Groping women in trains (or anywhere, really) isn’t only happening in Japan, but this country with its big cities with trains that are full of people (=easy bait for gropers) everyday has a particularly big problem with molesters. It’s a crime, and it’s reported around 2,000 times yearly to police stations in Tokyo alone, prompting a big Japanese railway operator to think about installing security cameras within trains in order to catch gropers just recently.
And now a Japanese company called Mindbank [JP] has developed a solution for those people who fear to get wrongly accused of touching women in trains with their hands: Anti-groping gloves.
I’m not sure if this is a half joke/half serious product (like many of those silly Thanko USB gadgets), but Mindbank is actually selling the things (patent pending!). And accusing the wrong passengers on a train does happen, too.
The way it works is that you get plastic plates that you have to stick into the gloves before you can wear them, making it harder for men to pull off groping attacks. One glove and one plastic plate will set you back $18, meaning you’ll have to pay $36 for both hands to be absolutely sure. Inventor Shimoyama expects brisk demand especially from “fainthearted” train passengers.