Wheelchair-Bound Women Molested and Stalked on Trains: “No One Helped Me”

TRANSLATION:

>When a wheelchair user or a visually impaired person uses a train, there will be an announcement that says: “Customer guidance is in progress. Boarding is complete”. However, there are women with disabilities who are being molested or stalked because of this.

>We interviewed Mr. Satoshi Sato, Deputy of NPO Japan National Assembly of Disabled Peoples’ International, who revealed that some women with disabilities were ”stalked at the station and followed to their homes”, “asked about the color of their underwear”, and “were repeatedly harassed in an obscene manner”.

>**Wheelchair-bound woman who had been suffering from stalking for a couple of years.**

>**Satoshi Sato**: “A couple of years ago, a female member in a wheelchair told me that she ‘was being chased by a stalker and that she wanted the train conductor to stop making announcements at stations’. However, I am also in a wheelchair, but since I am a man, I had never been victimized in that way. Other male wheelchair users had not been victimized either, so it didn’t hit me at all.

>Then she interviewed the women around her and put it all together. This is a list of 12 cases of victimization that was published on the DPI Japan website on August 25 this year. After reading it, I realized that station announcements were the problem,” he said.

>The 12 cases were truly infuriating. It is sure that many women have had similar experiences. The cases of victimization were as follows:

>**He fondled my leg saying he felt pity for me, and no one helped me.**

>”A man came up to me shortly after the train started moving and said, ‘Shinagawa, right? Do you need a lift?’ He kept calling to me and kept on calling to me. I told him to stop, but no one around me helped me.” (Wheelchair user)

>”I was standing at the door of a subway car when I was asked, Would you like me to go with you?’ I thought it would be rude to refuse, so I told him where I was going and asked him to go with me, but then I felt I was being taken to a different place and realized it was a dead end. I ran to the one I could go to in a hurry and escaped.” (Visually impaired)

>”This was my first last train after coming to Tokyo. Most of the passengers reeked of alcohol, so I asked them not to announce it, but they refused to let me on, so I was put in the very back, which I did not want to be on. A very drunk man jumped on board and said, ‘There you are! I ran over here to help you. You’re off to the XX station, right?’ He repeatedly touched my leg, saying he felt sorry for me.

>I tried to tell him to stop, but he wouldn’t move away from me, and I couldn’t run away. It was so painful that even though I wanted to forget it, I couldn’t. I still dream about it. This is the last time I will touch on this story and I want to move on.” (Wheelchair user)