Archives for March 2009

Perverts on public transportation get their way in a Japanese video game called RapeLay. Trigger warning… Leigh Alexander at Slate.com wrote the following about the game:

“The game begins with a man standing on a subway platform, stalking a girl in a blue sundress. On the platform, you can click “prayer” to summon a wind that lifts her skirt. She blushes. Once she’s on the train, the assault begins. Inside the subway car, you can use the mouse to grope your victim as you stand in a crowd of mute, translucent commuters. From here, your character corners his victim—in a station bathroom, or in a park with the help of male friends—and a series of interactive rape scenes begins.”

I see no point in making light of a crime most women fear and too many have experienced. I’m reminded of the real life rape of a young woman in New York at a subway station and the knowledge that much of the harassment girls and women experience is on public transportation (see various article on the Stop Street Harassment website), including in Japan.

A 2005 study in Tokyo found that 64 percent of young women in their 20s and 30s had been groped on trains, subways, or at transit stations, leading to the creation of more women-only cars. I don’t know if the high rate of groping in real life make the Japanese game more or less disturbing… 

The game has been banned from Amazon and Ebay and isn’t sold in any stores in the United States, but the Slate.com author found that it only took 30 seconds of Internet searching to find an illegal downloadable game.

[Note: During later research about harassment & assault on public transportation, I found out about Japan’s “Train Cafe” another gross form of entertainment that capitalizes on groping women.

“The cost to ride is 5,000 yen (~$42US). Once each hour, Train Cafe holds an ‘all aboard’ event, where the paying male members ‘board’ the train together with the girls and engage in simulated ‘chikan’ (groper) play. Each 20 minute ride allows gropers to grabs any girl’s behind or breasts. Upskirt grabs aren’t allowed and will result in a violation.”]

Perverts on public transportation get their way in a Japanese video game called RapeLay. Trigger warning… Leigh Alexander at Slate.com wrote the following about the game:

“The game begins with a man standing on a subway platform, stalking a girl in a blue sundress. On the platform, you can click “prayer” to summon a wind that lifts her skirt. She blushes. Once she’s on the train, the assault begins. Inside the subway car, you can use the mouse to grope your victim as you stand in a crowd of mute, translucent commuters. From here, your character corners his victim—in a station bathroom, or in a park with the help of male friends—and a series of interactive rape scenes begins.”

I see no point in making light of a crime most women fear and too many have experienced. I’m reminded of the real life rape of a young woman in New York at a subway station and the knowledge that much of the harassment girls and women experience is on public transportation (see various article on the Stop Street Harassment website), including in Japan.

A 2005 study in Tokyo found that 64 percent of young women in their 20s and 30s had been groped on trains, subways, or at transit stations, leading to the creation of more women-only cars. I don’t know if the high rate of groping in real life make the Japanese game more or less disturbing… 

The game has been banned from Amazon and Ebay and isn’t sold in any stores in the United States, but the Slate.com author found that it only took 30 seconds of Internet searching to find an illegal downloadable game.

[Note: During later research about harassment & assault on public transportation, I found out about Japan’s “Train Cafe” another gross form of entertainment that capitalizes on groping women.

“The cost to ride is 5,000 yen (~$42US). Once each hour, Train Cafe holds an ‘all aboard’ event, where the paying male members ‘board’ the train together with the girls and engage in simulated ‘chikan’ (groper) play. Each 20 minute ride allows gropers to grabs any girl’s behind or breasts. Upskirt grabs aren’t allowed and will result in a violation.”]