Tokyo subway worker held for allegedly attempting to rape teen

Wednesday 03rd September, 09:25 AM JST

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mikihouse at 04:15 PM JST - 5th September

I forgot to add, this incident happen during the rush hour time according to Japanese news...go figure out
cwhite at 04:31 PM JST - 5th September

I seriously doubt a station master would take her into a back room with intent to rape. He obviously knows there are CCD Camera's all over the station especially to the entrance to the lounge. Any other employee could step in at any time and he would be risking not only his job, but just about everything else in his life to commit a crime in his work place.
LFRAgain at 05:07 PM JST - 6th September

A few comments:

WilliB,

The reason many here are doubting this story is that it does not make sense, plus the local police have quite a history of extracting confessions.

No confessions were extracted. The subway worker said and still maintains that while he did take her to the lounge, he didn’t rape her.

Bushlover,

why don't you respect the innocent until proven guilty concept[?]

Well, let’s put this into perspetive, shall we? From this thread:

...girls sometimes are the worst liars in the world…

...sounds like the girl made it up…

...no doubt she made this whole thing up…

...little trout…

So any here seem all too willing to assume the girl is lying outright, without seeing any other evidence than what is in the article above. Hypocritical, I’d say.

Mikihouse,

the lounge is also a place to complain about tickets, lost and found, and other activities

That’s highly improbable. A staff lounge is just that: it’s a private place exclusively for employees, away from customers. Customers are not allowed in employee lounge areas anywhere that I’ve worked in Japan. It’s a place where employee lockers can often be found, along with employees’ personal belongings, so there’s no reason to expect a business would allow customers to stroll through with complaints and queries.

In the case of someone attempting to steal from a company, it might be a place to hold the person until the police arrive, but certainly not for anything business related. That’s what the front office is for. I'm still highly dubious that staff would drag a student into the break area for something as minor as using a kid's fare ticker. as other posters have said, they would usually just make you pay the difference and send you on your way with a stern look.

As to the actual room in the story, according to the Yomiuru Shinbun, it was a private break room equipped with a bed for staff to take naps during long shifts. Additionally, according to the Yomiuri article, he was working the ticket gate alone. Which makes me wonder just how busy he really was, if he was able to be take this girl to the back room in lieu of attending to the alleged rush hour crowd at this “busy” station.

Cwhite,

I seriously doubt a station master would take her into a back room with intent to rape.

He wasn’t the stationmaster. He was simply a ticket taker. And he was alone at his post that evening. Video surveillance shows Sugisaki calling the girl into the back, but there apparently is no video for the actually break area, likely because it’s a private area for the staff.

WilliB

What was reported was an "attempted rape", and that by someone who was caught cheated and then dashed off. Turning the situation around and accusing the guy who caught her stealing of attempting to rape her would be a clever move, don´t you agree?

So, let me ask this: Since the girl apparently “got away” in the first place, why bother coming back at all? Wouldn’t returning, or worse yet, actually going to the police, only serve to draw attention to a relatively minor offense that she could have just as easily gotten away with when she ran?

In other words, she’s still going to get into trouble for coming forward with a rape story, if indeed she was initially caught using an inappropriate ticket. Are we to actually believe that she chose to nobly accept punishment for illegally using a child’s fare ticket in order to fabricate an attempted rape story out of what? Petty revenge?

That’s more implausible to me than say, a ticket taker abusing his position of authority by leading a teen to an isolated room and threatening her with either the consequences of her crime, i.e., fines, juvenile detention, public humiliation for her school and parents, or feeding his prurient desires in secret.

What surprises me is how many people here seem to want to call attention to the irrationality of raping a woman in a break room at the risk of being caught, ignoring the entirely irrational nature of rape itself.

Mind you, rape in Japan is still a vastly underreported crime in Japan, a statistic driven in large part by the patriarchal nature of Japanese society and culture. Choose not to believe this if you must, but it’s a well-researched reality with repercussions ranging from unequal pay in the workplace to laws preventing females from ascending the throne. Rape is a theme glorified in mainstream media and adult video, and school girl rape, well . . . It doesn’t take more than a cursory glance at the comics at your local convenience store to see that there’s an uncomfortably high level of interest in the rape and humiliation of school-aged girls in Japan.

