One in 10 young people in Japan has been a victim of abuse, a Cabinet survey revealed on Thursday.
The online survey on groping, which targeted people aged 16 to 29, was the first of its kind to be conducted by the government. According to the findings, 10.5% of respondents said they had experienced sexual assault, with women making up 88.0% of them.
Assault cases that occurred in a railway-related setting accounted for 70.0% of the total, including 62.8% that occurred on trains. Street cases accounted for 13%.
When it came to dealing with groping cases, 42.7% said they couldn’t do anything because everything happened so suddenly, while 32.5% said they were too scared to take action.
The survey also found that 80.4% of respondents did not alert police or station staff after being groped, for fear of causing a commotion.
“We need to educate people about where to report crimes and create an environment where people can easily consult others” after they have been victimized, a Cabinet official said.
Regarding society’s attitudes towards sexual assault, 56.0% felt that groping was not taken as seriously as it should be, while 10.1% said people were indifferent to such acts.
The study was conducted in two phases in February this year. A screening survey asking people if they had been groped included 36,231 people. A survey of sexual assault victims included 2,346 people, of whom 61.6% gave valid answers.
