Men falsely accused of groping

are often targets of extortion

and there is not much they can do about it

Asahi News

Public molestation is a crime considered so heinous that a mere accusation can suddenly deprive a man of his job and family. Lately, however, the so-called victims of such acts are often the true predators.

Such incidents have become increasingly common. Among them are some previously unreported forms of blackmail.

One such episode took place one weekday morning in a crowded train on a JR line. A woman standing next to a middle-aged civil servant suddenly cried out: ``This man is a molester.''

The flustered man, a resident of Tokyo on his way to work, was immediately held down by several men standing nearby and hauled off to a police station.

 the ordeal cost him his job.

There he was charged with indecent assault. Although he initially denied any wrongdoing, he soon reached an out-of-court settlement with the woman and the charge against him was dropped. But the ordeal cost him his job.

Afterward, the former bureaucrat told people in his social circle that he had been set up. He did say he had been standing very close to the woman, but it was she who placed his hand on her buttocks.

He said he became particularly suspicious when she approached him, of her own volition, to have the matter settled privately. Yet he acknowledged it would be very difficult to prove the plaintiff was a blackmailer.

To make matters even worse, it would be impossible for him to ask for his job back.

Masaki Ikegami, a journalist who has been interviewing men wrongfully charged with sexual assault, says he has come across a new type of scam in which respectable men are approached by women bent on swindling them out of their money.

After a man has had sex with a woman, a man claiming to be her husband or boyfriend appears on the scene

The traditional scam revolves around a setup. After a man has had sex with a woman, a man claiming to be her husband or boyfriend appears on the scene and issues threats against the man unless he pays up.

What sets this kind of crime apart from other types of extortion is that it is typified by a man and a woman collaborating to trap the unsuspecting man.

According to Ikegami, the scam is now being applied to cases of sexual assault. Consider the following example:

At a station on the JR Saikyo Line, a woman in a miniskirt addressed a man who just got off a packed train: ``You molested me just now, didn't you?'' When the man denied it, another woman showed up and put pressure on him: ``I saw you do it. Do you want to go to the police box with me?''

The bewildered man then blurted out: ``I have some money on me. If you want, I'll consider settling all this without any fuss.''

 a woman will insist on accompanying the cornered man to a cash machine

In some instances, hundreds of thousands of yen are paid to settle such matters. At times, say those who claim to know the truth about such scams, a woman will insist on accompanying the cornered man to a cash machine so she can get the money on the spot.

Ikegami says that in some cases high-school girls let men touch them and then call them molesters in order to extort money. The journalist characterizes such practices as intimidation using an accusation of molesting as a pretext.

Here are a few more examples that would make the average man tremble. At the time of writing, some of the cases mentioned in this article remain the subject of litigation. Although these examples present only the man's viewpoint, the issue is that anyone could become a suspected molester without warning.

Mobile-phone protester

This case concerns a salaried worker living in the western Tokyo suburb of Kunitachi. One night, commuting home on the JR Chuo Line, he chided a young woman for speaking loudly into her mobile phone, telling her: ``It's too noisy, just stop using it.''

The woman hung up but then turned hostile. Just then, the train was nearly empty, and the man was nowhere near the woman. But as soon as the man disembarked at Kunitachi Station he was hailed by police and taken into custody.

The man was kept in custody for 20 days, but no charge was ever brought against him.

The man later stated that a police officer kept yelling at him: ``This woman insists she was molested (by you). Just think how she must be feeling.'' The man was kept in custody for 20 days, but no charge was ever brought against him.

This case involves a salaried worker in his 20s. One day, traveling on a limited-express train, the young woman on the passenger seat beside him struck up a conversation.

Before he knew it, the woman was holding his hand and raising it to her breasts. ``How about dining out?'' the woman suggested. But upon learning how little money he had on him, she made no attempt to disguise her displeasure.

When he turned down her invitation, she fumed: ``But you touched me, now you have to compensate me.'' When the man denied the accusation, she got into an argument with him. And, when he tried to get off the train, she shrieked: ``Molester.''

The salaried worker was arrested for indecent assault, and later dismissed from his job. The case is still before the courts.

Bad breath battle

This case involves a manager at a medium-sized company. The trouble began when he climbed aboard a nearly deserted daytime train on the Yamanote Line. No sooner was he on board than a high-school girl standing near the door complained: ``Your breath stinks, stand somewhere else.''

The man then argued with the schoolgirl. When he tried to leave at his station, she tripped him. Infuriated, the man pulled the girl onto the platform. She immediately called for help from a railroad official aboard the train, pointing at the still angry man and shouting: ``He's molested me.'' The man was arrested and kept in custody for two days, but no charges were filed against him.