Hell, even elected officials have glorified rape, with one stating that the gang rape of a female college student by as many as seven men her age in 2003 was a positive sign of the virility of Japanese men – this only five years ago.

While it’s easy to view Japanese attitudes towards rape through Western glasses, i.e., the girl us lying, what you see and what is actually going on here are usually vastly different beasts. The logic just doesn't bear out that this girl would falsely claim rape, or even attempted rape, in the face of the social reality that under-reporting of rape is due almost exclusively to the shame and stigma associated with being a victim of rape. The prevaling attitude in Japan is that rape victims must have been asking for it, one way or another. And again, as much as this may rankle some here, it isn7t any less true.

Is the girl lying? Perhaps. Is the guy telling the truth in that he didn't try to rape her? Perhaps as well. But it isn't as black and white as some posters here seem to insist that it it.
isthistheend at 05:54 PM JST - 7th September

Bravo WilliB, my sentiments entirely. I'm no Taliban, I dress in the best of clothes, and I'm not causing the women to look at me with suspicion on trains. I'm reporting that the mood of this country has changed dramatically in the past decade (some for good, some for bad), and the behavior of people (including women) on the trains and in public (running right into you with and without their 3 bags, applying make-up over and over in the "seat" next to you on the train), you know what I'm talking about, right? And I'm certainly not picking on the female gender here, as I originally was backing up her story in this thing to begin with. Again, Thanks for the well written piece WilliB!
isthistheend at 06:42 PM JST - 7th September

By the way WilliB, after praising your last comment, I went above and reread your earlier comments where you were taking me to task about my "opinion". Just goes to show you how thinking develops on the same topic as time and attempts get factored in. In writing these posts, we're all just airing opinions,right? And we're "protected" by writing anonymously, since we're writing under fake names, never to be revealed. I have to laugh at the comment above that asked if I were a Taliban. No, I'm not. Without going into the "age" factors of our respective contributors, I'd be willing to bet that a great majority of the writers are well below 40. Having lived here through the "age of youthful infinite wisdom", I'm sure many of you will change your opinions about this place as you too become mellowed and seasoned by 20 years or more of living here. Enjoy the interval and your lives. I remember what a "mentor" once told me during my first weeks of living here. "Japan will never change and your living here or not will not have one iota of an effect on it." Though I thought the guy was trapped with blinders at the time, I have to say, its something to contemplate every now and then.
WilliB at 07:04 PM JST - 7th September

isthistheend:

I think you are misattributing posts.

LFRAgain:

Your post is too long to comment in this forum format. Let me just say it is not convincing. You don´t know the details of the case and I don´t know, but from the little information give, I still the benefit of the doubt to the station employee, who I think has been framed.
isthistheend at 08:33 PM JST - 7th September

These two are attributed to your posts. Are you being funny by combining misattributing with master...you know the rest? It seems these two comments are not consistent with your latter comment, to which I supported.

What was reported was an "attempted rape", and that by someone who was caught cheated and then dashed off. Turning the situation around and accusing the guy who caught her stealing of attempting to rape her would be a clever move, don´t you agree? Nobody here has been jumping to the defense of rapists per se, just compare the other case from Saitama on the same page....

KitsuneYokai/Isthistheend, you guys have an astonishingly paranoid view of Japan. Have you ever noticed that in this town, women can and do walk alone at night almost everywhere in town? I don´t think that is so easy in a metropolis whereever you come from. And Isthistheend, no women don´t look suspiciously at me in the train here. If that happens to you, then you might reconsider your appearance. Yes, bad things happen in Japan, but to accuse all Japanese males of being potential rapists, as you two are doing, is just a little bit over the top.
Orangeporange at 08:59 PM JST - 7th September

These things DO happen, women usually don't frame rapists, especially when they go to the police immediately after the incident.

