Invisible ink helps women commuters stamp out gropers

Japan

Japanese women have rushed to buy a new device aimed at combating the country’s notorious rush-hour gropers: a stamp that brands perpetrators with invisible ink.

Within minutes of going on sale on Tuesday, all 500 samples were snapped up for 2500 yen (NZ$37) each. The device has a retractable stamp inside a cylinder that can be pressed against the skin of a molester, leaving the mark of an open palm.

The stamp is invisible to the naked eye but is revealed using the attached ultraviolet ‘‘blacklight’’ torch. The idea is that police will be able to identify suspects but that no-one will be publicly shamed before facing justice. The invisible ink washes off.

Many female Japanese commuters have stories of gropers or chikan; some surveys suggest nearly three-quarters of women have suffered groping.

At its most basic, it is so subtle as to be undetectable: an unidentifiable hand on a leg in a mass of compressed commuters. But the worst kind of chikan takes advantage of the crush for much more invasive touching. Stories are told of women alighting from packed trains to find their clothes speckled with semen or even slashed open with a razor blade.

Twenty years ago, the problem was regarded as a nuisance rather than sexual assault. Chikan even had a magazine, Finger Press, to share stills from groping videos, comic strips and reviews of the best groping venues.

These days rush-hour trains have women-only carriages and some police stations have dedicated female officers.

Shachihata, the company producing the stamp, does most of its business in the personal seals that Japanese people use instead of a signature on documents.

It says that it was inspired by online accounts of women who carried around safety pins to stab chikan.

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