A pattern emerges from the above examples: It is normal practice for men accused on a train or a platform of being molesters to be taken straightaway to the stationmaster's office or a police station.

the men generally cling to the belief that ``once I explain everything, the clouds will clear.''

And the men generally cling to the belief that ``once I explain everything, the clouds will clear.''

Yet, when these men found themselves in an investigations room, they were denied contact with their companies or lawyers and were handcuffed whenever they asked to go to the toilet.

It was then that they realized they had been arrested as offenders allegedly caught in the act. Whenever they maintained their innocence, they would be told, over and over: ``That's what all the guys say.''

If they persisted in their protests, they found themselves in detention for a long time

If they persisted in their protests, they found themselves in detention for a long time. Where a public prosecutor was brought in to investigate, the men adhered to their versions of what had occurred.

The People's Aid and Relief Association of Japan-a Tokyo-based group dedicated to supporting the victims of baseless police charges-says the number of people wrongfully accused of sexual assault has recently soared.

According to Katsuyuki Ozawa, a spokesman at the group's Tokyo headquarters, police are strongly predisposed to blame the man in such cases because their capacity to investigate is limited.

The woman may have misunderstood, or even be lying, says Ozawa. But in the current circumstances, accusing a man of being a molester is enough to seal his arrest-and that is how false charges are brought on. There is no getting around testimony born of malice.

The crackdown on molesters began in 1996, according to the National Police Agency's public relations division.

Since then, special offices have been set up where railroad security squads counsel victims of sexual assault. The squads include female officers in a deliberate bid to encourage women to speak out.

Early on in the campaign, posters urging the public to act against molesters were exhibited at conspicuous points in railway stations.

Success soon followed, with skyrocketing arrest rates: in 1996 and '97, counts of indecent assault and violation of the Harassment Prevention Law numbered 967 and 1,200, respectively, compared with only 500 in 1995.

about 1,000 arrests a year arise from allegations of sexual impropriety aboard trains

On the latest figures, about 1,000 arrests a year arise from allegations of sexual impropriety aboard trains. A charge of aggravated indecent assault may incur a prison term of anything from six months to seven years; a violation of Tokyo's anti-nuisance ordinance, a custodial sentence or a maximum fine of 50,000 yen.

Undoubtedly, the crackdown has greatly benefited many women. But shouldn't there be more concern that so many innocent men may have been arrested and prosecuted without cause?

A worker who lived in Saitama Prefecture is a typical instance. The man, 45, when the episode occurred, was commuting to work on the Saikyo Line.

He was about to get off the train at Omiya Station when a high-school girl suddenly confronted him: ``What do you think you're doing?'' The man had merely brushed her rear with the hand in which he was clutching his briefcase.

Yet the student went over to a station employee, claiming: ``That man put his hand inside my panties and inserted his fingers into my private parts.'' The man was arrested there and then as an indecent-assault suspect ``caught in the act.''

Investigators told the Urawa District Court they were troubled by the fact that the high-school girl was 12 centimeters shorter than the accused. They said this marked difference in height would have rendered it impossible for the man to interfere with the girl as alleged, while he remained standing.

The investigation also concluded that the schoolgirl's testimony was inconsistent. Yet the initial court ruling described her testimony as detailed and concrete, and therefore trustworthy.

Despite the height difference, the court found that the crime could have been committed. Reasoning thus, it found the man guilty.

That verdict was overturned by the Tokyo High Court. The court ruled that the height discrepancy made the crime impossible. It also deemed that the girl had fabricated her testimony, and finally it declared the man innocent.

`Sexual assault trials are rather like witch hunts in the Middle Ages.

Yoshihiro Sato, the attorney for the defendant in that case, says: ``Sexual assault trials are rather like witch hunts in the Middle Ages. ``As such, the principle enshrined in modern penal codes that a man cannot be convicted on uncorroborated testimony is, more often than not, disregarded.''

This is the nub of the matter: Can people avoid being wrongfully charged with a crime they haven't committed?

If we analyze past cases, we find that the overwhelming majority of men mistaken for molesters happened to be standing behind the women who became their accusers.

So it would help if men avoided standing behind women and grasped the nearest hanging strap or railing.

Still, it is troubling that such stratagems may not be failsafe, especially if the accusation is motivated by malice or an accomplice is involved in the fabrication of testimony.

A male defendant in a recent sexual assault case says: ``I don't go near women these days. But, if that doesn't work and once again I'm wrongfully accused, next time I'm not going to be fazed.

``Instead I'll yell out: `Look, everyone, I haven't done a thing.' That way, I'll give people a chance to see for themselves where I am in relation to the woman. And the more witnesses I can secure, the better off I'll be.''

Also see, ...

Dealing With False Accusations