I do not beleive this guy is innocent. Attempted rape could be anything from asking a girl for sex, kissing her, touching her or getting on top of her. Taking her alone to a private area is definately a no-no. Thank goodness she fled!
WilliB at 09:10 PM JST - 7th September

Isthistheend:

" These two are attributed to your posts. It seems these two comments are not consistent with your latter comment, to which I supported. "

The two you quote are mine. There is no "latter comment" from me; I suspect you mistake me with "LFRAagain", who posted a giant commentary.
LFRAgain at 10:51 AM JST - 8th September

WilliB,

I made the assumption from the content of other posters' contributions that we were all relatively intelligent adults, undaunted by posts that are, ahem, too long. Apparently, I was mistaken. I'm sorry I didn't truncate my post to short little snippets and semi-clever "zingers" to make it easier for you. Next time, I'll try to take things from a 3-second sound-bite approach. I'm certain that'll make things much clearer for everyone.

In the meantime, I can't help but suspect you're just peeved because I took you to task for two of your comments in particular. Don't take it personally, champ. When you post, don't expect everyone to fall over in adulation over your insight. Some folks, like me, may disagree. If you can provide a counter argument in a brief, abbreviated style that seems to be easier for you to manage, then by all means do so. And if you can't? Well then, just say uncle and we'll both be off on our merry ways. ;-)
WilliB at 11:09 AM JST - 8th September

KFRAagain: Eloquence is no replacement for logic.
mikihouse at 12:09 PM JST - 8th September

Orangeporange These things DO happen, women usually don't frame rapists, especially when they go to the police immediately after the incident.

I do not beleive this guy is innocent. Attempted rape could be anything from asking a girl for sex, kissing her, touching her or getting on top of her. Taking her alone to a private area is definately a no-no. Thank goodness she fled!

What? Are you in Japan? Have you not read the report? The girl was caught using a kids ticket for an adult fare which is punishable by law. It is a normal protocol to bring the culprit into the lounge and have her interrogated or asked to call her parents or teachers which might be reflected on her school records making her inelligible to enter prestigious universities. The lounge is a clear room with 2 or 3 other staffs manning the area. There is a police station just above the station but the girl went all the way 5 or 6 stations then decided to report the incident. It is a rush hour time with hundreds of people on the flatform. Before you write something think. If you are not aware, train stations are the most monitored places in Japan with almost every corner covered. There are at least 4 or 5 surveillance cameras in every station.
Orangeporange at 05:27 PM JST - 8th September

Miki house, as a matter of fact I do live in Japan. My understanding is that this girl was brought into a private area where there were no staff present at the time. If there had been staff present (in other words WITNESSES who could testify as to what REALLY happened) then this girl would not have a case.
LFRAgain at 01:12 AM JST - 9th September

WilliB,

Ahh, the classic "not logical," sans explanation cop-out. Fair enough. I'll take that as your concession in the absence of an actual counter-argument. Not that I'm surprised.

mikihouse,

According to Japanese news sources, the staff break area into which the girl was taken was not open, it was private, and it was not monitored by surveillance cameras. Furthermore, it was not manned by three or four staff. According to the news, he was manning his station by himself at the time of the incident. Don't know why. I think that seems strange for 5:30 on a Monday evening, but that's what the news says.

Additionally, if the break area had other staff present to provide an account of what happened, then I doubt the police would have made an arrest. It doesn't seem likely an arrest would have occurred had other staff stepped forward and said, "He didn't do it. I was there the whole time," making it the girl's word against at least two others.

As it stands, it's only his word against hers, as far as we know, which essentially throws the "there are lots of staff in the area" arguing point out the window, since there's no indication anyone else saw what happened.
Blue_Tiger at 07:01 AM JST - 10th September

Hmmmmm.....

Maybe its just me, and maybe its just because I'm a guy ,and a foreigner to boot...

The last time I had a ticket problem, no-one in the Train Station Ofice or window told me to follow them into the lounge.

This guy's story sounds fishy....