By Scott Wilson, RocketNews24

As you probably know, Japan is infamous for "chikan" – men who grope women in crowded trains.

Anti-chikan stickers for cell phones have been put out by the Saitama Prefecture Police department. And these aren’t just stickers you’re supposed to use to keep potential chikan away; these are stickers you’re meant to use offensively.

Just in case that doesn’t make any sense at all, here’s how to use these “anti-chikan stickers”

Step 1: If someone touches you inappropriately, first show them the sticker and warn them to stop. Step 2: If they don’t stop, peel off the top layer of the anti-chikan sticker. Step 3: Press the bottom part of the sticker that’s still on your phone firmly against the chikan’s hand. Step 4: The sticker will leave an X mark and act as proof of their groping.

So you might have some questions after reading that, like: isn’t that an awful lot of work for pretty much nothing? Or, does that X actually mean anything legally? Or, where did that woman get that bird-police cell phone charm?

Don’t worry. The bird-police explain everything in the poster below.

“Please keep in mind that this sticker is intended to be used as a deterrent to potential chikan only. While stamping someone with the X mark may be strong proof that they committed a crime, it alone will most likely not be used to charge them as a criminal.”

So wait a minute. First you have to actually put the sticker on your phone, then in the heat of the moment you have to remember to use all the correct steps if you encounter a chikan, and even then, if everything goes according to plan, the X mark still doesn’t actually mean anything?

The idea behind the anti-chikan stickers, to protect people from unwanted groping, is of course good-intentioned. We can imagine that it might scare some potential chikan away, or make catching them easier perhaps. But still, the implementation seems a little off to say the least.

While the bird-police posters emphasize that the X mark alone cannot be used against somebody, Japanese netizens raised fears that these stickers may cause an increase in the number of false chikan accusations, which though rare have happened before.

“So can you just stamp an X on somebody you don’t like and get them in trouble?” “This looks easy to abuse.” “Men! We all need to stamp ourselves to protect our brethren from false charges!” “Would this even really stop a chikan?” “(In response to above) Yeah, they’d probably be proud like ‘I got three Xs today!'” “Isn’t having women-only trains enough?” “We need men-only trains to feel safe at this point.” “Or just completely segregate the sexes and be done with it.”

What do you think? Would having a sticker like this on your cellphone make you feel safer riding the train? Or is it just a silly gimmick? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Kinisoku

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