as using their camera phones to record perpetrators standing behind them.
“It’s difficult to say the police may take immediate action if you simply tell them ‘someone smelt me’,” he told Kansai TV. “But a first step is to make society aware that harassment, even without touching physically, can be considered molestation.”
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