Beginning May 9, nine commuter lines in the greater Tokyo area began offering women-only train cars in response to the growing number of women being groped by men in the trains. The number of incidents reached 2,201 in 2004, up from 778 in 1996. Each line has designated one car from each train during the morning rush as being for women only.
These are not the first women-only cars in Japanese rail history, but to me this time the impact seems larger than ever before.
Why? Well, because now my main line is employing one such car. Not only that, the car designated for women only is none other than my car, the one I have wrenched myself into every day for almost a decade. The one that matches my exit point perfectly.