Letters to the Editor
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Remember, we're talking about Japan
I lived in Tokyo for a few years in the late '80s (during the so-called Japan Bubble) and I rode the legendary packed subways along with everyone else. I was around 30 and I stood out: I was tall, I had long blonde-ish hair, blue eyes; I was un-mistakably a gaijin. Friends and I discussed the semi-regular assault by subway perverts -- gropers, etc. Finally we promised one another that the next time it happened we'd loudly call out "Skeb-bei!" (the slang Japanese term for pervert)and point at the offender, convinced that this would bring our fellow commuters to our defense.
Soon after, one night, riding the train on my own, a skeb-bei proceeded to do his thing, and I fulfilled my promise. "Skeb-bei!" I called to the car full of stylish young women and pimply students and weary salary men. Spurred by their non-response, I repeated my pronouncement several times. The groper withdrew his hand and stuck his nose in his comic book, everyone else just gazed into the middle distance. There was consensus on that train: I was the freak.
I agree it's a terrific idea to be vocal about these things, but in Japan you'd have to start much further back and re-do more elemental aspects of the culture -- vis a vis patriarchy, shame, insider/outsider mentality, group consensus, etc. I think the one-to-one approach by electronic display is a great way to get started.