A man official canada goose outlet standing behind her pulled

face groping and worse on Japan’s crowded city subway lines [Shiori Ito/Al Jazeera]

Additional reporting by Shiori Ito.

Tokyo, Japan Tamaka Ogawa was about 10 years old when she was sexually assaulted for the first time. It was a public holiday and she was on the subway. A man https://www.naslsoccerbowl.com official canada goose outlet standing behind her pulled down the band of her culottes and underwear, touched her bare bottom, then pressed himself against her. She recalls feeling shocked and physically uk canada goose outlet sickened. When she reached home, she repeatedly washed the spot where he had pressed himself against her, although she was conscious of not spending too long in the toilet, in case her family noticed that something was wrong.

Some years later, on her first day of canada goose outlet toronto factory senior high school, she was groped on the commute home. After that, the groping and sexual assaults men would often stick their hands inside her underwear became a regular occurrence as she made her way to or from school in her uniform. Each time, she would run away,unsure of what to do.

“I thought of myself as a child,” she reflects. “I could not understand that adults were excited by touching me.”

It would be improper to express anger towards an adult, she thought, and she worried about attracting attention. Besides, her parents had never spoken to her about such things and how she ought to handle them.

She recalls one incident particularly clearly. She was about 15 and on her way to school. A man began to touch her, putting his hand inside her underwear. He was aggressive and it hurt, she remembers. When the train stopped, she got off. But he grabbed her hand and told her: “Follow me.” Ogawa ran away. She believes that people saw what canada goose cheap Canada Goose outlet canada was going on, but nobody helped.

She felt ashamed and complicit, she says.

“He seems to have thought that I was pleased with canada goose outlet nyc his act,” the now 36 year old reflects.

“When I was in high school, every [girl] was a victim,” says Ogawa.

In 2015, she began writing about the country’s long standing problem with groping or chikan, in Japanese often experienced by schoolgirls on public transportation. Many victims stay silent, unable to talk about their experiences in a society which, by many accounts, trivialises this phenomenon.

One morning in late January, the 51 canada goose outlet year old arrived at a coffee shop in the bustling neighbourhood of cheap canada goose Shibuya with a suitcase of badges.

The round badges, designed to deter gropers, feature illustrations such as a schoolgirl peering angrily from between her canada goose clearance legs, or a crowd of stern looking rabbits and include the messages, “Groping is a crime” and “Don’t do it”. Each comes with a leaflet canada goose uk black friday instructing the wearer to clearly Canada Goose Outlet display the badges canada goose factory sale on their bags, to stand confidently and to be vigilant.

Matsunaga began her Osaka based organisation,Groping Prevention Activities Centre, in 2015 after her friend’s daughter was regularly molested while taking the train to school.

Takako Tonooka, the pseudonym she has used in interviews with the Japan Times, confided in her mother, and the two tried various solutions to stop the attacks. They bought a stuffed toy which says “Don’t do canada goose it” when pulled. Tonooka even wore her school skirt shorter and found canada goose outlet sale that she was harassed less.

Matsunaga canada goose uk shop says trains display posters telling groping victims to be brave and to speak up. Tonooka started practising saying “Stop it” and “No” at home. She began to confront offenders, who would then angrily deny touching her. Onlookers did not help. Eventually, she and her mother created a label to attach to her bag, which says, “Groping is a crime. I’m not going to give up” and features a picture of policemen catching perpetrators. It worked.

But the label made Tonooka self conscious, and Matsunaga says boys teased her.

Matsunaga decided that Tonooka should not have to fight on her own, so she came up with an idea to involve others by crowdsourcing ideas for anti groping badges.

“High school girls are really into this ‘kawaii’ culture so they had to be cute,” she says.

In November 2015 she launched a crowdfunding canada goose outlet campaign that attracted 334 donors and raised 2.12 million yen (about $19,000). Then, she ran a badge design crowdsourcing contest.

High school pupils, art school students, canada goose outlet shop and freelance designers many telling her it was the first time they’d thought about the issue submitted 441 designs from which Matsunaga selected canada goose outlet online uk five. Her organisation gave away about 500 and three police stations handed out more. She now sells them online, for 410 yen ($3.70) each. From March, 11 department stores will stock them and she’s aiming to secure more distributors near train stations.

Apart from making the badges more widely available, Matsunaga also wants offenders to see them and think: “The world is changing, some people have started talking about it.”

By involving students, Matsunaga believes she’s encouraging them to talk about this issue from a young age.

The badges have had a direct effect. Data goose outlet canada collected from 70 students at a high school in Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo, between April and December 2016, showed that 61.4 percent of respondents said they had not been touched canada goose outlet uk since using the badges, while canada goose outlet black friday 4.3 percent reported no change.

Railway police have also started holding awareness raising lectures with high schools which have enabled students to feel more comfortable speaking about the issue, Matsunga says.