As the apology went on, though, it became apparent that the company wanted to make clear that the poster was created in conjunction with crime prevention activities conducted by police at schools back in 2012. The company also posted a link to their apology on their social media channels. Please allow us to tell you about the poster creation process and how we will prevent this from happening again.” We are also sorry for the significant inconvenience and worry caused. We deeply apologize to those who were made to feel uncomfortable by the poster. They also posted a lengthy apology on their website, saying: “We are aware that our security awareness poster has received a lot of criticism and complaints online. The outcry against the statement, with people pointing out that the victim is not to blame for the action of gropers, quickly reached the company who created the poster, Kanko, which is one of Japan’s biggest manufacturers of school uniforms.ĭesigned to help prevent crime, the posters were put up at a number of schools, but after the recent uproar, the company decided to recall all the posters from schools on 15 January. People who saw the poster online were outraged at its message, which suggests that the length of a girl’s school uniform is to blame for groping incidents.

Along with the words “Beware of chikan!” and an ugly brown handprint is the image of a schoolgirl’s skirt, with the hem falling above the knee. The original tweet has since been deleted by the uploader after it made headlines with major media outlets, but the image of the poster can still be seen online. The controversial message was brought to the attention on the internet by a Twitter user who said her younger sister saw the poster up at school and sent her an image of it, saying “This is ridiculous”. And it’s not just you, but your friends and companions too.” The poster read: “The short skirt that you think is kawaii leads to sex crimes. While anti-groping posters continue to be used at stations and on trains, one school recently came under fire for displaying a poster that warned about the dangers of short skirts rather than the dangers of groping. If you’ve ever travelled on a Japanese train, chances are you’ve walked past or sat near a poster warning of the dangers of chikan, which literally translates to “pervert” or “molester”, and is commonly used to refer to groping, and the men who grope women on crowed trains.Īs something that affects many schoolgirls in particular, a number of organisations have come out with goods to help female students in the fight against chikan, while police departments regularly use posters aimed at young women to encourage them to report assaults.

Japanese women inshort dress