It was only when Tamaka Ogawa started writing about sexual violence in Japan that she realised the gravity of what she had experienced as a schoolgirl [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera] ‘False accusations’ Ogawa believes the media over-reported Yatabe’s side of the story, instilling fear about false accusations and creating a distraction from the problem of sexual violence. Worse, she says, it discouraged victims from being “able to talk about it [groping] – and that’s a problem”. It would be improper to express anger towards an adult, she thought, and she worried about attracting attention. Besides, her parents had never spoken to her about such things and how she ought to handle them.

Women also make light of the issue, she reflects. “People just think this happens every day, so they have to laugh about it.” I thought of myself as a child,” she reflects. “I could not understand that adults were excited by touching me.”

This sexualisation of schoolgirls extends to themed bars in red-light districts and exploitative “JK cafes” (JK stands for joshi kosei or high school girl) where adult men pay to chat to teenage girls, have their fortunes told or have their ears cleaned. Manga pornography depicting schoolgirls is also widely and openly available. It was only in 2014 that Japan criminalised the possession of child pornography. The media [is] overly focused on this topic [of false accusations],” says Ogawa – who believes that false accusations and convictions are rare as compared to actual instances of sexual assault. This was shared over 43,000 times and encouraged more victims to tell their stories of dealing with Chikan.

The media always blames … the victims,” explains Goto, who points to the fact that Japan’s mainstream and social media is male-dominated. Japanese society focuses on telling women to be careful, how to dress and to travel in women-only carriages – which are mainly available during peak hours on weekday mornings – Ogawa says. “They are telling women to protect themselves, to be careful, but no one tells the men not to do it,” she says. By involving students, Matsunaga believes she’s encouraging them to talk about this issue from a young age. If we talk about sexual violence, especially if the topic is about groping, the main … concern is about false accusation,” Ogawa says.Today, “To be a woman is a ‘caste’ in this society,” Ochiai says. “You cannot get out of that destiny. [Only] if you are very successful in education and business, you can be a man.” In Japan, multiple women go through this on a regular basis. Local and foreign. These women have come forward to reveal stories of how they dealt with chikan. In 2015, she began writing about the country’s long-standing problem with groping – or chikan, in Japanese – often experienced by schoolgirls on public transportation. Many victims stay silent, unable to talk about their experiences in a society which, by many accounts, trivialises this phenomenon.

As ghastly as it is, experiencing chikan, we need to see the bright side and think that grief unites us. To know that this experience is shared, is to know that the gravity of the situation has been felt.The reason they can’t say [anything] is because they’re ashamed,” Ogawa says. “And sometimes, if they talk about it, some people think they are just bragging: I’ve been groped.” I hear many girls telling me that they have experienced men’s hands under their skirt, and the groper’s fingers in their vagina,” Matsunaga says. “It is rape.” I just go there to have fun,” he adds. In his opinion, these bars can prevent someone from groping in public. First point to be noted was that less than 5% said that a target was noticed because of their provocative style of clothing. When talking about rape, the most common response, 45% of it, was that the victim seemed as if they wouldn’t report it to the police. Confucianism influenced the declining status of women in [Japan],” she says. That ideology was spread by popular stories and dramas and was “reinforced in the process of modernisation under the impact from the West”.

Society also conflates groping with desirability. “I feel like people have this mindset that, if you are an old lady, you should appreciate that men still look at you like that or want to grope you,” she says. There are no accurate figures on the number of victims; only a fraction are believed to report incidents. She points to the widely reported story of Koji Yatabe, whom a district court found guilty of forcing a young girl to touch his penis in 2000. Yatabe, who fought his conviction and eventually had it overturned by a high court judge, co-wrote a book with his wife about his case. That was then turned into a film called I Just Didn’t Do It. One morning in late January, the 51-year-old arrived at a coffee shop in the bustling neighbourhood of Shibuya with a suitcase of badges.One reason to do groping is to show their power to women and the younger girls,” Goto says. She believes offenders carefully target vulnerable-looking schoolgirls. She worries that as older schoolgirls begin to speak up, perpetrators will begin to target even younger girls. She recalls one incident particularly clearly. She was about 15 and on her way to school. A man began to touch her, putting his hand inside her underwear. He was aggressive and it hurt, she remembers. When the train stopped, she got off. But he grabbed her hand and told her: “Follow me.” Ogawa ran away. She believes that people saw what was going on, but nobody helped.