A creator is facing backlash after posting a video in which he filmed himself walking through a women-only train car in Japan.
In the controversial video, Australian vlogger @ShearingShedVlogs films himself walking onto a train carriage designated for women only with signs in English and in Japanese.
“It’s like Saudi Arabia in here,” the man says.
He walks through the car, filming the female commuters and saying, “I am the woman inspector, checking there’s only women on this carriage.”
Many of the women recorded are visibly uncomfortable, holding up their hands or objects to hide their faces.
@shearingshedvlogs This “women-only” carriage is the last thing I would expect to be seeing in such a free country like Japan and reminds me of something I would see in a country with strict segregation rules. Japan was the last place I expected to be seeing strict male-female segregation in public #segregation #segregatedsociety #gender #sexuality ♬ original sound – ShearingShedVlogs
The video was posted as part of a series on “What shocked me as an Aussie in Japan,” in which @ShearingShedVlogs documented his trip. (The user did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.)
This clip has sparked outrage online across social media platforms, due to the invasive behavior and the video’s caption likening women-only train cars to “segregation.” The creator also expressed that it was “the last thing [he] would expect to see in such a free country like Japan.”
Many commenters voiced their anger with the video, pointing out that the purpose of women-only trains is to protect female passengers from male harassment they often encounter while commuting.
In a response to @ShearingShedVlogs, popular Japanese TikToker Matcha Samurai says, “Do you know why those women-only carriages exist? To get rid of hentai [perverts] like you. Get out.”
Groping attacks called “chikan,” inappropriate photos and videos (including “upskirt” videos), and verbal harassment are persistent problems on Japanese trains.
In a 2019 survey conducted by the NHK, a Japanese public media organization, it was reported that 47.9% of women polled had been touched inappropriately on a train. Of the respondents, 18.6% of women reported incidents of indecent exposure, and 18.7% reported physical assault.
Unseen Japan reported that roughly 80% of chikan incidents go unreported, and of those that are reported, only 4.6% lead to an arrest. Japan first instituted women-only train cars in 2000 in an attempt to combat harassment faced by female commuters.
In a stitched video with 4.1 million views, TikTok user @Soogia1 responded to ShearingShedVlogs, alleging that the video was made to be deliberately enraging.
“It’s doing exactly what it was intended to do,” she says. “These travel vlogger types go to foreign countries and do everything they can to offend the people there, violate policies, do culturally insensitive things, and be outrageous and annoying.”
