One in 10 young people in Japan has been a victim of molestation, a Cabinet Office survey showed Thursday.
The online survey on groping, targeting people between the ages of 16 to 29, was the first of its kind carried out by the government. According to the findings, 10.5% of respondents said that they had experienced being molested, with women accounting for 88.0% of them.
Molestation cases that occurred in a railway-related setting accounted for 70.0% of the total, including 62.8% that happened inside trains. Cases on the streets made up 13%.
On the handling of groping cases, 42.7% said they were unable to do anything as everything happened so suddenly, while 32.5% said that they were too scared to act.
The survey also found that 80.4% did not alert the police or train station staff after being groped, out of fears of causing a commotion.
"We need to inform people on where they can report and create an environment where people can easily consult others" after becoming victims, a Cabinet Office official said.
On society's attitude toward molestation, 56.0% felt that groping was not treated as seriously as it should be, while 10.1% said people were indifferent about such acts.
The survey was conducted in two stages in February this year. A screening survey asking people whether they have been groped covered 36,231 people. A survey on molestation victims covered 2,346 people, with 61.6% giving valid responses.