Train Cafe takes hands-on approach in fight against molesting
Groping remains a painful fact of life for Japan's female train
commuters, even with most cities now having Women Only carriages to
combat the heinous issue, but molesting addiction has recently started
attracting headlines, according to Weekly Playboy.
Celebrity economist Kazuhide Uekusa's arrest last month for groping --
his third sex charge in eight years -- has thrown the spotlight on the
scores of train molesters who simply cannot help themselves.
Train Cafe, an adult's club in the basement of a seedy building in
Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, claims to be combating the crime of
molestation by getting chikan, or gropers, off the streets.
Train Cafe is a members' only club and is staffed by young women
dressed in school uniforms or aprons. Membership costs 5,000 yen and
there is a 2,000 yen payment for a cup of tea levied with each visit.
A subsequent payment of 3,600 yen for 20 minutes permits members to
partake of Train Cafe's services.
Those services are carried out in a room refurbished so that it looks
exactly like the inside of a carriage on the Yamanote Line, the train
that loops the central Tokyo area. Young women stand at strategic
points in the carriage and patrons are permitted to fondle them in
whatever way they please. An extra payment of 5,000 yen gives patrons
the option of selecting the woman they want to ride with for a
15-minute period.
Male customers, of who the club says there are 4,000, are not allowed
to ejaculate in the establishment.
Train Cafe members are offered a virtual reality trip on the Yamanote
Line.
"During the 20 minute session, the trip takes you from Ikebukuro to
Meguro (about one-third of the Yamanote Line's 60-minute complete
loop). With each stop, the doors of the carriage open and the girls
get on and off the train. We use actual recordings of the conductors'
announcements and LCD screens outside the window display actual
footage of the trip along the Yamanote Line," Train Cafe's operator
tells Weekly Playboy. "We cannot be beaten when it comes to reality."
Train Cafe's operator tells the weekly that the club's membership is
largely based on men in the early to mid-40s. He adds that many
customers enter the establishment saying that they had just ridden
trains and been driven almost mad by temptation, but made it to the
club before tackling an innocent woman commuter.
"We have a crime reducing effect," the operator says.
Far from feeling demeaned, women working at the club say they enjoy it.
"I loath real chikan. But if I'm attacked by one, I'm too scared to do
anything and just shut up. I really, really hate it," 20-year-old Rin
tells the weekly. "But here, all the customers are members. You know
you're going to be felt up and it's a good place to make friends, so I
enjoy it."