Japanese Man Gropes the Wrong Woman’s Bottom

I wouldn’t have even bothered to read this story at the Mainichi Shimbun if it weren’t for the silly euphemistic use of “tapping” in the headline:

Japanese man under fire in Philippines for tapping woman’s bottom at airport

The story itself got even sillier. The man and his target were waiting for luggage at the airport in Manila. According to the man, the woman was “was blocking other people from collecting their luggage with her cart.” So instead of simply saying, “Excuse me, ” he touched her behind. After being detained, he explained to a reporter from Mainichi,

“I was just warning her about her manners.”

And the story just gets better. Turns out the woman getting a memorable lesson in “manners” is a lawyer, the daughter of the governor of Cebu, and she isn’t buying any rubbish about cultural differences:

In comments to a major newspaper, the lawyer said that after the incident, the man told her that hitting a woman’s bottom was a custom of Japanese men. The female lawmaker has requested a harsh punishment, saying that more respect should be shown to Filipino women.

13 Comments

  1. MigukNamja your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 10:06 am | Permalink

    That’s a pretty lame excuse from the Japanese guy. There are many ways far better and less degrading, not to mention more effective, than groping a woman’s behind to get her to “move her cart”. A simple verbal request would have done the job and if touching was absolutely necessary, the shoulder (if covered up) is a generally acceptable place to tap someone (but certainly not grope).

    I’m certainly not buying the line that it’s acceptable for a man to “tap a female’s bottom” in ultra-publicly-sexually-conservative Japan.

    I hope this case snowballs, gets more press coverage, and perverted men get the message that groping women should be done at their peril.

  2. NewYorkTom your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 10:12 am | Permalink

    Haha. I love it. A monkey coulda thought of a better “excuse”.

    I guess he shouldnt expect too much support from the J govt.

  3. bbundaegi your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 10:19 am | Permalink

    This is hilarious. The excuses people make up for copping a feel or taking perverted camera photos of female victims.

    I wonder if this guy is friends with that high school principal in Seoul who blamed the momentum caused by the turning of the bus which caused him to accidentally take a photo of the high school girl’s exposed leg on a bus.

  4. hardyandtoiny your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    Just link to Mainichi, no need for a specific story.

  5. Posted April 25, 2008 at 11:20 am | Permalink

    And the guy had just arrived. It’s not like his hands had simply gotten used to two weeks of doing as they pleased in the girlie clubs.

    Poor wretch was probably going nuts on the flight over. Bet he went to the washroom every half hour to immunize himself against prostate cancer.

  6. Benicio74 your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 11:39 am | Permalink

    Farkin’ idiot. Couldn’t even wait til he got out of the airport and into the girly bars!

    Yes, the “excuses” these pervs are coming up with are just ridiculous!
    “In Japan, it’s okay for a man to get a woman’s attention by ‘tapping’ her bum”?
    Yeah, right!

  7. Maharlika your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 1:21 pm | Permalink

    must be a translation problem

    the Philippine daily inquirer story says
    “Codilla then suddenly felt a fist to her back. A fellow passenger attested to Codilla’s narration and told police that Tanaka indeed hit the 26-year-old woman.”

    http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/b....._id=129351

  8. mateomiguel your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 1:42 pm | Permalink

    well, the butt IS in the back. And punch and tap are different varieties of hitting. I guess its a question of altitude and velocity. I suggest we bring in a pilot as an expert witness.

  9. nicecuppatea your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm | Permalink

    #1 There are many ways far better and less degrading, not to mention more effective, than groping a woman’s behind to get her to “move her cart”.

    Well damn, thanks for clarifying that for us MigukNamja.

  10. MigukNamja your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 2:39 pm | Permalink

    #9 My pleasure ;-)

  11. rothkowitz your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 3:11 pm | Permalink

    Is the bum and the hip the same thing in Japanese as it is in Korean?

  12. Benicio74 your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 4:14 pm | Permalink

    Anyway, this guy ‘assulted’ the governor’s daughter.
    He is in deep shit!

  13. hardyandtoiny your flag
    Posted April 25, 2008 at 10:28 pm | Permalink

    http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4406

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