Seat Lepers and Sex Pests

By Nick Hall

One of the few aspects of living in Japan that annoys me is a phenomenon I call the ‘leprosy effect’. The kind of situation this usually occurs in is one that I’m sure many of you can empathize with: I’m sitting down in a crowded train car next to the only free remaining seat, watching Japanese passengers spill in through the open doors while the train hums idle at the station.

One of the passengers spots the available seat and darts for it, but just as they’re about to sit down they notice me sitting in the adjacent space.  Realizing I’m a foreigner, a look of surprise and sometimes even panic appears on their face.  They suddenly decide not to sit down, instead remaining standing or going off to look for another seat as if I have some kind of contagious disease. 

It doesn’t matter that I’m dressed respectably in a suit; my white skin, blue eyes and ‘big nose’ identify me as a ‘seat leper’ who nobody wants to sit next to. By now all too familiar with the ‘leprosy effect’ after several years in Japan, I just watch bemusedly as the same pattern of avoidance is repeated by a string of passengers every time the train stops at a station.

While I’m sure there are some Japanese people who dislike foreigners and regard them with suspicion, the countless situations in which I’ve experienced Japanese kindness, generosity and hospitality in spite of (or more accurately because of) my race suggests that people with anti-gaijin sentiments are in the minority.

Instead I’m inclined to believe the ‘leprosy effect’ is probably more innocent than it at first seems.  Some people I’ve talked to about this have suggested that Japanese people are sometimes worried about sitting next to foreigners as they don’t know the ‘rules’ of Japanese society and might try to engage them in conversation, disturbing their peaceful journey or subjecting  them to some embarrassing miscommunication.

Another theory I have about this is that it illustrates a basic underlying human psychology – identifying with people we think look similar to us, and trying to avoid those we think look different from us.  I’m sure we all subconsciously make decisions based on this when deciding who to sit next to on a train, and this selection process is made all the more obvious in a country as homogenous as Japan. Also, in defense of the Japanese passengers who don’t want to sit next to foreigners, perhaps they would be equally as likely to avoid sitting next to yankees or otaku as they would me?

Whatever the reason, there’s something deeply ironic about all this, something I often think about when I’m sitting next to the one remaining free seat on the train:  While many passengers are reluctant to sit next to me because I’m a foreigner, it’s probably safer sitting next to me or another foreign guy than it is sitting next to a lot of Japanese men.

The reason I say this is because instances of anti-social sexual deviancy in public are rife in this country. The sheer amount of pornography produced here (as well as the fact that material depicting some extremely dubious acts is perfectly legal and widely available) serves as an indication of how many Japanese men have somewhat unsavory interests, and these private fantasies seem to spill over into public life all too frequently.

Indeed, instances of flashing, chikan and upskirt/sneak shot photography are alarmingly common judging by the frequency they appear in the news (the most well-known cases being those of former Waseda University professor Kazuhide Uekusa and former TV personality Masashi Tashiro) and by the number of people I’ve talked to who’ve witnessed or been victims of this sort behavior.

Because of the crowded conditions of Japanese trains in the evening – as well as the common Japanese male sexual fantasy of having sex on a train, and a tendency among salarymen to have a beer or two at an izakaya before taking the train home from work – it’s train passengers who are the people most likely to become victims of this anti-social sexual deviancy. 

Proof of this can be seen in the signs you find on trains and station platforms warning men that chikan is a crime, and in that most railway lines now have a ladies-only car to protect women from the Japanese men who, unlike most ‘seat lepers’, are a real menace to society.

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